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Technology

5 Quick Ways To Improve Your Website For Your Customers

/ Insights      / 5 Quick Ways To Improve Your Website For Your Customers

5 Quick Ways To Improve Your Website For Your Customers

The easier your site is to use and find the information your customers need, the more likely you are to convert visitors into clients or customers.

A business website is a place where clients and customers can find and interact with your business.

So when we analyse a site for a business one of the main things we look at is if the existing site is easy for customers to use or whether it needs to be improved.

We have put together five things to check that can make it easier for your customers

Simple and Clear Navigation Menus

The menu at the top of the page is the first place your customers will go to try and find what they need from your site.

Poor design may lead customers to leave before they find what they need.

A simple and easy to use menu structure is a quick way to guide your users around your website.

Provide Contact Information and Opening Hours

Having as much information about your company and where you can be found builds trust and makes it easier for customers to get in contact.

Put Contact Information On Every Page

If you have a physical office or retail presence, then some of your customers may be looking for you online to find out when you are open and where to find you.

Putting this information on every page makes it easier for them to get in contact which will have a positive impact on your business.

Check Your Page Load Speed

A website that loads slowly discourages visitors from spending time on your site, keep potential customers happy by making sure your website loads as quickly as possible.

Check Your e-Commerce Works

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to buy something and the system is not working properly. Regularly check your process is working properly and is as pain-free as possible to maximise the conversions from the basket to sales.

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Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Development Productivity

Collaboration To Support Digital Agency Growth

/ Insights      / Collaboration To Support Digital Agency Growth

Collaboration To Support Digital Agency Growth

Since the creation of Aspiring Panda we have repeatedly used collaborations with other professionals to grow our business.

Although we are based in Harrow, we have offices and clients across the world ranging from education projects, app developments to complex web development.

We have used collaboration to work on projects ranging from education projects, app developments to complex web development.

Some of these we have been the lead contractor, others working as part of a large multi-disciplined team working on large scale projects with a long term delivery and impact timeline.

We would not have been able to be involved in the project without a positive and mutually beneficial collaborative relationship with the client and other providers.

 

Value Of Collaboration

Collaboration allows small agencies or those that are growing rapidly to increase their capacity, skill sets and product offering without the risks inherent in adding to the headcount.

Accenture summarised the need for collaboration in this white paper

“Companies need their critical workforces to perform smarter, faster and more productively. Achieving that goal requires embedding collaborative technologies deep into processes and incentivizing collaborative behaviors—ultimately transforming the way organizations turn knowledge into action.“

Collaboration involves working with businesses that may work in the same or similar sectors and requires a level of knowledge and trust in each other. Getting over the hesitancy of working with potential competitors is a cultural shift that creates more opportunities than problems it can create.

Since we started Aspiring Panda we have successfully developed a wide range of programming, app development and design skills. We are now looking to build collaborations to support the growth and expand the skillsets available to design agencies and boutiques.

 

If you would like to know more about collaborating with us on a project give us a call or drop an email to the team.

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Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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web Webdesign

Three Questions To Decide If You Need A New Website

/ Insights      / Three Questions To Decide If You Need A New Website

Three Questions To Decide If You Need A New Website

If you ask a web designer if your website needs to be redesigned, then without looking at your existing site they may be inclined to say yes.

This is because every web designer will feel they can improve your site and the speed of change within the industry means that most sites are behind the current trends soon after they are released.

The reality though is that for the overwhelming majority of the UK’s 5m businesses it would be impossible and impractical to redesign in line with design trends.

So rather than looking at the trends we ask businesses to balance the needs of their customers with the functional capabilities of their website. This can be split into three questions:

Is Your Business Mobile Friendly?

If your website is more than a couple of years old, then it may not be designed with people who use the internet from a smartphone or tablet in mind. The likelihood is that with more than half of all traffic coming from mobile devices this will include your customers.

Sites that are not mobile friendly appear too large or too small on a smartphone or tablet and can be difficult to navigate.

Google have recognised this and now do not show websites on their search engines when a user searches from a smartphone or tablet, which could see your website become invisible to half the internet.

If your website is not mobile-friendly (test it here) then it is time to get a new website to ensure that your customers can find your site and navigate it efficiently.

Is Your Website Easy To Navigate?

Modern consumers are incredibly impatient, if your website is difficult to use or they find it hard to find what they want, then they will simply give up and go elsewhere.

Therefore, if your website is confusing or hard to navigate then you need to seriously consider redesigning your existing site or building a new one.

Does The Design Reflect The Message I Want To Send Customers?

Branding is used to describe any part of your business that allows a customer to make a judgement about your company. If your website is tacky, lacks detail or has obviously not been attended to in years then your potential customers will make decisions based on that.

So if you look at your website, and you do not think it reflects the values of your customers it may be time to redesign your website.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Technology

Why Your Website Is Just The Start Of Your Digital Marketing

/ Insights      / Why Your Website Is Just The Start Of Your Digital Marketing

Why Your Website Is Just The Start Of Your Digital Marketing

A website is often the first step that business owners will take to start promoting their business.

However, whether you are doing everything yourself or working with a digital agency the building of your website is just the first step to building an effective digital marketing presence.

Why You Just Cannot Build A Website & Stop

Once you have built your business website that appeals to your target audience and has clear calls to action it can be tempting to put thoughts about your website to one side and concentrate on other aspects of your business.

However, while a well-built website may attract some traffic it will not reach it’s potential unless you are using other methods to generate the profile, build trust and generate traffic to your company’s website.

Part of this process is creating an active website that has elements that are frequently updated as part of the overall marketing plan.

An Active Website

The concept of an active website is one that has dynamic content that is regularly updated; this could be blog posts, feeds for your social media or even live chat functionality.

Having an active website builds trust with your audience as well as well as increasing the likelihood that It will generate traffic.

Ways Of Driving Traffic To A Website

On top of the on page SEO supplemented by the active elements of the website such as a blog, there are some different ways of driving traffic to your website. Some of these are free such as organic social media traffic, whereas many require some level of marketing investment

These include:

  • Search engine advertising
  • Offline advertising
  • Email marketing
  • Organic social media
  • Social media advertising
  • Guest blogging

Which of these different methods you use to drive traffic to your website will depend on your budget and how each fits into your overall marketing strategy.

Whichever you choose it is important to implement these methods as part of a plan and do so consistently.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Technology

Fun or Useful Apps Created By Our Team

/ Insights      / Fun or Useful Apps Created By Our Team

Fun or Useful Apps Created By Our Team

At Aspiring Panda, we build enterprise apps that empower business owners to take control of their business and its day to day processes.

We have also in the past as part of our development and passion developed a range of recreational apps to help solve problems or entertain the public. Some of these help just a few people whereas others have been downloaded tens of thousands of times.

Here are just a few that we have created, if you want to see some of our development work in action then here is a small sample of those available on the IOS App Store

Snapscare

This fun app was created to entertain users around Halloween and allow users to scare their friends who are part of the selfie generation.

The app captures the fun that can be saved for posterity.

See the app – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapscare/id915328975?mt=8

Funjabi Punjabi

This app was developed as a fun way for users to learn and develop their Punjabi language skills. The app is designed to help adults and children to practice speaking and reading Punjabi actively. It can also be used by Punjabi speakers to learn English.

See the app – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/funjabi-punjabi-lite/id972621583?mt=8

Festival Calendar

Designed to bring all the major holiday’s in one place, this app helps you keep on track of festivities around the world.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/festival-calendar-lite/id990902323?mt=8

MyMedimate

MyMedimate is a simple and innovative medical app that helps to organise and manage medicine for yourself or your loved ones, giving you peace of mind.

When anyone falls ill, it can be a stressful time for all concerned. MyMedimate helps to manage and remind you which medication to administer safely and at what time.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mymedimate/id878627239?mt=8

Snapshare

SnapShare allows you to capture and share your memories with your family and friends. Keep in touch with loved ones no matter where they are in the world.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapshare-lite/id409972682?mt=8

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Technology

Why You Must Keep Your WordPress Website Up To Date

/ Insights      / Why You Must Keep Your WordPress Website Up To Date

Why You Must Keep Your WordPress Website Up To Date

One of the drawbacks to the digital revolution is that like any economic activity if not protected it can fall victim to the acts of criminals and due to the nature of the web they can be based anywhere in the world.

This makes cyber security one of the most important considerations for everyone that uses the internet, from governments, multi-national companies down to individuals taking photos and storing them on a computer or a cloud service.

A large number of business websites including those designed by Aspiring Panda are built using WordPress as the core platform.

WordPress is a fantastic platform for business owners that want to run their website; it gives them control over their business and the web developers they hire to integrate a range of functionality without needing to create bespoke code for every eventuality.

However, like all businesses on the web it can be a target for hackers after your information and the information of your customers. Therefore, you need to take steps or speak with whoever manages your website to ensure that it is kept up to date with WordPress and WordPress plugin updates.

This is because when hackers find a weakness in the software, this is identified and fixed centrally by WordPress and it’s community. All that you need to do is then install the update.

Businesses that do not keep up to date may find themselves more susceptible to having their website hacked, which could leave it unusable for a considerable amount of time and harm your relationships with your customers.

Installing updates is usually a simple job, a question of logging into your WordPress account and hitting the update button on the WordPress application and then any plugins that the developer has used as part of the site.

It can even be set that these will be done automatically, which may be ideal, however, speak to your web designer before doing this as updates can affect plugins differently which may influence the functionality of your website if done automatically.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Technology

Why Business Websites Need Professional Design & Implementation

/ Insights      / Why Business Websites Need Professional Design & Implementation

Why Business Websites Need Professional Design & Implementation

Like many skill sets, if you have the time, energy and money to gain the expertise you can build your business website yourself. Even if you hire someone, low start-up costs for freelancers, access to a global pool of talent and the growth in demand for websites has created an industry in which cost and quality vary wildly.

Fuelled by high-profile advertising campaigns, there is a misconception that building a business website is simple and that anyone can do it for pennies.

At Aspiring Panda, we are approached by companies that have tried to build their website themselves or not invested making one with a company that understands what they need.

Websites are more than an extension of a business flyer or brochure: they are the portal between businesses and their customers 24 hours a day. They can be integrated to facilitate a diverse range of different business functions, from e-commerce to booking systems.

Getting your website found and then converting customers is more than a website; it is now dependent upon the culmination of a range of different marketing disciplines, including web design, SEO, social media, and blogging.

Web design is a complex skill that involves defining and implementing the technical requirements of a website and design and designing it to get a reaction and action from a potential customer.

Website builders and freelancers may charge pennies, but that is reflected in the product. They deliver a product, but not an online marketing solution that attracts and converts customers.

Web design is an ever evolving art form that requires technical knowledge and design skill.

At Aspiring Panda, we have built our knowledge on how to master this art form over years of building websites and app solutions that work for our clients. If you are unsure that your website is working for you, then give us a call.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Technology

Is Your Website Too Slow To Attract Customers?

/ Insights      / Is Your Website Too Slow To Attract Customers?

Is Your Website Too Slow To Attract Customers?

You may monitor whether your website is available on the web or unavailable (down) but few businesses follow the speed of access to their site.

The average internet user is impatient and easily distracted. If you manage to cut through the noise and get a member of your target audience to visit your website, then it is vital that your site is set up to hold their attention as long as it takes for them to make a buying decision.

A barrier to this can be the time it takes for your website to load.

40% of users abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load, meaning that if yours takes more than a second or so you are losing access to a potential customer.

Some typical constraints we come across that may have a negative effect on the speed to which you can access the internet are

  • An unsuitable hosting solution
  • Over-elaborate design or functionality
  • Bloated WordPress theme templates with functionality, not in use
  • Unused software plugins

If you are unsure of whether your site is fast or slow to load then, you can check this out at https://tools.pingdom.com/

If your site comes back and the response time is over 5 seconds, then it may be worth speaking to your web designer about ways to improve the load times.

If you are still unsure if this is a concern for your business, then consider the following statistics from Kiss Metrics

  • 73% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that was too slow to load. »tweet«
  • 51% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that crashed, froze, or received an error. »tweet«
  • 38% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that wasn’t available. »tweet«
  • 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. »tweet«
  • 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.»tweet«

•   A 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. »tweet«

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Technology

Does Your Business Need An App?

/ Insights      / Does Your Business Need An App?

Does Your Business Need An App?

At Aspiring Panda we network with businesses locally and one of the first questions we get asked when we tell local business owners what we do is “does my business need an app?”

In our experience the answer is yes, however this is a difficult question to answer on the spot as without knowing more details about the company, it’s customers and it’s processes it is impossible to give accurate guidance on the value of an app.

Businesses can use apps in a number of different ways from a sales tool to an internal process tool that helps improve efficiency.

Understanding Your Business

So before answering this question we turn detective and ask questions about the business to find out what challenges it faces and how interactive software packaged within an app can be applied.

Questions will focus around the demographics and behaviours of customers including how they find the product or service the business provides and whether purchases are one off or repeat.

If customers buy or book regularly it could be that an app could increase loyalty or make it easier for regular customers to book at their convenience.

If you have a project based business or one operating business to business it may be that an app can help automate or manage processes. This could be by improving the tracking of projects, to apps that allow information to be recorded and stored centrally.

Finding the Right Fit For Your Business

Understanding the role that technology can play in your business and how it can increase sales and/or reduce costs and make processes more efficient is vital to deciding whether an app is right for your business.

If you are unsure of how to integrate technology within your business, or whether an app would be right for you, give the Aspiring Panda team a call.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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Technology

The Challenge Of Digital Transformation For Small Businesses

/ Insights      / The Challenge Of Digital Transformation For Small Businesses

The Challenge Of Digital Transformation For Small Businesses

When working with smaller or local businesses, we find that business owners are overwhelmed with the digital decisions they need to make to keep their business competitive.

For a small business the internet and other digital technologies hold opportunities, but also threats and challenges to their business model.

Digital Transformation

This is caused by the digital transformation that the UK has undergone over the last 15 years that continues to rapidly change the way that customers view the world and how they find and buy products and services.

Children growing up today are entering the world as “digital natives” and run significant portions of their lives online, that previous generations including their parents did not.

Adapting To Changes In Behaviour

These changes in behaviour are redefining the business communities we live in and businesses are under pressure to adapt to the changing needs of consumers or risk becoming irrelevant.

Changes that include offering, click and collect, pre-ordering and different ways to buy and pay for products/services.

Business owners face the challenge of determining the best way to invest digital resources to get maximum return on investment for their business.

In a fast evolving marketplace this can be difficult, especially as there are hundreds of different ways a business can define itself digitally, from their website to apps and social media.

Therefore, we find when working with businesses locally our biggest value is helping them understand how they can use digital tools such as their website, apps and social media within their business effectively.

This can be using a website to get more customers, an app to encourage customer loyalty or improve business processes to social media to manage reputation and communicate with the business community.

The business environment is transforming rapidly and at Aspiring Panda we relish the opportunity to help our customers find their way in the digital age.

anu_panesar

Anoop Panesar

Business Development Manager

Digital marketing and tech specialist Anoop is a well-known figure in the Harrow and North London community. Currently the Operations Director for Aspiring Panda, the company uses cloud and development expertise to solve some of the toughest business challenges – which has recently included consulting with East African nations to provide sustainable farming.

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