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 Online videos have experienced explosive growth in recent years, due in part to the fact that Google's algorithm for search rankings evaluates the amount of time visitors stay on your websites.

Explainer videos are an affordable and effective method for improving conversion rates,  clarifying your product or service, and boosting your sales. 

Continue reading to learn how an explainer video can improve conversion rates for your website.

Ecommerce claims a larger slice of the global retail pie with each passing year, and experts project that it will account for more than 17% of all retail sales by 2022. The growing prominence of ecommerce comes as no surprise in a digitalized world, but this upward trend in online shopping does introduce unique challenges to retailers worldwide. As the ecommerce landscape becomes increasingly competitive, online retailers need to innovate the shopping experience they offer in order to keep up.

Because having a stellar product is not enough to stand out in such a highly saturated market, great design is the key for ecommerce businesses looking to make a memorable impact on their customers. Ecommerce design in 2018 is truly revolutionizing the way we shop by combining the ease and lightness of online shopping with the experiential and discovery-elements of offline shopping.

Some of the ecommerce design trends of 2018 are so ingeniously subtle we may not notice them until met with a poorly designed site with which to compare them. Trends like scrolling product photos and seamless product landing pages eliminate much of the needless navigation work that can sabotage conversions, creating a light yet informative online shopping experience.

But other trends are made to stand out: big, bold, out-of-the-box photography and integrated video are meant to capture your attention. These trends make it possible to showcase the product through its characteristics that simply don’t come through in standard photo dimensions, characteristics like movement, texture, or consistency.

And if you have ever walked into a store and later walked out having purchased something you never set out to buy, ecommerce design trends in 2018 are moving to encourage more of this kind of browsing. By designing unique, attractive, and interactive category pages, many ecommerce sites are moving to reintroduce an element of discovery to your online shopping experience.

Check out examples of these ecommerce design trends and more in the following infographic from What’s the Host:

ImageWorks,LLC | CT Web Design

While many website design trends are temporary affairs of the heart, a select few are natural evolutions  of the industry. As more web-accessible devices are introduced to the market, designers must continue to adapt their workflow to meet the dynamic changes that are occuring in web design.Over the past few years, the general appearance of websites has changed quite a bit for developers and designers.It's hard to determine which trends are rooted in serious potential for helping your business convert site users into leads. Fortunately, we have help.

Luckily for  brands and people like ourselves, the team over at Coastal Creative did some excellent research into the emerging trends for 2018 and provided an easy-to-digest infographic breakdown.

As many businesses across the country have learned within the past several years, Facebook ads can be a very powerful tool for reaching out to potential customers. Many Facebook marketers are having to learn how to create successful Facebook ads through trial and error. However, there's a wide variety of best practices and tips to take note of to help improve that learning curve a bit. Make sure your business isn't making common mistakes that drain ad budget and often lead to unsuccessful campaigns. Continue reading to learn how to avoid the top five common mistakes for paid Facebook advertising.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software aims to help you maintain and improve your relationship with existing customers, connect with new prospects, and win back former clients.

CRM software helps with the collection, organization, and management of customer information. Whether your business venture is larger or small, you can use a CRM strategy to your advantage.

Continue reading to discover the benefits of using CRM for your business.

Is your website a powerful marketing tool for your business? Your website has the potential to be a valuable asset and the centerpiece of your marketing efforts. Yet, many business websites end up becoming jumbled and confusing, as marketing managers struggle to find the right balance between providing useful content and an intuitive web experience.

In today's environment of rapidly growing interfaces, UX design has become an increasingly important aspect of web design. Simply put, UX looks at how a person feels when interacting with a website (or any other type of human/device interaction), aiming to provide positive experiences that keep users loyal to the product/brand. While it's true that the effectiveness of a company website is influenced by a variety of factors, a website's success ultimately hinges upon quality user experience.

A website must be easy to navigate, simple to operate, and offer a user some kind of benefit or advantage. Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer to the question, "what makes a great user experience?", so the most important thing to remember when designing web and user interfaces is that you don't have the same perspective as your users.

The popularity of ecommerce sites has grown exponentially in recent years. In the past, online shoppers were likely to be satisfied with an engaging product deal, but now they are also expecting a seamless shopping experience. Unfortunately, even a small error in the buying process can prompt ecommerce site users to abandon their cart and shop elsewhere. We've provided an overview of a few mistakes you should avoid while you are optimizing your website for shoppers, and developing a strategy for long-term success.

Inbound marketing campaigns involve many moving parts, making it difficult for teams to coordinate in the initial stages.

HubSpot, leading producer of inbound marketing software, have stated in the past that “strategy and process” are the two main contributors to Inbound success.

We can’t help but agree. In our experience, failed inbound marketing campaigns often result from a combination of these mistakes.

2017 will certainly bring in a slew of new changes to marketing strategies across the country.  One of the most important factors that affect your decision process for selecting a digital marketing company is that they pay close attention to what’s trending and creating impact. Since digital marketing trends vary from year to year, it’s crucial for marketers to stay vigilant.

Consumers are engaging with new technology at an alarming rate, admittedly faster than most marketers can keep up with. As digital makers, we reviewed the past year and performed some basic research into current global trends to see how they’ll affect our predictions for 2017. While 2016 heralded a seismic change in the mobile landscape, what does 2017 have on tap for digital marketers?