Author Archives: BlueberryDev

New e-Commerce website for Xpress Electrical

New e-Commerce website for Xpress Electrical

Blueberry Design are delighted to have completed the new e-commerce website for Xpress Electrical. Xpress Electrical are devoted to bringing the markets best leading brands at the most competitive pricing. XE take pride in their work with vigorous product quality scrutiny to ensure a pleasant shopping experience for the customer. The new website offers a wide range of LED Lighting, Cooker Hoods, Outdoor Lighting & Accessories to trade and general public..

Xpress Electrical needed an updated site clearly showcasing their product range & brand portfolio, and the wide range of products and services they offer. The website offers registered trade customers trade discounts and order collection.

Here’s the new Xpress Electrical website: https://xpresselectrical.ie/

We wish Simon and the team all the best with their new e-commerce website.

The website project required the following:

First website launch for 2020! Heating Distributors Ltd.

First website launch for 2020! Heating Distributors Ltd.

Blueberry Design delighted to have completed the new catalogue website for Heating Distributors Ltd. Heating Distributors is a family run business in Finglas, Co. Dublin. This year the company will celebrate their 50th year in business. The website offers a wide range of quality Stoves & Inserts, Gas Fires & Stoves, Electric Fires, Outdoor Fires and Fireplaces together with a large selection of Accessories to compliment their product range.

HDL needed an updated site clearly showcasing their product range & brand portfolio, and the wide range of products and services they offer.

So here’s the new Heating Distributors website: https://heating-distributors.ie/

We wish Aisling and the team all the best with their new website and reaching a milestone celebration of 50 years in business.

The website project required the following:

How Much Does a Website Cost

When figuring out how much a website would cost here are a few things to take into consideration. The first thing we want to think about is your annual turnover. As your budget you should be using about 5% – 10% of your turnover for digital marketing.

A small company that has a turnover of €100k a year should be looking at a budget for a website of about €1k to €3k. A bigger business with an €150k annual turnover should be then looking at a budget of €5k – €8k. A large business that earns about €800k turnover a year should be therefore looking at a budget of €8k – €10k.

A Website for a Small Business

A small business generally requires a small website. A website for the small business will mean that they can get their product or service out there to get potential customers. The site will have about 4 – 5 pages. On these pages it should include their contact numbers, information on the company, services and products provided.

The website should have a professional look and feel with nice colours a consistent design throughout the website, including pictures and use of a neat font. It should be mobile friendly and  have a simple to use CMS. The website should be easy to navigate and should help the business grow.

At Blueberry Design these start at a price of €875 and depending on your budget more features can be added. All our websites will have a domain name and include website and email hosting. See our prices here.

A Website for a Medium Company

A medium company usually requires a medium sized website for marketing and lead generation. The website should be able to promote their business and also be able to promote their products and services. The site would generally consist of around 10 – 15 pages. It should have a custom business design to look sharp and professional. The website will have pictures throughout for products and services. It would have a page for all the contacts and a Google maps location to show its location.

The site will be quick and responsive. The site includes an SSL certificate to encrypt data and protect users information sent via the website. Websites include Google ReCaptcha to keep bots out. It also includes all the features of the small website previously mentioned. At Blueberry Design these website start at around €1500 and additional features cost more. See our prices here.

An e-Commerce Website

A e-Commerce website allows companies to sell their products online in a safe and secure manner.  Selling online is much more cost effective compared to a physical store. Customers can access your online store 24/7 where as your store is open for a set time. Also the cost of staffing your store compared to a website is obviously more cost efficient.

e-Commerce websites use different providers of payment such as PayPal and Stripe. These providers are PCI compliant which gives site owners peace of mind because they know that their transactions are protected and screened for fraud. Our e-commerce sites also include SSL Certificates to protect customer data and are made GDPR compliant.

e-Commerce sites tend to have 20 – 25 pages to include information and products. e-Commerce websites can have unlimited products and give variations and options to customize the product for the customer.

Depending on the budget our sites come with shared or dedicated hosting. All our e-Commerce websites come with admin logins to allow customers to manage their websites and shop. The website includes most features of the medium website and more. See the prices of the e-Commerce websites here.

Tips When Looking for a Designer

  • Ask for examples of previous work or client recommendations.
  • Look for several references and follow them up.
  • Ask for tax clearance certificate.
  • Ask about their skills, how long they’ve been doing this for and the amount of staff.
  • Ask about their location.
  • Ask about payment terms and how much you have to pay upfront.
  • Ask for the daily or monthly cost of their work.
  • Make sure you get admin login details for your website
  • Make sure the contract is signed by both parties.

Why Should You Choose Blueberry Design?

Why should you choose Blueberry Design? Having had hundreds of previous customers and over 12 years of experience we strive to keep quality consistent between our websites. We are always open to ideas and will give you options based on them. We make sure to keep your website in good shape keeping it on the top of Google, Bing and Yahoo pages. We give free consultations giving you a good idea to how much your website will cost for what you are looking for and we make sure to keep in contact telling you what happens as your website grows. We make sure your website works on all devices for easy access to mobile, PC and tablet users.

New responsive website for Fenton Fires

New website for Fenton Fires launched in September

Blueberry Design completed the new catalogue website for Fenton Fires in September. Fenton Fires is a family run business in Greystones Co. Wicklow.  The Company was established over 45 years ago and offers a wide range of quality Woodburning Stoves & Inserts, Gas Fires & Stoves, Electric Fires and Fireplaces together with a large selection of  Fireside Accessories to compliment our product range.

Fenton Fires needed an updated site clearly showcasing their product range & brand portfolio, and the wide range of products and services they offer, for both desktop or mobile users.

So here’s the new Fenton Fires website: https://fentonfires.ie/

We wish William and the team at Fenton Fires all the best with their new website and every success in their business.

The website project required the following:

Marketing Your Website

Tip 1: Have a mission or goal

Marketing  Your Website and Building a Brand online has to do with increasing the number of people who know and like your business, products and brand. To be successful at marketing, you should always choose marketing strategies that fit your mission or goals of your website and company. And to do that, of course, you need to properly define your site’s mission! Once you know your mission and what makes your company or your website unique, make sure it’s always reflected in the content of your Digital Marketing Strategy.

Example: Blueberry’s’ mission and marketing

The mission of Blueberry Design is to help companies get online and optimize their websites. To fulfill that mission, we offer a number of services such as web design, e-commerce development, SEO & PPC marketing, website hosting and maintenance as well as GDPR and Website Security. We use multiple channels to reach to our audience, such as our blog, our newsletter, and social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We make sure that the things we share fit our mission. That does not mean that every post we write is about websites. As part of our mission, we also share posts on content marketing, sales, news, GDPR and photos of, for example, events we attend and our office.

Market Your Brand

Tip 2: Choose marketing that fits your brand

Marketing should also fit your brand. Branding is the way you want to present your company to the world. It could even be in the way you make your products or supply your services. Perhaps you want your brand to be hip and in trend or maybe you’d rather come across as traditional. It’s up to you, just make sure you’re consistent.

Tip 3: Get to know your audience

An important step in marketing is to find out what your audience looks like. Who are my visitors? Where do they come from? How do they currently engage with my website? In order to answer these questions, there are different kinds of research you can do. Google Analytics will give you some great insights. And, how about conducting a survey? Once you have a clear view of what your audience looks like, it’s much easier to reach them on (for example) social media.

Tip 4: Think about new customers!

Now that you have some idea of your current audience; does it consist of the people you want to reach? How could you grow it? Have you considered all potential audiences you could reach with your website?

If you think about your customer, it’ll be easier to find growth potential. For example, it could be that your current audience is quite small but consists of exactly the kind of people you want to have on your website. Your growth question would then be “where do I find more of these people”? It could also be that your current audience and your desired audience are somewhat different. Your growth question would then be: where do I find my new audience?

know your customer

Tip 5: Find the right platforms

Having a clear vision of the people you want to reach is important for the next marketing stage. For example, trying to reach an audience of young teenagers on Facebook is not a great marketing strategy. Nor is trying to reach an audience of older retirees on Instagram. Both the content of your website, as well as the social media channel you choose should be targeted to the audience you want to reach.

In addition to focusing on social media, consider sending out a newsletter. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your audience and regularly send them on branded content, so you’ll stay top of their mind. You may not get everyone from your audience to subscribe, but those who do will be highly engaged.

And, perhaps you have the option to reach out to a website in a similar niche to yours and offer a guest post? This could be a great opportunity to both reach a larger audience and work on your networking at the same time. Don’t go around sending low-quality posts to every blog you can find – that’s not a good marketing strategy and won’t do you any good. But if you can write a great post for another blog that’s reaching a (larger) audience that you’d also like to reach, go for it!

Tip 6: Advertising

If you have a budget, you could also decide to put ads on, for instance, Facebook or Google to promote your website and company. Facebook offers the option to boost your post, making sure it’ll get more exposure.

Facebook actually allows you to really focus on the demographic you would like to reach with settings for age group, location and interests, making it quite easy to target your desired audience.

Google PPC is a great way to get your website in front of potential clients when they need it most. You can target locations, demographics, devices and times by creating engaging ads with a clear Call To Action on each ad.

PPC Marketing

Conclusion on digital marketing

Devising a digital marketing strategy to roll out alongside your SEO strategy helps grow the audience of your website. So, get to know your company and your audience! Mind, growth does not equate to more money! If you want to make money with your website, there’s a whole lot of different things you could do. But digital marketing your website with these tips will definitely help you find your voice and an audience that’s eager to hear what you have to say!

Need help with your digital marketing or SEO? Contact Us today and we’ll help get your website in front of the audience you want.

GDPR

GDPR One Year On

GDPR Overview

GDPR came into effect on the 25th May 2018. GDPR provides individuals and companies to have the appropriate policies, procedures and processes to protect personal data. All organisations must have a risk-based approach to data protection. GDPR requires organisations to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures and extends the given rights to individuals. Penalties for organisations who are not in compliance of GDPR can be severe and can go up to €20,000,000.00 or 4% of global turnover.

Whats happened since 25th May 2018???

It seems not a lot has happened since the introduction of GDPR but if you dig deeper you’ll find the various EU data commissioners have been inundated with data complaints.

  • A total of 59430 report data breaches have been reported since 2018.
  • 91 reported fines have been issued under GDPR.
  • Most notifications reported by countries: Netherlands 15400, Germany 12600, UK 10600.
  • Fewest notifications reported so far from countries: Cyprus 35, Iceland 25, Liechtenstein 15.

Some GDPR fines to date.

  • France: €50 million
  • Portugal: €400,000
  • Poland: €220,000
  • Germany: €80,000
  • Austria: €4800

What about Ireland??

The Irish Data Commissioner reported 4740 valid data breaches since the introduction last May. 75% of these reported post 25th May. 4113 complaints have been received by the Irish Data Commission in 2018 – 70% received post May.

What types of breaches have been reported to the Irish Data Commissioner.

  • 85% disclosure
  • 5% paper lost/stolen
  • 3% hacking
  • 3% phishing
  • 2% devices lost/stolen
  • 1% Malware
  • 1% inappropriate disposal of paper.

Currently the Irish Data Commission has 50+ open investigations. 17 investigations into multinational technology companies based in Ireland. 8 investigations into Facebook alone. the commission has increased its staff numbers in recent times to 135 and is still growing.

Key factors for organisations to note from the DPC.

  • Report breaches on time (within 72 hours of breach)
  • Contact data subjects (individuals or organisations) without delay.
  • Have a Breach playbook (know what to do in case of a data breach)
  • Train Your Employees (don’t leave it to one person)
  • Retain records (wherever possible)

Brexit and Data Implications:

Brexit

As we know Britain are due to exit the EU on the 31st October 2019. We know this date could change depending on the outcome of Leadership and Brexit talks. Lets say for this the UK leaves on the 31st October, what happens then?

Some possible scenarios:

  1. A no-deal Brexit
  2. Agree a new withdrawal agreement
  3. New common market 2.0 agreement
  4. New withdrawal agreement

What happens if there is a no-deal or hard Brexit?

  • The UK will become a “third country”. A third country outside of the EEA or the European Economic Area
  • Data transfers to a “third country” is allowed if the country is deemed to have adequate levels of data protection
  • Organisations from “third countries” without adequate protection must adopt safeguards to transfer data from  the EEA to a third country.
  • Some appropriate safeguards are:
    Binding corporate rules
    Standard contractual clauses
    Certification mechanisms or protections.

DPC recommendations in case of a NO-Deal Brexit

Key Takeaways:

  1. Monitor Your Data Protection Compliance
  2. When a data breach occurs…not if
  3. Implement SCC’s if transferring data to the UK
  4. Keep Up to Date and check the data protection commission website regularly: https://www.dataprotection.ie/

 

Image from rawpixel.com

 

 

 

 

 

PPC Marketing

PPC V SEO. Which is better for your website?

PPC V SEO. Which is better for your website?

PPC V SEO. Which is better for your website? This has been an ongoing debate. Which is better, buying your way to the top of the search engines through a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign or cultivating your organic (or natural) search engine marketing strategy through search engine optimization (SEO)?

PPC V SEO. Which is better for your website? Deciding where your digital marketing spend should go is a hard decision for many business owners and the decision between SEO and PPC is often fraught with doubt about which is the better?

What is PPC?

When you buy visitors or “clicks” from Google or other search engines it is called pay-per-click (PPC). PPC allows you to quickly leverage search engine traffic by paying or bidding for keywords related to what you are selling or a service you’re providing.

 

What is SEO?

SEO is often referred to as “organic” or “natural” lead generation. SEO consists of optimizing your web pages to enhance their position in the naturally occurring search results. Organic SEO consists of making sure the search engine bots can crawl and understand what is on your web page and so that, ideally, they’ll rank your website higher than your competitors.

Digital Marketing

Benefits of PPC

Simply there is NO waiting: once your PPC campaign starts, you’ll immediately start to see more traffic, clicks, and conversions on your website. SEO can take weeks or months before you start to see your website move up the page results. PPC is scalable and controllable – you set your budget and have an idea of how many leads are you getting. This, in turn, helps you calculate an accurate budget for your digital marketing. SEO is not so cut and dry, and it can take longer or require more money if the industry or location your business needs to rank for it can be extremely competitive.

Benefits of SEO

Organic SEO is very cost effective. The labour costs of setting up and managing a PPC campaign are usually the same or even more than the labour costs of SEO, but then there are the continuous click charges you pay after set-up. Organic SEO is long lasting! A properly optimized website can maintain a high position in the search results long after a PPC campaign has been turned off.

Disadvantages of PPC

You have to pay to get good results and the more you pay the better the results according to Google. The competition for keywords has never been greater. Researching and selecting effective keywords to bid on is very time-consuming. Managing what you’re spending on keywords, measuring returns, adjusting how much you spend and playing the PPC game is a full-time job. Either you’ll be spending time doing it yourself or you’ll have to hire an experienced PPC specialist who can properly run your campaigns for you.

Disadvantages of SEO

SEO is very slow compared to PPC. It can take weeks or months after you optimize your web page to start seeing results, whereas PPC will start getting you leads straight away. Also SEO is an ongoing process. Your site will never be 100% “optimized,” it will only get more and more optimized as you put more work into it. The good news is that in the future your rankings will be better and you will hopefully be reaping the rewards of having invested in SEO. SEO is time-consuming, especially if you choose to do it yourself. Should you have the option to purchase SEO tools or to hire someone to do SEO for you, that will end up costing real money, not your own time.

 

SEO

 

Can PPC and SEO work together?

When combined, PPC and SEO can be quite powerful. In my view and well optimised website with a PPC campaign is the best approach. Optimisation is not only about the keywords on your website but how your website is built. PPC campaigns take into account the SEO on your website and if done correctly SEO can reduce your overall PPC costs. Ask yourself these questions and determine optimal mix of PPC and SEO for your website.

If you have any inquiries about the services at Blueberry Design click here or call us if you have any questions on (041) 986 5686.

Images from rawpixel.com

Use Storytelling to Sell Your Products

Use Storytelling to Sell Your Products

Use Storytelling to Sell Your Products

Storytelling can be a useful tool to use on your product pages. But why is storytelling such an effective tool to use on product pages? And how could you use storytelling on your own e-commerce site?

You’re already doing it without knowing?

Most of our clients will already be using storytelling on their product pages. They just don’t realise it! In your text, you’ll probably already are describing why your product is the best. Most clients will use examples to do that.

So why is storytelling such an effective strategy to use on product pages?

Storytelling is effective in product pages because it allows you to show people why your product is better than the rest. I could tell you all about our great SEO packages, but it would be much more convincing if I showed you why they are so great.

Focus on the problem instead of the product!

  1. Reviews or Testimonials.
    Every review, every testimonial is a story. You probably know that testimonials increase trust. Real customers, share real experiences. Those experiences can increase trust and awarness
  2. Collect user stories.
    Ask your customers to share their experiences with your products. Ask them how the product improved their lives. Use that feedback of your customers to write little stories..
  3. Write Example Stories:
    In an example story you could introduce a persona that is facing a particular problem. Perhaps the persona wants to get more traffic to their website but does not know where to start. In your storytelling, you can explain how your product solved the problem of the persona in your story.

Conclusion on storytelling and product pages.

Stories can be powerful if people can relate to the characters in your story. Make sure your story on your product pages are about real people. Try to add specific details to make the stories more real and relative. That makes it easier for people to relate to the people in the story. Also add as many photos and/or videos to make the stories even more real!!

 

Image by rawpixel.com

How to Improve Website User Experience

We found the following Tips on How to Improve Website User Experience from Hub Spot. If you need advice on how to improve your website user experience you can find the article below with some helpful links.

Your website is the core anchor for your digital marketing efforts. To guarantee that your clientele receive the best experience when browsing, it is important that you are aware of the different problems users have.

Your website is the best salesperson. They work 24 hours a day and provide consumers with the appropriate information that is relevant to their search.

 

1. Use White Space:

Clients tend to complain to the designers of their website that there is too much white space throughout a page. White Space is a section of a page that is not being used. However, having this empty space can be a positive to a website. It can encourage a viewer to devote all of their attention the content and distinct designs and color that surround the text. To view what effective white space looks like on a website, click here.

 

2. Optimise your page speed:

It is frustrating when a web page or an image doesn’t load as fast as you would like it to. If your website doesn’t load within five seconds, bounce rates will increase. But, there are multiple solutions that will help to decrease those rates. For information on how this can be achieved click here

According to Section.io, bounce rates will increase by 20% if there is an extra five seconds of page load time. Google offers a free service that is reliable and will give you the relevant information about your page speed.

Image result for optimising website speed

 

3. Use images (wisely):

Before browsing through a website, people are beginning to judge the company sites appearance. It is important that the images displayed have been taken in your company if not being taken off the internet.

Images are used to convey your brand and its products and services the way that you want it to. Customers should be able to visually perceive what your company is about. Looking at the site of https://www.octacom.ca/, we are immediately informed of the services they provide. Check out this infographic on real images vs stock photography.

 

4. Include well-designed and written headings:

The words used in headings and content included on your website is based off what consumers have an interest in.

The important thing to remember about headings is that they act as a guide for users of a website, making it easier for them to find the information they acquire about a product or service you provide. For example: a company called Tilde have well-designed headings that are attractive on the homepage of their website as you can see below. The colour used is well balanced and the font size doesn’t take the attention away from the other features. To view Tilde’s website follow the link provided here: https://www.tilde.io/.

Tilde website with well-designed headings

 

5. Segment key information with bullet points:

When writing up a business document or content for a website, it is recommended to use a bullet pointing format where there is a substantial amount of information.

Bulling pointing is a great way for highlighting important information and is more appealing in the eye of the reader. This format allows the user to brows through a page in a short amount of time and collect all relevant points of information more efficiently. Another effective way of drawing attention to information on your website is to use icons relevant to the subject. An organization called One.org. uses icons as the bullet points to highlight their what they have achieved over a period of time as shown in the image featured below. Often using icons can make the topic of conversation that little more interesting and worth the time to explore.

One.org website, whose user experience uses bullet points to segment key information

 

If you have any inquiries about the services at Blueberry Design click here or call us if you have any questions on (041) 986 5686.