If you haven’t written a mission statement, a blog post is a great way to begin. It shares with your around why you started your business. Once you have crafted your mission statement, you can also include it in your About page on your website.

At Iceberg Web design, we recently wrote our mission statement.

“Expanding our knowledge and breaking barriers to provide digital solutions to companies that want to grow while slowly working towards becoming the first website development agency on Mars.”

For some inspiration, let’s look at a few mission statements from some well-known companies and organizations

Some are pretty deep.

“Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people—especially those with the fewest resources—have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.”

~Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“Our credo stems from a belief that consumers, employees, and the community are all equally important.” 

~Johnson & Johnson

Your mission statement can also be short and sweet.

 “To entertain the world.” 

~Netflix, Inc.

 “to be our customers’ favorite place and way to eat and drink.” 

~ McDonald’s

“To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”

~Tesla

What is your mission statement?

If you haven’t written one yet, Big Commerce has a great article on crafting one that fits your company’s goals and style. Talk it over with your team to ensure it is something you can all get behind. Then, start talking about your mission, along with your core values as the goal of everything you do. If something doesn’t line up with them, should you be investing your time, energy, and finances in it?

Do you have a website on which to share your mission?

Iceberg Web Design can help you bring your website to the next level, implementing digital solutions to the problems that may be inhibiting your company’s growth. We’d love to help you! Drop us a line by using our contact form or give us a call. We are web developers that answer the phone.

The post Why You Need a Mission Statement appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Back in 1997, the first noticeable social media website (Six Degrees) was up and running. Fast forward more than 20 years and 79% of the U.S. population uses social media. For advertisers, the rise of social media has disrupted marketing strategy and uprooted traditional advertising methods. But, believe it or not, the initial setback caused by social has given way to brand new heights in advertising.

Social Media’s Impact on Advertising

Americans now spend an average of 23.6 hours online each week. Out of those 23.6 hours, 30% of the time is spent on social media, outweighing any other activity. To make the most of their ad spend, advertisers have had to change their focus, targeting the digital space to reach the greatest number of consumers.

Ad spend isn’t the only thing that’s changed. By becoming accustomed to the personal feel of social media, consumers now crave different methods of engagement with their favorite brands. No longer do they expect the same run of the mill ads. Instead, they’re looking for targeted and specific content that appears to have been created just for them.

How to Use Social Media to Boost Advertising Success

It may sound like bad news, but it isn’t. The consumer’s wish for more targeted advertising on their preferred social media profile is becoming easier with each update. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram allow advertisers to focus on specific audiences. Others such as Snapchat allow advertisers to create content that speaks to the target demographic.

Whatever and whenever your target customer wants your ad content, you can put it there—and that’s taking advertising to new heights. What else can you do to boost your social media advertising success?

Build Brand Awareness

Social media isn’t just a starting point for a new ad campaign. It’s easier to sell a service or product to a warm lead, than a cold one. Social media engagement and interaction builds brand awareness, helping consumers become more familiar with what you offer. The more connected they feel, the more apt they’ll be to purchase.

Be Specific With Those Ads

Without targeting the right audience, your ad’s design or copy simply won’t matter. Social media allows you to be ultra-specific when creating ads for your brand, targeting only those customers that are the perfect fit. Use the data and advertising tools provided on the social media platform to boost your ad’s performance.

Test, Test, Test

Social media is the perfect place to test your ads for success. On Facebook, most ads are reviewed and published within 24 hours, meaning you could see ad results fast. To get started, perform an A/B test and test one ad against another to see which one performs the best with your target demographic.

Is Your Social Media Advertising Strategy Up to Par?

It’s safe to say that social media and advertising should go hand in hand. Social media is helping us reach new heights in advertising each and every day. To learn more about social media marketing or paid advertising, send us a message.

The post The Age of Social Media: Reaching New Heights in Advertising appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Did you save the holiday cards that you received via snail mail? Well, break out the reminders of the 2015 holiday season and look closely at the images presented on the front and back of the cards. With websites such as Snapfish, Tinyprints, and Shutterfly making the creation of photo holiday cards a cinch, everyone seems to have morphed into a professional photographer.

Or, have they?

We bet that most, if not all of the holiday cards you received presented fuzzy, low-resolution images shot from smartphones. The cards that really stand out are the ones that appear shot by professional photographers. The photo holiday cards still clinging to your refrigerator door are the ones that taken by professional photographers.

Professional Photography: It Makes All the Difference

Now, apply the same principle to your business website. If you land on a website and the first thing you see is a full-screen slideshow featuring mediocre smartphone pictures, chances are you won’t take the company too seriously. Conversely, potential customers that find your website replete with amateurish photos flee to other websites presenting professionally taken photographs that effectively sell products and services.

You want your small business website to include professionally shot photos, such as the one below:

Our Minneapolis web design company helps clients upload professional website photography.

Professional Pictures of Your Business, Products, or Services

If your business has a storefront, and you take care of customers at your location, then you need a current picture of your storefront on the “Location and Directions” page of your website. Customers need to know exactly how to find you, and a professionally shot image of your storefront leaves an indelible visual impression that makes customers feel more familiar with your business.

Think of the photographs that you greet online customers as virtual welcome mats. You want online shoppers to feel welcome at a business that places a high value on its products and services.

Professional Head Shots

The “Meet Our Team” page on your website should encourage people to call your business for more information. Outdated staff pictures, photos of folks at their messy desks with coffee cups, and mismatched sizes for your staff can cause a person to hit the “Back” button faster than the roadrunner flees from Wile E. Coyote. Make sure that your employees look their best with professional, consistent headshots on your website. (They’ll even thank you when you send them a digital copy to use on their personal Facebook pages!)

Product Photography

Nearly 40% of customers take action, whenever the see professional photography on a business website. Professional looking photos account for 93% of the engaging posts on Facebook, which should already be an extension of your organic business website. Professional photographs receive 84% more link click throughs than the link click throughs prompted by text.

A Few Professional Website Photography Tips

Our Minneapolis website design firm walks clients through a process that ensures they upload the highest quality photographs. We offer a sampling of tips to get you started on your way.

Compress Photograph Files

Many small businesses think that large photograph files guarantee high-resolution images that attract customers and prompt them to take action. Yet, smaller photograph file sizes do not create low-resolution images. In fact, professional photographers know how to compress files and retain high quality images. Smaller photo files produce faster loading times, which keep customers coming back to your website.

You Don’t Have to Caption Everything

Sure, adding a product name caption helps customers make informed buying decisions. However, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousands words. Let some of your products do the selling for you by presenting professional images that capture the beauty of your products. This principle is especially relevant for businesses that offer high-end products, such as jewelry and luxury vehicles.

Don’t Cut Corners by Using Stock Photography

Yes, you can find professional looking photographs in online stock inventories. Your small business saves a little money, but you run the risk of violating copyrights. Do the right thing and invest in a local professional photographer to take headshots and high-resolution photographs of a few of your most popular products.

Free Professional Photography with New Development

Because we feel that professional website photography is so important to beautiful responsive website design, we are offering a free, one-hour photography session with a local photographer (local to Minneapolis, MN) for all new website development projects starting January 15 and running until March 31. This includes six professionally edited images for your website.

Contact us online or by phone to learn more about how your small business can increase sales by presenting professionally shot website photographs.

Note: Our website development company has offices in Anoka and Minneapolis, Minnesota. As such, we are partnering with local photographers on this offer. Free photography session is limited to customers within a 20 mile radius of either Anoka or Minneapolis, Minnesota. Contact us for complete details, or with questions.

The post The Difference Between a Mediocre Website and a Good One appeared first on Iceberg Web Design.

Platforms like Pinterest and Instagram allow retailers to showcase stunning photos of their merchandise. And this is especially effective for businesses that depend on eCommerce, such as Shopify.

Serviced-based businesses may find it challenging to develop captivating visual content. This includes:

• Attorneys
• Accountants
• Bookkeepers
• Financial advisors

So which social media platform is best for your business if you are a service provider?

The answer might not be so obvious, so let’s take a closer look.

1. Consider Geo-targeting

One unique trait of service-based businesses is that – in most cases – they tend to serve local clients. In other words, they have a traditional brick and mortar setup.

If that describes your situation, which social media platform is best for your business?

The answer is any that supports local searches. Three great examples would be:

• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Facebook

By creating a company page on any of these platforms, you can enter the physical location of your business. In turn, customers can find you by searching for your services in their local area.

2. Consider Your Ad Budget

Virtually any social media platform that offers the ability to promote posts for a fee could work to your advantage. The key, however, is to choose a platform that allows you to target both local users and those that have an interest in the service you offer.

Some popular social networks that permit paid promotion are:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Twitter

It is worth noting that Facebook and LinkedIn offer the most reliable targeting options. At the same time, Twitter and Pinterest are more cost-effective, often allowing you to buy impressions on a post for just a few cents each.

3. Consider Your Content

Regardless of what type of service-based business you run, stop to consider what you intend to share on social media.

Chances are if you are a lawyer or accountant, you won’t be snapping very many selfies to upload…

In most cases, you will be posting more detailed content – links to relevant articles, guides, tutorials, and forms, for example.

Platforms that best display rich content – optimizing what you share for the most clicks – would be:

• LinkedIn
• Google+
• Facebook

Sure, you can share a link on Twitter… but with 140 characters to work with, a lot can get lost in translation.

4. Consider Your Audience

Do you operate a B2B or B2C business?

If consumers are your best customers, forget about LinkedIn.

At the same time, if other businesses are your best customers, you can forget about Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, and Snapchat.

The platforms that both businesses and consumers use to gather information are typically:

• Facebook
• Google+
• Twitter
• YouTube

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule – but these are the main four to choose from.

So, Which Social Media Platform Is Best for Your Business in the End…?

If we take a quick tally of the points above, we see that Facebook appeared on all four lists, with Google+ and LinkedIn appearing three times each.

Most of the time, these three platforms will serve as your best social vehicle for attracting and engaging with clients.

Still unsure?

Iceberg Web Design can help sort out which social media platform is best for your business.

In fact, we offer a selection of different social media solutions to meet the needs of your business.

To get started, contact our Minneapolis website development and social media company online, or call 763-350-8762.

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