Tips for Being Seen as a Small Business

Leave a Comment / Blog / By Team Procept

I get it, we live in south Louisiana. But camouflage is only cool if you’re sitting in a deer stand or duck blind. But, if you’re a small business owner you definitely don’t want your business to be blending in!

One of the best things you can do for your company is to be visible!

People need to know you exist and a great way to get yourself out there is by having a website and a presence on social media. Think about it, the first place people go to look up a business is Google. From there if they can’t find your website or at the very least a Facebook or Instagram page to check out your work, they’re probably going to move on to your competitors.

So you’re thinking to yourself, I have a Facebook page. That’s great! How often are you posting? What’s the content like; is it of value to your customers?

Regularly posting interesting and useful content is going to draw potential customers in.

And while you’re at it, make sure you have your contact information on all of your business pages, such as an email address or phone number. You want people to be able to easily get in touch with you for more information about what you can provide them.

What about a website? Do you have one? How long has it been since you’ve updated it?

You want your website to be a reflection of who you are and what you do.

But that’s not all, it’s important to ensure your website is intuitive, well-branded and useful for your potential customers. Especially in this day and age. Because having a great website can be the difference between making the sale or not.

Finally, make sure you have updated content on all platforms that is of value to your customers and potential customers. Let them know what services you offer, how they can contact you, any benefits that come from working with you, etc.

Don’t worry so much about needing to have the best of the best. For now, just worry about getting started. All you need is some good content, an eye-catching website, and an active social media presence. If you follow these tips your small business will be seen in no time!

How to Optimize Your Website’s Performance

Leave a Comment / Blog, Graphic Design / By Team Procept

Having a website that delivers a smooth user experience is crucial to seeing conversions happen. However, it’s easy for your site to get bogged down by clutter and unnecessary content. Here’s how to optimize your website’s performance. Specifically, how you can effectively manage how much disk space your website is using.

Disk space is the amount of physical storage space available on a server to store all of the files and content that make up a website. When disk space usage is excessive, it can cause a website to run much slower, resulting in a poor user experience, or in some cases, the website may not even be accessible. When hosting multiple websites on the same server, it is important to ensure that disk space is properly allocated and used efficiently to prevent any website from using too much disk space, as all of the websites hosted on the server share the same disk space. It is also important to regularly monitor disk space usage to ensure that a website does not start using too much disk space and affect the performance of the other websites hosted on the server.

You can address this issue by ensuring that only the essential files are present on the website. Carefully review the files that have been created and delete any that are not necessary for the website to be hosted and function properly. This helps you to conserve disk space, as well as make the website more efficient and streamlined. Additionally, you should make sure to regularly check for and delete any files that are no longer being used on the website.

How to Optimize Disk Space

As stated above, you should review the files of a website and ensure they are not being used by a website before deleting them. These files can be on a website for a number of reasons whether it’s old content that has been phased out over time or if a page was made from a template and still has the files from the template accessible. You can view how much disk space your website is using by looking at it.

It is important to regularly check the files on your website and delete anything that is not being utilized. This will free up the disk space that the unused files are taking up. Just because a file is not being used does not mean it is not there, as there could be content taking up space that is not necessary.

DDoS Mitigation

Leave a Comment / Blog / By Veronika Henry

Stopping DDoS attacks—or mitigating them—is a multifaceted process. We begin in prevention protocols: these include manual and automatic software updates and security patches for routers and other network hardware, firewalls, servers, PCs, or other workstations and all connected devices.

What is a CDN?

A content delivery network (CDN) distributes your content and boosts performance in part by minimizing the distance between your websites visitors and the content. CDNs store cached versions of content in multiple locations (points of presence or PoPs); each PoP may contain many caching servers that deliver content to nearby visitors. CDNs subsequently mitigate the impact of a DDoS attack by avoiding a single point of congestion, when the attacker is trying to focus on a single target.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) or Security Analytics systems provided by the Host Company are used to recognize and establish normal traffic patterns and ultimately develop rules for the filters by allowing users to study aspects like payload, signatures, origin IP addresses, cookies, HTTP headers, and Javascript footprints. Built-in analytics give you deeper insights into your traffic patterns, threats observed (and blocked) and logs can also be integrated with third-party SIEMs. CDNs can then be configured with these scrubbing filters to prevent huge amounts of fake traffic from causing more than a momentary blip.

What does Procept do to mitigate DDos Attacks?

Our unmetered, always-on DDoS protection for your web assets (HTTP/HTTPs) works in tandem with a cloud web application firewall (WAF), Bot Management, and other L3/4 security services to protect assets from cyber threats of all kinds. Connected to servers in data centers that span 200 cities across 100 countries runs the full stack of DDoS mitigation services.

In addition, our selected hosting provider furnishes a reverse proxy service that provides DDoS protection for any application (not just the web), such as FTP, SSH, VoIP, gaming, or any application running over a TCP/UDP protocol. This service comes with built-in load balancing and traffic acceleration for L4 traffic.

Our selected host provider’s enhanced server security provides BGP-based DDoS protection for network infrastructure, either in always-on or on-demand deployment modes. Data centers announce customer subnets to ingest network traffic and mitigate threats close to the source of attack. Centralized and decentralized mitigation systems work in concert to identify and mitigate most DDoS attacks in under 10 seconds (3 seconds on average). Preconfigured static rules are deployed in less than 1 second. In addition, the network capacity of 42 Tbps is well equipped to defend against the largest threat.

Our chosen DDoS mitigation solutions follow reliable, tried-and-true industry standards following the strategies of publicly traded Industry pioneers.

What is Color Theory?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Graphic Design / By Morgan Clements

What is Color Theory? It’s a collection of rules and guidelines which designers use to communicate with users by creating appealing color schemes in visual interfaces. To make sure they are choosing the best colors possible, designers will use a color wheel and other collected knowledge we know about human optical ability, psychology, and culture. The color wheel was invented in 1666 by Sir Isaac Newton. He defined color into three groups, Primary (red, blue, yellow), Secondary (mixes of primary colors), and Tertiary (Mixes of primary and secondary colors). Objects reflect light in different combinations of wavelengths and our brains pick up on those combinations and translate them into what we call color.

However, colors can look different to our eyes if they’re on a screen or printed out on paper. Screens use red, green, and blue as their primary colors and mix them to create other colors. Let’s say you have a distinct brand with a bright yellow logo. When you go to post that logo on a social media platform or maybe a website but you don’t use the correct color process, your logo will look muddy and dull compared to that bright yellow. Whenever you’re working with files that are meant to be displayed on screens, you always use RBG and not CMYK.

What about Color Schemes?

Using the color wheel, a designer can develop a color scheme for marketing materials. We break these down into complementary, analogous, and triadic.

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are two colors that are on opposite ends of a color wheel. Using Complementary colors is an excellent way to make certain images very vibrant and visible. You need to be careful not to overuse them, however. Think red and green, they offset each other well, but overusing them could cause people to think of Christmas.

Analogous Colors

Analogous colors are colors that are right next to each other on the color wheel. For example, red, orange, and yellow. In this scheme, one color will dominate, one will support, and the other will accent. In business, analogous colors are not only pleasing to the eye but can effectively instruct the consumer where and how to take action.

Triadic Colors

Triadic colors are evenly spaced around the color wheel and tend to be bright and dynamic. This scheme also creates visual contrast while at the same time harmony.

You can dive deeper into color theory with UX design (the process of defining the experience a user would go through when interacting with a digital product or website) as well. The right contrast is vital to catching users’ attention in the first place. The vibrancy you choose is very important in provoking the desired emotional responses.

For example, Blue- an industry standard for banking in the West- also has positive associations with other cultures. However, some colors can evoke contradictory feelings. Red is seen as good fortune in China, mourning in South Africa, and danger or attention in the US.

Just like fashion, color schemes can be trendy, with new schemes popping up every season. Designers should consider this by thinking: will it date the brand in a year? Meaning, will this color scheme make the brand seem out of touch and not with the times. Understanding the theory behind the color can do wonders for how you actually use them.

Captions on Please

Leave a Comment / Blog, Content Marketing / By Team Procept

Not getting as many views as you would like on your videos? We might have the solution for you.

Wondering why you aren’t getting much engagement with your businesses’ videos? Lack of subtitles might just be the reason. Using subtitles in your videos is one of the best ways to get your views and engagement up. From Facebook reels to video ads, viewers are much more likely to stay engaged with closed captions.

Viewers prefer to have the subtitles on for many different reasons. Not only are they used for those who are hard of hearing and deaf, but many people find that they better remember and comprehend the video or clip when they can read along with what they are watching. Language barriers are no longer an issue when subtitles are offered. Most platforms have many different subtitle languages to select from. That being said, they are very beneficial for those who speak a different language than the video is in. Also, if you are trying to learn a new language, using subtitles in that language is a good idea. You can listen to the audio in your own language, while having the new language to read along with and make those connections.

Many people don’t even use sound when watching videos!

Most videos on Facebook are watched without sound, so adding subtitles would boost your views from those who can’t or don’t want to listen with sound. TikTok is also another very popular platform that consists of only videos. When I am watching TikTok in a quiet area, I always have to scroll past the videos without subtitles. I have missed quite a few interesting videos doing this. Simply adding these subtitles would be such an easy way to gain views.

Boots your downloads and shares!

Just think about how many more downloads and shares you would have if you did something so simple as create subtitles for your videos. Another reason why these are so beneficial is if a downloaded video with subtitles has no sound, or the sound isn’t working, you can still understand what is being said. I hope you have learned the importance of using closed captions with videos. Remember to always include subtitles to get those views up!!

What is the Rule of Thirds?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Graphic Design / By Morgan Clements

The rule of thirds is a method used to divide images by creating an evenly spaced grid with three columns and three rows. Mainly used by designers and photographers, the rule of thirds creates guidelines to arrange the elements in their design or to position the view of the photo they’re about to take. The rule of thirds allows you to create guidelines to help you make a more engaging image.

Using photography as an example, if the main subject in the picture is directly in the middle, the image looks static and has no motion to it. Symmetry suggests stasis, rigidity, and even confrontation which is why in some pictures the figure almost seems to “stare you down”. If you position the subject closer to one of the edges, your eye moves with the picture creating more dimension. You can think of it as giving you crosshairs to target a shot’s most important elements.

Why would you use this?

By balancing your main subject with negative space you will draw the viewer’s eye. John Thomas Smith coined the term “Rule of Thirds” in 1977 with his work “Remarks on Rural Scenery.” He acknowledges the power of dividing paintings up using this grid technique to maximize the effect on the viewers’ eye. In web and app design, you can use the rule of thirds for calls to action or to highlight key elements of the website. However, it’s important to note that these sweet spots also differ in their appeal to the eye.

With this in mind, there are sections that you want to highlight more based on how much it holds a viewer’s attention. The top left corner holds 41% of the viewer’s attention, the top right holds 20%, the bottom left holds 25% and the bottom right holds 14%. What this means is that most people are going to look at the top left corner first before anything else.

How can you use the Rule of Thirds?

Here is an example of how to use the rule of thirds in graphic design. The most essential pieces of the design are laid out to hit all the intersecting points to guide the viewer to what information is most important.

As you can tell even though the information doesn’t hit the points exactly, your eye is still drawn to those areas. We have the seminar title as being the most viewed point of the design. The call to action to register now for the seminar hits the next viewpoint. The doctor’s name, the date, and the time fall onto the next section. And finally, the picture of the doctor is positioned to hit the last viewpoint. (Tip: adding faces into designs helped give it a more personal connection as people are more likely to interact with the graphic when they see a face.)

As already stated the rule of thirds is less of a “rule” that is supposed to be strictly followed, but more a general guide to creating movement and flow of all the important aspects of the design.

Can you break the Rule of Thirds?

If your intention is to break the rule of thirds, there are some ways that you can still create dimension and have symmetry in your photographs. One way is to pull back from your subject. Pulling away from the subject allows the background to really show through. It almost switches who the subject is supposed to be.

The second way of breaking the rule is to fill up the frame. (opposites) When you fill-up the frame, you’re creating that image that “stares you down”. Filling the frame is really helpful in adding a serious tone to your images. Architecture is a little different to photograph and almost always requires the images the be shot head-on. In this case, you can use the gridlines to match up with the vertical and horizontal lines in the pictures to make sure it’s completely balanced and the picture doesn’t turn out lopsided.

The rule of thirds is also one of the best tools to use to help figure out how to use an asymmetrical balance to your advantage. Having a design that is imbalanced throws off the entire layout and makes it less likely for a viewer to want to react to it. While a lot of design trends come and go, the rule of thirds is here to stay, but it’s up to you how you use this tip to create balanced designs.

Hacks Vs. Scams

Blog, Digital Advertising, SEO, Social Media / By Veronika Henry

Each day, people scour YouTube videos to gain insight on new ways to garner attention and clients for their business. Unfortunately, marketing actions that seem amazing might not be as miraculous as they appear on the surface. This article will help you distinguish between marketing scams and hacks that provide value for money spent or time invested.

Here are some marketing hacks the pros use compared with marketing scams you’ll want to stay away from.

1) Scam: Pop Up Windows

For years, entities have utilized throwing pop up windows over websites you visit. They do this so you’ll click on it or subscribe to their newsletter by accident. Pop-ups can be ads, notices, offers, or alerts that open on your computer. Some pop-ups are third-party ads that use phishing tactics—like warnings or prizes. They do this to trick you into believing they’re from a trusted company, so you’ll share personal or financial information. They might also claim to offer free downloads, software updates, or plugins, to trick you into installing unwanted software.

Luckily, web browsers like Safari & Google Chrome offer enhanced pop-up blockers to keep rogue adware activity to a minimum. This method is typically predatory at best and won’t be beneficial for conversions for the majority of businesses.

2) Hack: Opt-ins

Opt-ins are the less aggressive, more friendly cousin of pop-ups. Opt-ins appear on websites after a few seconds, either drawing your attention to something in particular. Things like a new collection, offering you a discount, or asking you to subscribe to their mailing list.

For e-commerce businesses, it’s a great idea to offer the customer something like 10% off for subscribing to their mailer. If you aren’t e-commerce, it’s ok to simply ask your viewer to subscribe to get updates & exclusive updates.

3) Scam: Buying Likes, Followers, Comments & Views

Purchasing likes is the marketing equivalent of buying a lottery ticket—your chances of winning are slim to none. If you think sensically, buying likes represent that you do not have faith in your business idea or content, and you do not think it would genuinely attract people.

Even when you do buy marketing services like this, it is unlikely that they’ll be seen by anyone in any regard. People purchasing marketing hacks like these are easily recognized and typically end up with no added value for their time or money spent.

4) Hack: Guerrilla Marketing

Guerilla marketing is an extremely popular marketing tactic used by marketers all over the world to get customers talking about their business when they can’t afford advertising space on billboards, radio, TV commercials, print media & even social media ads. The word “guerrilla,” in its written form, seems very intense. It conjures images of rebellion and conflict. Put it next to the word “marketing,” and it makes a lot of people ask, “Huh?”

But guerrilla marketing isn’t some sort of combative form of communication. In fact, it’s actually a very unconventional form of marketing in that it raises brand awareness among large audiences without interrupting them. What marketers really enjoy about guerrilla marketing is its fairly low-cost nature. The real investment here is a creative, intellectual one.

As niche as it might seem, there are actually a few sub-categories of guerrilla marketing:

Outdoor Guerrilla Marketing. Adds something to preexisting urban environments, like putting something removable onto a statue, or putting temporary artwork on sidewalks and streets.
Indoor Guerilla Marketing. Similar to outdoor guerrilla marketing, only it takes place in indoor locations like train stations, shops, and university campus buildings.
Event Ambush Guerilla Marketing. Leveraging the audience of an in-progress event — like a concert or a sporting game — to promote a product or service in a noticeable way, usually without permission from the event sponsors.
Experiential Guerilla Marketing. All of the above, but executed in a way that requires the public to interact with the brand.

(Hubspot https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/guerilla-marketing-examples)

5) Scam: Boost Posts = Advertising

Social media management is challenging; it might seem easy on the eye. But mostly, it’s all about planning content, promoting it, and analyzing critical KPIs. Every post that gets published goes into the report, and at the end of the day, you have to generate revenue from social media, or else there is no reason to continue.

For the sake of generating good ROI and showing better numbers on Facebook and Instagram reports, we have seen agencies simply boosting posts without any proper plan and trust us, when you enable boosting on multiple posts with no particular goal in mind, you are losing money.

You must realize that a quick boost in reach does not necessarily translate into more revenues and better ROI, especially even more so in the case of a retail or e-commerce business.

Furthermore, boosting every post is not even recommended. You must know that most of the additional users who might see your post may not be your target audience, and hence they are unlikely to respond to your content.

When you “boost” your posts, you are not advertising, you are simply throwing flyers from a helicopter, and most of them end up on the road (or) in the trash!

In reality, boosting social posts does help a brand but boosting every other post on Facebook (or) Instagram doesn’t make sense. (Mad Tomatoes)

6) Hack: Email Lists

An email list is simply a list of emails that businesses have gathered from visitors/customers that would like to receive information, updates, discounts, and other details about your business in a digital format that is sent to their email inbox.

The numbers for email marketing look good: you are 6x more likely to get higher click-thru rates on an email than on a tweet. Also, email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter.

(https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/importance-building-email-list/)

Email marketing helps you not only to build a relationship with your customers, but gives you a proven way to nurture leads and convert them into long lasting customers. No matter what type of business you operate, an email list is the most important element of a successful marketing strategy.

7)Scam: following or inboxing random people on social media

Have you ever maxed out the daily follow button on a social platform? I won’t do it ever again on any platform, this may be one of the most toxic tactics out there.

While following a max number of people a day has the potential to boost your follower count in terms of numbers, it usually reduces your reach in the long run. Most followers notice when something is not right on your profile, and it also triggers a massive red flag with the platforms.

Social platforms are designed to bury content with a low-follower-to-engagement ratio. Facebook is known for such practice. I assume most social media and writing platforms follow in the same footsteps. Think about it. Nobody wants boring content.

What you should do instead of following everyone in your geographical area is find 10 individuals within your target demographics and leave a thoughtful comment under one of their posts.

8) Hack: Review marketing

Happy customers are one of the most effective marketing tools you can get. Their feedback doesn’t just help you adjust your sales or customer service strategy. It can also strengthen brand loyalty, convert more prospects, and power up your SEO efforts. Reviews can be used to raise your business’s value, foster trust in your potential customer, & increase your brand’s authority.

Data shows that 89% of consumers don’t take action until they read reviews. Working to best present reviews to your target audience can help you achieve noticeable results without a high marketing cost.

9) Scam: Cheap Websites

These days, every business needs a website. If you don’t have a website, that should be one of your top priorities to gain traction with your business. However, don’t trust low website-building prices.

A website is an investment, especially if you want a custom made one. If someone offers to create a website for you and the price is unbelievable, you’ll get what you pay for. The website will likely be poorly designed and may even be a duplicate of another website. If that’s the case, you may get blacklisted by Google for unoriginal content.

Another option is available through large media companies who offer free or low-cost websites in exchange for other contracted services. The problem with that is that when you decide to stop working with that company, you can’t take your website with you and will end up responsible for forking out the cash when you didn’t plan to

Using marketing hacks can have a big impact on marketing campaigns, but it also has the potential to hurt relationships with consumers if done incorrectly.

Why Shouldn’t You Market to Everyone

Blog, Content Marketing / By Team Procept

Why shouldn’t you market to everyone? Well, there’s a few reasons. You could just bombard everyone with ads and hope that they’ll become customers. However, is that the best way to do it?

Let’s break it down

Let’s say you sell purses. Now if you market to everyone, on average you’re likely to hit about a 50/50 split of men and women. Now let’s take the majority of men out of the equation. Usually, they aren’t interested in purses unless it’s for a gift.

So that’s already a significant portion of your audience that is out the window. It’s not just your audience that’s gone, it’s also your money and effort. And then if you look at women, that’s going to be another major chunk gone as a lot of women who use purses already, have purses they are satisfied with. So with the shotgun blast approach, you’re spending tons of money and time to hit just a fraction of your audience.

Wouldn’t it be better to spend that money and time marketing to 100% of an audience that are likely to purchase your products? Yes, yes it would be.

There’s a better way than marketing to everyone.

Getting new customers is important, make no mistake. And yeah, you’ll likely get new customers from the spread approach to your marketing. However, the numbers for the cost to profit just don’t add up.

Instead what you want to do is to market to your current customers with deals and specials, and then tactically market to non-customers that are more likely to become customers.

The tactical part is where marketing experts and consultants usually have to come in to help, but it’s very doable, and typically costs less than marketing to everyone under the sun.

What is Social Proof?

Blog, Content Marketing, Social Media / By Team Procept

Did you ever play Follow the Leader or Simon Says as an adolescent? Can you recall saying the phrase “All the cool kids are doing it” as a teenager. Ever avoided visiting a restaurant or watching a movie because of bad reviews? If so, then you my friend, have been under the influence of Social Proof.

Social proof isn’t all that unlike those childhood games.

People with authority and influence often call the shots and those of us who are unfamiliar, often follow along happily, and without second thought. But it’s also more than just who is speaking up. Social Proof is a numbers game. For example, when shopping on Amazon are you more likely to purchase the product with one hundred reviews or six thousand reviews? Probably the product with more reviews. So why am I telling you all of this? Because it can improve your business! We can use this insight to influence your audience to gain their trust. That trust is key if you are trying to convert followers into customers. But how do you go about actually applying this information? Well, here are a few suggestions to increase your online authority and leverage social proof.

Let Others Speak on Your Behalf:

-Encourage Customers to share Photos and Testimonials -Spotlight and Reward Customers who do Give Reviews -Share Reviews on 3rd party sites like Yelp and Google -Begin a Customer Referral Program -Work with micro-influencers to endorse your brand

Proudly Display Your Best Numbers:

-How many followers do you have on Social Media? -How many customers have bought your product or used your service? -Have you saved your clients money, if so how much?

Take Advantage of Visuals:

-Showcase before and after photos -Share videos of your product/service in action

Brag on Yourself:

-Have you won any awards for your work? -Has your business been featured locally? -Showcase any certifications you may have. We hope this encourages you to jump on the bandwagon as well. If you’re serious about increasing conversions and driving traffic you may want to consider implementing some of the above mentioned suggestions. After all, leveraging Social Proof is fairly simple, affordable and can have huge payoffs for your business.

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