In Business, Perception Really Is Reality

serrano square

serrano square

Have you ever heard the expression, “Perception is reality?” It refers to the idea that what people see is what they believe. In business, it means your business’s reputation is defined by the way customers perceive you, not necessarily how you want your business to be perceived.

That’s why managing your business’s online reputation is so important. Lytron Strategic has the digital tools, experience, and know-how to successfully manage your business’s online reputation so that prospective customers think about your business exactly the way you want.

Bad Reviews

For example, let’s say your small business gets a bad review on a popular social media platform. A single bad review can do more harm to your reputation than a hundred positive reviews because people tend to believe the worst. It’s just human nature.

But managing your online reputation involves monitoring the big social media platforms for posts about your business and then targeting negatives and other potentially harmful content. In many instances, it’s possible to reach out to the person who made the posting, address their issue, turn around their opinion of your business, then convince them to remove the harmful post. It’s a win/win for both the poster and your business.

Positive Reinforcement

One of the best ways to build goodwill among your customers is to continually remind them of all the positive things you do for your community. You also can personalize your business by being open about your family life, your interests and hobbies, and favorites that have nothing to do with your business, such as TV shows and movies.

Making personal connections with people helps instill positive feelings about your business. When people feel like they know you personally, they are more likely to perceive your business in a positive light and choose you ahead of your competitors.

 

 

Even the Smallest Business Needs a Website

expert analysis 3

expert analysis 3

For small businesses today, having a website isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. Even the smallest of small businesses need an online presence because the Internet is the primary place people today search for the products and services they want.

Think about your own shopping habits. When was the last time you looked in the phone book or the Yellow Pages for some sort of business or service you needed? Odds are the year started with “19–“.

Times Have Changed

If you are launching a new business, your primary marketing needs to be online. A website gives people someplace to go to find the products or services you offer. In most cases, a virtual store will attract far more prospective customers than a brick-and-mortar store. Ideally, you should have both.

Concerned that you don’t know anything about programming or coding and lack the skills to build your own business website? You shouldn’t be. Lytron Web Design has helped hundreds of small businesses build their online presence, enhance their digital reputation, and attract customers from all over the world with professional websites that are optimized to gain traffic.

Our digital web builders will learn about your business, analyze what type of customers you want, then build a sleek, interactive website that connects your products or services with people who are actively looking for them right now.

Good Business

In 2023, having a business website is just good business. Today’s consumer is far more likely to search Google or another search engine for the products or services they want than take any other type of action. In today’s business environment, even word of mouth has taken a backseat to online searches.

To connect with customers, your small business needs a website. Even if you are your business’s only employee, the fastest and most effective way to connect your products and services with the people who want them is to let Lytron Web Design build your business website.

 

Why Is Your Business Special?

lytron consulting agency 3

lytron consulting agency 3

Every business has something about it that is unique. If you can identify what your distinctive selling point is, you can differentiate yourself from your competitors in your branding and in the marketplace.

You probably know what makes your business special. After all, you are the author of your own story. But to communicate that exceptional quality in exceptional and meaningful ways, businesses often need to rely on professionals — like the marketing and branding experts at Lytron Web Design.

Giving that Extra Push

In digital marketing, most of the time people visiting your website landed there because they already were actively looking for products or services like the ones offered by your business. So by getting them to click on your web pages, you’ve already completed three-quarters of the task. All they need is a little “extra push” to commit to your Call to Action (CTA) — whether that’s buying something, giving you their contact information, or whatever other action you page visitors to take.

Lytron Web Design can help by highlighting and featuring your business’s unique selling point, whatever it is that sets you apart from direct competitors in your market. Plus, we can do that in ways that reach people on an emotional level, whether it’s through the written word, images, website design, or all of the above.

Lytron Web Design

Nobody knows better than you why people should choose your business. Lytron design knows how to use that selling point to connect with online customers who already want what you are offering but simply need that extra push.

Together, we can achieve great things for your business. Contact our web design experts today to get started collaborating on websites, branding, and other strategies that showcase your business’s unique qualities and put you at the top of your market.

Pick a Color Scheme and Stick with It

archetypes site 1

archetypes site 1

There are a lot of things that go into making a successful website, including unique design, well-written content, and engaging images. But one of the most important is also one of the most basic: The main color scheme.

Choosing the right colors for your website depends on a lot of different factor such as emotional response, previous branding, and the image you are trying to project with your business web pages. So picking a color scheme is a big decision. But once you do, it’s critically important that you keep mostly the same colors throughout all of your web pages and even real-world marketing materials.

Colors and Branding

Your unique color scheme is as much a part of your business branding as your logo, your catchphrase, or even your corporate mascot if you have one. People will become accustomed to your color scheme and even comfortable with it. Over time, when they see your specific colors, they will instantly think of your business — either consciously or subconsciously.

That’s why it’s so important to be consistent with the use of your colors once you choose them. When people see the same colors on your website as they do on your packaging, print advertising, and even on your broadcast commercials, it continually reinforces your brand in their minds, building permanent familiarity with your brand.

Colors Matter

So, picking the colors that best represent your branding message is very important. At Lytron Web Design, our experienced web builders can recommend colors that best reflect the messaging you are striving to communicate with your customers or clients.

We have helped dozens of businesses create memorable, inviting, and successful brands by choosing the best colors, using them consistently throughout their branding, and genuinely engaging people with a positive projected message that promotes their products or services.

 

Your ‘Call to Action’ Needs to Be Clear and Obvious

AMMI 1

AMMI 1

Business websites don’t exist in a vacuum. They serve a specific purpose. That purpose needs to be immediately obvious and evident to people who click on your website.

Known as the “Call to Action” — or “CTA” for short — it’s the entire reason your business’s website exists. It’s what you want people to do when they arrive there, whether its to buy your products or services, gain knowledge about your brand and business, or simply sign up to receive further marketing messages in the future.

What Companies Want

Not all websites are simply online catalogs where people can click to buy particular products or sign up for specific services. In many instances, business websites are simply promoting a brand, educating the consumer on the company’s values, or setting the stage for a long-term relationship with page visitors.

Yet whatever the purpose of your particular website, its content needs to clearly steer visitors to the particular action you want them to take. In many instances, this is to enter their email address and/or phone number. Data capture like this offers an opportunity for your business to continue to market to that particular customer long into the future. And it likely will be effective because that person not only landed on your website while looking online for something specific but gladly handed over their contact information, in effect inviting you to continue to market your branding, products or service to them.

Clear and Obvious

Through content, images, and even website architecture, skilled web designers can make your web page’s CTA clear and obvious so that even the most casual visitor will be gently nudged toward the action you want them to take.

In today’s digitally dominant environment, businesses spend a lot of time, money, and effort on their websites. Shouldn’t they serve exactly the purpose you want them to serve?

‘Embracing an Era’ Offers Helpful Branding Strategy

One of the most popular branding strategies today is known as “embracing an era”. This is when companies try to associate their products or services with a particular point in time.

What era you embrace depends on the branding message you are trying to project. The era could be as recent as the early 2000s or as distant as the Roaring ’20s. The idea is to take your prospective customers back to a simpler time that is associated with happier memories and events, offering a temporary escape for people through the products or services your business offers.

Top to Bottom Branding

When you choose to embrace a particular era, nearly every aspect of your business can reinforce this decision, from advertising to decor, even to the fonts you use on your signage or marketing materials. For example, an ice cream store may choose to commemorate the Victorian Era with employees wearing costumes from that era.

Or a business seeking to link its branding with the 1970s might use thick and curvy fonts and neon colors in its signage and advertising. Larger companies might license music from a particular era or use celebrities famous during a particular decade to be their spokespersons.

Nostalgic and Fun

Associating a particular era with your business injects a bit of nostalgia into your branding while making it fun for people to interact with your products or services. By including references to a particular era in your branding, you can create instant connections with people that serve as a sort of shorthand for your specific message — whether it’s the buttoned-down “Mad Men” era of the early 1960s or the patriotic preppiness of the 1980s.

With today’s world becoming increasing complicated, associating your branding with a past era lets customers escape into a time that was simpler and more familiar.

Social Media Is Addictive … and That’s Good for Your Business!

lytron fort lauderdale strategic agency 2

lytron fort lauderdale strategic agency

You may have noticed in recent years that you are spending more and more time on your smartphone. And it’s not texting with loved ones or checking the latest sports scores.

Social media platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, and especially TikTok have become more addictive. And that’s not an accident. The people that own these big platforms spend a lot of time and energy working to make them practically impossible to put down. And their success can be good for your business.

Advertising Platforms

One apps like TikTok and Instagram, people can scroll through hundreds of short videos every hour without ever putting down their smartphones. That’s because these videos are digitally engineered to provide exactly the type of content that most appeals to that specific viewer.

The algorithms that run these sites keep track of what content you like, which videos you spend the most time watching, and which ones you share with other people. This information is then collated, analyzed, and used to keep reinforcing your feed with more and more content that it “knows” you are going to enjoy. As a result, once you start, it’s practically impossible to stop watching.

While that may be bad for your eyeballs — not to mention your productivity — it actually can be great for your business. That’s because these platforms essentially are free for users but come stocked with lots and lots of advertising. And these ads are pinpoint-focused the same way the content is.

Your Ad Here

So when you focus your digital marketing budget on streaming apps like TikTok and Instagram, you can get more for your money because your ads will only go to people who already are predisposed to want the kind of products and services your business offers.

Social media is changing the way businesses reach customers. By getting onboard now, you can grow your business while harnessing one of the greatest marketing tools every built.

To Improve Your Website, Check Out Your Competitors

Competitive research has always been an important part of business marketing. You have to know what other businesses like yours within your geographic area are doing in order to compete. And when you see a good idea on a rival’s website, it’s okay to adopt it as your own.

Not only that, but it’s also a good idea to reach out to your competitors and build relationships with them so you can learn from their experience and share your own within your common industry. Business isn’t war and your competitors aren’t your enemy. There’s plenty of business to go around and having a relationship with people who work in the same field as you is always rewarding.

Good Business

It’s a good idea to allocate at least part of your work week to competitive analysis. This includes networking with owners of competing businesses.

Start by going online and doing a simple search for businesses like yours within your community. Then visit their websites and see what they do similar to you, what they do differently, and what “works” and what doesn’t.

But competitive research isn’t all done online. When you have time, get in your car and drive over to your competitor’s physical location. Look around. Talk to their employees. Then introduce yourself to the owner. Don’t hide the fact that you own a competing business. Using subterfuge and deception will only cause hard feelings. Instead, offer your friendship and show a genuine interest in their lives. It’s possible to be both friends and competitors.

Best Practices

When you find something your competitors are doing better than you, take it and make it your own. It’s perfectly ethical to use other people’s good ideas to make your business better. Remember, the goal isn’t to reinvent the wheel. It’s simply to be better.

Competitive research is a great way to improve your understanding of your market and build your business bigger, stronger, and better.

 

Be the Face of Your Business

One of the most powerful marketing tools is the power of personality. When customers can put a face with a business, it instantly creates a loyalty bond that can result in increased trust, more familiarity, and repeat visits to your business website.

Who better to represent your business online than you? Nobody knows better about what your customers want, what solutions your business has to offer, and how you can connect the two through your products and services. So why not make you the face of your business in your online branding?

Person to Person

Some of the most successful marketing campaigns of all time were centered on a single person. Dave Matthews single-handedly put his fast food franchise, Wendy’s, in the public consciousness by personally appearing in his own restaurant chain’s commercials. Frank Perdue did essentially the same thing with his family’s chicken business.

When you put yourself out there as the face of your business, it instantly gives prospective clients somebody with whom they can make meaningful connections. People are much more likely to trust a real person than they are a logo, a mascot, or a trademark.

Lytron Strategic

Lytron Strategic can craft an online campaign that puts you front and center. Your image can be featured on your web pages, in your marketing materials, and even in your direct messaging to customers old and new.

People want to put a face with a business. When they feel as if they know you, they are much more likely to trust you and buy the products and services you are offering. By making yourself the face of your business, you can attract new customers while reinforcing trust bonds with existing ones.

Let Lytron Strategic share your story to inspire people, create genuine trust connections with customers, and take your online marketing to the next level.

Keeping Your Websites Fresh

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Websites Fresh

Websites aren’t a “one and done” proposition. To keep visitors engaged, they need to be updated, refreshed, and even redesigned every couple of years.

Website fatigue can be a real challenge for commercial websites. When people return to your business’s pages again and again, they become overly familiar with your websites. And as the old saying goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt”. To keep customers coming back again and again, it’s critical that you keep your website fresh, engaging, and interesting over multiple visits.

Refreshing Websites

Think back on your own experiences. The elements that you found exciting and inviting on your favorite websites quickly became tiresome and trite after repeated visits. The same images, colors, designs, and content quickly can become stale, unappealing, and even repellent.

Visitors to your web pages can have the same experience if you aren’t constantly refreshing, tweaking, and improving your business’s web pages. You want people to come back over and over again but you don’t want them to become bored or dismissive of your websites. The solution is to continually improve your online presence with the help of Lytron Web Design.

Lytron Web Design

At Lytron Web Design, our experienced professional web coders have the skills, tools, and knowledge to keep your web pages engaging for visitors regardless of how many times they click on your business websites. We continually monitor, update, and improve your online offering so that it is appealing and engaging to visitors old and new alike.

Don’t let an old, boring website turn customers away. To be successful in online marketing, you need to be innovative, proactive, and keenly aware of your page visitors’ expectations. With Lytron Web Design constantly updating and improving your web pages, you can instill the same delight and excitement visitors had the first time they clicked on your pages every time they visit your online business.