Blog

Posted By Olivia Justice
July 24, 2019 Category: Content

Forget the sales pitch, people want content. Eighty-four percent of consumers expect content creation from brands, even from emails. Millennials distrust ads and ad blockers are the norm. This data means you need a content style guide to maximize your results. What is a Content Style Guide? If content is king, a content style guide is its chief advisor. For any and all content you publish or post as a company, this key document defines the… Voice: Rhythm and language of your brand’s personality. Tone: Adaptation of your voice to different platforms. Style: What your content looks like i.e. formatting, grammar, etc. It clearly explains what your brand is and how to best express it through copy. It offers both an overview and detailed direction to writers, video producers, and all other content creators. The foundation of quality content starts with a well-researched content style guide. How Does a Content Style Guide Help? Your brand consists of visuals and content — both equally important in spreading your message. A content style guide helps them work in harmony. The information laid out in a content style guide boosts your copy by giving your publications… A consistent voice across platforms and channels. Consistent spelling and grammar conventions. Focused content moving in a clear direction. A content style guide designed with your target audience in mind (as all good style guides are) keeps content focused on them. When using a copywr

Posted By Olivia Justice
December 28, 2018 Category: Year In Review

Have you heard about hybrid blogging? Hybrid blogs were created to engage our customers in what we're doing: it gives you a behind the scenes on how we make it all happen. In this video, Ted and Dan discuss the improvements we've made in 2018 that will have an impact in 2019. Watch or read the transcription below! Do you want to have a great 2019? Do you want more customers? Now is the time to start setting your marketing and sales goals, and creating a plan for success. When it comes to planning the year ahead, we want you to think about the following things:  Your budget How you spent your money last year How you're going to get noticed above the competition. Standing Out from the Competition in 2019 We're bombarded every day with so many marketing materials: images, social media postings, advertisements and videos – how do you break through the noise? Virteom has the recipe to stand out and we've got the tools and some technology to help. How does Virteom stand out from the crowd? To demonstrate how we can help you stand out ahead of the competition, let's take a look at all we’ve done in 2018 that are the biggest differentiators:  TouchConvert v2 We've upgraded our customer relationship management (CRM) sales platform, TouchConvert with new features and a whole new look. TouchConvert v2 is currently in beta. Our customers are testing, making feature suggestions and providing us wi

Posted By Olivia Justice
September 13, 2018 Category: Tips

When you start your own business, the planning phase requires you to focus on many different things at one time. One of the most important aspects of building your new business is having an effective marketing strategy and the branding of your business. Your branding is a key factor in helping your company get recognized so you can achieve success. For the branding of your business to be successful, it must carry through all of your materials. The themes need to clearly run through your website, printed materials, and social media accounts. To accomplish this continuity and have your brand be recognized, the colors, logos, fonts and other important features need to be consistent throughout everything.  Why is Branding Important to Your Website? In our technology-driven society, a business’ website is often the first exposure potential customers have to a business. It is also quite often the first place people go to learn about a company or to make purchases. So, it is crucial that the company behind the website is crystal clear. Otherwise, people will easily forget what site they are visiting.   It improves recognition of your company Branding is essential in improving recognition of your company. Your brand should give the right impression of your company. Choosing a unique logo will go a long way if it is memorable as well as powerful.   It builds trust Having consistent branding and a professional look will build your company's

Posted By Olivia Justice
August 30, 2018 Category: Tips, Marketing

When you promote your business, it is imperative to set yourself apart from the competition. Developing an effective marketing strategy is vital to the success of your business, and doing something different will help increase interest in your company and improve the likelihood of conversions.  There are many different ways that you can promote your business, and it can be difficult to know where to start.  Working with a skilled marketing partner can help you use all your outlets efficiently and direct you in different ways that will set you apart from your competition. One way to do this is with a term coined by Virteom — hybrid blogging. What is Hybrid Blogging? Blogs are essential for today’s businesses. If you think about it, majority of the pages you land on after Googling something is a blog. If you're a current Virteom customer, then you've probably heard CEO Dan Carbone talk about blogs and SEO in terms of frogs and lily pads. (You know, he gives you his whole spiel to think of your website visitors as frogs on a pond — if you have a ton of pages out there, or lily pads, and are constantly adding new ones, and your competitors are not - where is the frog most likely to land? Your website!) For blogs to be useful, they need to be kept up to date and interesting. One way to keep a blog interesting and keep readers coming back for more is by incorporating videos into them. By combining blogs and videos, yo

Posted By Olivia Justice
August 24, 2018 Category: Website Launches

This month has been a very productive month here at Virteom. We’ve had 4 websites go live! The first of the August website launches was Ingot Metallurgy Forum (IMF) (ingotmetallurgyforum.org) -- IMF is a forum for technical discussions on producing steel and alloy ingots.  IMF is headquartered here in Lorain, OH, but its reach is nationwide.   The case of the MILK-CARTON DEVELOPER IMF came to us in need of routine website maintenance. The developers they were previously working with were not as responsive as they needed. Since the organization has two events each year, they need to keep the website up-to-date with information regarding their meetings. They reached out to Virteom for assistance! Since we are a full-time web development firm, we’re able to respond to inquiries quickly, and keep their members in the loop. GIVING YOUR SITE A FRESH LOOK In taking on the maintenance of their WordPress website, we found that they would do better working within our custom-built content management system – RocketSites.  By moving them over to RocketSites, we were able to provide a fresh new look to their website. Not only did we give the site a fresh new look, we added some much-needed functionality to the organization’s members. Since the organization gives their members access to the relevant documents, presentations, and member directory – they wanted to be able to search through them. We added search functionality to each of these

Posted By Olivia Justice
July 26, 2018 Category: Content

Is content development holding your website back from launching? Did one look at the site map for your new website strike fear in your heart because of the content that was required? The good news is, help is available. A copywriter can come to your rescue. Here are some great reasons to hire someone else to write your content: You Do Not Have Time to write content As a business owner, your calendar, schedule and to-do list are likely maxed out. Adding content writing to your to-do list will only stress you out and leave you less time to get everything else done. But, content is vital to any business to engage with your target audience, increase conversions and communicate about your company effectively. You Lack Content writing Skills Expressing your thoughts with proper spelling and grammar is the foundation of writing. But, so much more goes into content creation. To publish quality content, you need to have knowledge of the following: Grammar, spelling and punctuation. Search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. Persuasive writing techniques. A variety of content lengths and formats. Search engine algorithm changes. You Are Overwhelmed A glance at your website’s site map reveals the amount of content needed to launch your site. Even the best multi-taskers grow faint from the reality. To thrive in this environment, you need the following: Content filled with the right words. Perspective to write easy-to-understand, jargon-free copy. Fresh website, bl

Posted By Olivia Justice
July 04, 2018 Category: Tips

For decades, Adobe Flash has been a cornerstone of the web, with the player plug-in doing everything from helping you watch videos to playing computer games. But Flash is on its way out as a technology. Adobe made the decision to phase out the software by the end of 2020. Some browsers are already making the transition, leaving Flash behind in favor of migration to open web technologies. Why Adobe Flash Is No Longer Working Hopefully you won’t notice much difference, as browsers try to seamlessly migrate without disrupting your user experience. However, there are some hiccups. For example, at Virteom, we have had to make alterations to some modules (or plug-ins) that we use in our content management system (CMS); they no longer work because Chrome and Firefox are no longer supporting Flash. How Are Browsers Transitioning Away From Flash? Browsers have always been the primary delivery mechanism for Flash-enabled content, but today, popular browsers are definitely migrating away from Flash. Over the last several years, Flash has declined in use. Just three years ago, the majority of Chrome users visited Flash-enabled sites daily, but today, fewer than 20 percent do. Instead, browsers are using the much faster and efficient open web technologies. These open technologies are also more secure for a safer online shopping or financial transaction experience, and they’re also better suited for both desktop and mobile applications. The Plan for Flash Tremendous in

Posted By Olivia Justice
July 04, 2018 Category: Tips

It’s no secret that blogging, or content marketing as it’s also called, is a great way to grow your business and authority. The challenge is coming up with fresh blog ideas on a consistent basis. There are a lot of great resources and tools to help you come up with blog content ideas, but you can also use the list below to start crafting great content for your business blog. Frequently Asked Questions Your blog allows you to speak directly to your customers. It iis the perfect platform to help educate your customers. Take an inventory of the questions you get asked the most from your customers. Take the top five questions and create a blog post for each of them that goes into depth on the answer. This approach not only is targeted to the needs of your customer, but it’s also a way to provide value and add credibility to your brand. It shows you listen and you care about your customer’s needs. Case Studies Find a few customers who have had great success with your product or service and interview them about their results. This type of article takes a strategic approach to marketing your business without sounding too “salesy”. People love reading success stories, especially if they are considering buying from you. Your existing happy customers are the perfect people to profile in your blog. How-to Trainings Most people are searching the web to figure out how to do something. This is a good opportunity for you create a post or two arou

Posted By Olivia Justice
June 13, 2018 Category: Website Launches

Virteom Launches Brolex Builders and Findlay Roofers! Virteom is excited to announce the launch of two new websites: Brolex Builders and Findlay Roofers. Brolex Builders is a roofing and general contracting company located in Findlay, OH. Their roofing business, Findlay Roofers, services all of Northern and Central Ohio. Virteom was brought on to help establish a better presence online for both of these companies. We begun our relationship as we encourage all, through discovery: cross analysis, persona development and site mapping. Through our discovery process we were able to put together a guided strategy to allow their website to connect better with their customers on a more personal level -- ultimately compelling them to convert.  Findlay Roofers started as a one-page scrollable website. We encouraged this buisness owner to spread his content across many pages, giving users ample opportunity to land on their website.  Visit Brolex's Live Site | Visit Findlay Roofers Live Site Why We Love These Sites These websites represent different segments of the client’s business. The owner of Brolex Builders wanted to distinguish Brolex Builders as a general contracting company, and Findlay Roofers as the roofing company. Each company should be contacted for the type of work they offer. We were able to clearly lay out what type of work each company offers on the homepages, service menus, and sub-menus. Visitors have a clear path on these services a

Posted By Olivia Justice
June 05, 2018 Category: Buyer Personas

When you're building a business, it's imperative that you know who your target audience is. In order to develop your marketing campaign and even design your website, you need to understand the people that would have interest in your product or service. This will help you better market to and interact with them. A great way to figure out this information is through identifying buyer personas. Each buyer has a persona which is based on specifics needs, emotions and demographics. These buyer types will have a personality that can direct your online market strategy to help facilitate the production of leads and conversions through your website. Why take the time to identify your company's buyer personas? Because it helps identify the objectives, problems, and questions your potential customers may have when visiting your website. Thus, providing a clear and direct path for them to take when visiting your site. It also helps you map out what their steps of engagement may look like. How will my business benefit from Persona Development? Buyer Personas Help You Come Up With a Marketing Plan When you know who your buyers are, you can come up with a marketing campaign that will get results. You will be able to effectively build marketing strategies, email marketing campaigns and nurturing campaigns since you know exactly who you're talking to. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, most website visitors only stick around for less than 59 seconds. If