Right now, many of our brick and mortar storefronts are unusable. That’s a scary thought. Luckily, we live in the era of the internet. Your customers can continue to connect with you online. That’s where the following online tools come in. With them in your toolbox, you can keep business going and keep your audience in the know.
Shopify
We strongly recommend Shopify for ecommerce. It acts as an online storefront. This hosted service simplified the ecommerce process for the customer by handling all online store functionality, including payment and shipping. All system updates are managed by Shopify, so the client can focus on managing content and processing orders.
If you’re doing a complete website rebuild you can have the whole site hosted on Shopify. Or, if you just want to add ecommerce abilities to your current site, we can add a link to the external store. Before making a decision, we suggest speaking with our web expert to figure out the right path for you.
WordPress
Having an easy-to-use content management system makes your life so much easier. It allows you to edit and add content fast and simply. Even if you have no design skills, it helps you format your site without messing up design. We recommend WordPress.
1. Can you switch any site to WordPress?
Not directly or automatically – content has to be migrated to fit within the data structure of WordPress. There are plugins available that can assist with this process, but an existing site hosted on a system other than WordPress would require work to move the existing content into the WordPress system.
2. Why do we use/recommend WordPress?
WordPress is a well-written and full-featured content management system maintained by a huge community of contributors. It can also be extended to fit a variety of different purposes. The WordPress framework makes content management easy.
3. Are there other good options?
There are many different content management systems available – both open source and commercial. Among the most well-known are Joomla, Drupal and DotNetNuke (commercially known as Evoq). However, WordPress has the largest market share – it is used by roughly 33% of all websites online.
HubSpot
Inbound marketing is all about providing your audience with content that attracts, engages, and delights. It’s a useful method for developing long-term relationships with clients and building new customer bases. HubSpot touts this methodology and offers the best tool kit for managing it. It works across a mix of teams, from marketing to sales. We use it for everything from simple social media posts to entire campaigns. It gives us an eagle eye view of progress and prospects.
HubSpot allows you to add landing pages to your site. You can easily set up CTAs and track them with this system. Check it out. Free trials are available. We’ve been using the platform for several years and can walk you through it.
Audience-Relevant Social Media Platforms
Sometimes information changes quickly. Like too quickly to keep updating your website. This is where social channels can be very beneficial. Especially in our current state. We have a healthcare client that is heavily leaning on social media channels like Facebook and Instagram to connect and inform its community right now. Done right, this is a very useful solution for communication. With the right strategy in place, you can take one piece of content and make it work across any social platform.
Communication Audit
Our team is more than happy to do an audit on your communication efforts. The world has changed overnight and we want everything, from your website to your social media, to serve you properly. For more helpful 2020 marketing tips, check out our Week x Week series.
Reach out if you’re interested in learning more.
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