11 Best WordPress Design Tips For A Clean & Modern Website

Whether you like it or not, people will judge your company based on your website. In light of this, it’s important to have a clean, user-friendly webpage to attract clients. If you’re operating on WordPress, there are multiple options available to impart a modern feel to your website. 

In this piece, 11 small business leaders share the steps they took to breathe new life into their company sites.

Conduct Research

We recently just did an overhaul of our website. We started by researching large companies we look up to and see what type of content and style they’re currently using. Once we had a better understanding of current trends, our own user experience, and the ideal layout, we found a template and plug-ins that would drive conversions.

Megan Chiamos, Cannabis ERP Software 

Have Easily Identifiable Calls to Action and Negative Space for Easy Navigation

We are currently working to move our website to WordPress from a different platform because of its versatility. During the transition, we are working with a designer to ensure the best possible SEO performance with the new design. Two of the key components of our new site will be easily identifiable calls to action and negative space to help ensure easy navigation.

Pete Newstrom, Arrow Lift

Use Meaningful Images

Selecting images is a very important part of website design. For our adoption agency, the images we have chosen to select on our website are very reflective and respectful of the unplanned pregnancy our birth mothers face. Previously, our website was populated with photos of babies. Now, the hero images on our site are filled with images of the life situations birth mothers face: the initial positive pregnancy test; the discomfort of a pregnancy; wondering what the future holds; research; joy. By including these images, it is our hope that we can visually communicate to birth mothers that we understand what they are going through…and that we are here to help. 

Kenna Hamm, Texas Adoption Center

Simplify the Messaging

We have simplified and cleaned up the messaging. Ensure load times are fast and provided call to actions right at the top of the site. We also are telling people what happens to their information right up front using video so we can eliminate any fear. Finally, we are including video and virtual tours as much as possible.

Thomas Ahern, Embark Behavioral Health

Prioritize User Experience

Carefully think about the user experience and flow of information. Write enough but not too much — nobody likes to read the web. Make sure the design is clean, simple, and appealing.

DD Kullman, University of Phoenix

Keep it Fast and Efficient

I am in the process of a redesign. I was using a template that had a lot of custom css that just slowed the site down. Speed is one of the biggest ranking factors so I have switched to a lighter template with fewer plugins and a whole lot less custom CSS. Most of the fancy stuff I didn’t use anyhow. Simple, clean, easy to navigate, and fast is better than cool bells and whistles.

Eric Rutin, Rutin Marketing

Keep it Simple

Simplicity.  Easy, clean, and to the point without extra bells and whistles.  Use this style for a quick reference and then to start a real conversation about meeting your customer’s personal needs.  Every business and website has different needs.

Joe Harlan, JoeHarlan.net

Keep it Clean and Basic

My team and I are always updating our WordPress website. We keep it clean and basic. We want our customers to be able to easily flow through our website. 

Vanessa Molica, Eyelash Supplies Company

Use a Fresh Design and Real-Time Data

We have an expert and award-winning team that uses fresh design and real-time data to create brand awareness and help our services stand-out. We look at our site every day and it shows.

Cameron Robb, GPEC

Short, Choppy Copy Wins

One underrated aspect of a modern website is the copy. Short, choppy copy wins in today’s world. Say what you need to say in as few words as possible, as clearly as possible. For example, “We help ____ with ____ by ____”

Michael Norris, Youtech

Don’t Overcrowd the Pages

To adopt a clean, modern look, I do several things. One, I use a font that’s readable. I make sure that it’s big enough and that the color has high contrast against the background. Two, adding adequate space in between text and elements. If the page looks too squished, it looks outdated and messy. Three, use high-quality images to add visual interest.

Danielle Ganon, SEO Marketing Company

11 Time-Saving Marketing Tools For Small Business Owners

6 Mailchimp customers

Small businesses rely on productivity and marketing tools to get things done efficiently and effectively. In such a fast-paced, sometimes hectic environment, a wide range of tools can help calm the storm. From task management platforms to shared inbox software, automation increases organization, communication, and success.

Below, 11 thought leaders talk about their best time-saving productivity and marketing tools that they can’t live without. 

Phone Calls

We are fully aware that “speed” is a critical aspect of staffing. Every HR professional who is seeking our assistance needs a new hire ASAP. So what’s the best productivity tool to ensure a process goes smoothly? It might surprise you when I say this, but nothing beats “the phone.” The reason? Miscommunication is the number one thing that causes delays and setbacks. By picking up the phone and talking with someone, all processes can reach their full potential in terms of productivity. 

Michael Bratta, Interim HR

Planoly

We use Planoly to auto-post our Instagram posts. That saves us so much time!

Vanessa Molica, The Lash Professional

Threads

A software that centralizes all emails, business calls, and communication within an organisation. We developed Threads to bridge the gap between remote work and collaboration within our own company. We knew our staff would not embrace email sharing unless it saved time and protected their privacy. Today, Threads is used by companies to index all the data that passes through employees every day. What could be more productive than being hyper-organised across an entire company?

John Yardley, Threads

Calendly

I have a few depending on what I am doing. For email, Mailchimp is my go-to. Easy to set up and manage. I use Evernote to write out the content and ideas that I jotted down in my notebook such as what is going to be in my next newsletter. For social posting, I’ve used Planoly in the past to schedule Instagram posts which was helpful. For scheduling calls, Calendly is a godsend. Send the person your Calendly link, they find a good day/time and done. No back and forth, it’s great!

John Indiveri, Talent Acquisition Manager

Canva

I am an avid Adobe Creative Suite user but Canva has become a tool I use daily to create quick and beautiful digital advertising templates. If you are running social media campaigns, banner ads, or even creating gifs for email campaigns, Canva is an invaluable tool. Everything lives in the browser app so you can access your designs anywhere. Another added perk is it has a free version with a ton of capabilities.

Brooke Dillard, Vision Hospitality Group, Inc.

Keap

I’m in love with Keap right now. It helps me manage all of my business processes from one place (daily email, marketing emails, tasks, sales pipeline, appointments, billings).

Maisha Hagan, Beauty & the Boss, LLC

Asana

I love Asana. I am notorious for forgetting deadlines which makes Asana a godsend. I can track projects, assign tasks to myself and others, and get instantly notified when someone comments or completes a task. Plus Asana nicely nudges me if I’m getting too close to a deadline and have not added or completed any deliverables.

Hana Ruzsa Alanis, Solar-Breeze

Gain

My favorite marketing tool is Gain. Gain is a social media scheduling tool that allows you to manage all your content for all your clients in one place. Unlike other scheduling tools, Gain offers a feature that lets you duplicate one post for all social channels. This is a huge time saver when putting together monthly social media calendars for our clients.

Grecia Olachea, Markitors

Typinator

I am a huge fan of Typinator or any text expander. I am amazed at how many repetitious details that I have to type over and over. I automate all of my canned responses to a couple of keystrokes which saves me a ton of time in aggregate.

Lukas Ruebbelke, BrieBug

ReplyPro

ReplyPro is a big time-saver for me. It drops all our online reviews into one platform and notifies me in real-time so I can respond as needed.

Chryssa Rich, Primary Health Medical Group

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that helps us optimize our landing pages and blog posts for search engines. Using Yoast, we are able to select a target keyword and then optimize important on-page SEO elements like page title tags, header tags, ALT tags, and of course, content. There are many SEO plugins (and experts!) out there for WordPress, but Yoast has been a consistent, reliable tool for any small business.

Megan Hari, Swoon Group 

9 Tips for Awesome Cyber Monday Emails

Mailchimp Email Marketing Cyber Monday DID YOU KNOW that Cyber Monday was the biggest online sales day of the year in 2018? In case ya didn’t know, this is probably the busiest week of the year for us email marketers, so I thought I’d give you a few important Cyber Monday email tips here. And also – I just love this photo.
⁣
1. Send your Cyber Monday email when others AREN’T. Don’t follow the crowd. Send the day before or even the day after. Or send it today! I’m sure you’ve already seen quite a few Black Friday emails. You should also use Mailchimp’s “send time optimization” tool to determine the best send time for your particular Audience. ⁣
⁣
2. Urgency. Make sure you explain when the deal will end so people feel a sense of urgency to buy that day. ⁣
⁣
3. Don’t hesitate to send it late at night. One study I read shows 11pm had a high click rate (I know I shop online late at night…🤔)⁣
⁣
4. Keep it short and sweet. Your email should include your deal, a big image of your product, coupon code and a button to buy it. Remove any extra fluff. ⁣
⁣
5. Use GIFs or moving images in your email to keep it fun and interesting. ⁣Check out this gorgeous email from Kidly.
⁣
6. Keep subject lines short (under 30 characters) and use emojis. Think fun and light. ⁣
⁣
7. Make sure you have an Abandoned Cart email setup and ready. ⁣This is a huge opportunity to increase your sales.
⁣
8. Use all channels. Consider creating a Facebook Ad or a landing page for your Cyber Monday deal. Promote on social. This will make you way more competitive. ⁣
⁣
9. Send your email a second time! Consider sending an “EXTENDED” email after Cyber Monday saying the sale has been extended. ⁣
⁣
Happy Online Shopping Season! I’ll be over here getting our client’s emails ready and tested.
⁣
(Photo via @fashionsfromhistory on Instagram)

Why You Must Backup your Mailchimp Lists – Now.

Emily Ryan

Quick tip for you if you use any online service provider.

As you probably noticed this week, Instagram and Facebook both went down for nearly a full 24 hours. With this comes a very important reminder…

You MUST back up all of your Mailchimp contact lists (or whatever email platform you use).

I want you to make sure you have downloaded a .csv file of your EVERY list you have in Mailchimp. If your email program were to ever go down, you just don’t want to risk losing that data. These are YOUR subscribers.

In Mailchimp, you simply go to your List and then Export (and download). Just keep these .csv files somewhere safe. More instructions here.

This also goes for other services. Anywhere you can, you want to be exporting any important data. This means taking a monthly backup of your WordPress website, downloading your accounting files from your invoice program, etc. Everything should periodically be backed up.

Set a calendar reminder each month to BACK IT UP. In fact, our favorite WordPress back up plugin is called WPBackItUp. Highly recommend.

That’s it. Back it up. We now have witnessed that online apps can go down!

Contact us if you ever need quick help doing this.

Stay Relevant Newsletter | Feb 8

Here is my most recent issue of the Stay Relevant Newsletter, which you can get in you Inbox weekly, by clicking here.

Before I share some important links from this past week, one important fact I wanted to share, in regards to your email campaigns. Did you know the AVERAGE open rate across ALL industries is only 22.87%? Yes, siree! So don’t fret if 77.13% of your people aren’t opening your emails. It’s those 22.87% that matter. And they matter big time. Just wanted you to know that…

Also, I have a lot of links this week, but I promise they’re all worth reading. 

Things I loved from this past week online:
Instagram adds a “donation sticker” for Instagram Stories.

Here are the absolute best days/times to send an email campaign. 

Facebook is planning to merge their Messenger with WhatsAppand Instagram messenger. 

The Chief of Stores for Apple is leaving the company after 5 years.

If you’re a mom and on Instagram, you’ll probably agree with this.

This app turns complete strangers into Instagram boyfriends. 

Do you use GSuite for your business email? Pricing going up slightly on April 2nd.

Here’s a great update on the latest news on all things Google. 

Here’s my go-to link for adding/downloading social media icons to put in your email signature.

Feel Good Link: I believe in only following accounts that bring you joy or useful information. Here are 20 of the funniest Instagram accounts if you’re feeling down. 

Why the name “Westfield Creative”?

In 2016, I had just relocated from NYC to Lake Tahoe and was trying to find a way to work from home, so that I could be around my then 6-month-old little boy. I have never been an office person and never will be. I had to find a way. In early 2016, after a call with my friend, Val Geisler (now an email marketing guru/expert), I started my virtual assistant business, “Emily Ryan Works,” which was helping entrepreneurs and small business owners with really anything they needed. From WordPress website help, to Mailchimp email newsletters, to graphics, to social media and much more.  They thought of something, we did it. It was really my dream at the time…just to be working from home.

 

Elizabeth Bogh and Emily RyanThen, this little business grew very quickly. And maybe too quickly. I kept taking on more and more clients and in 2017, my sister, Elizabeth, came on to help me manage it all. We grew to a full-time digital marketing agency, specializing in Mailchimp, social media and WordPress. As our business grew, we desperately wanted a new name. I hated the name “Emily Ryan Works.” It was a name that I quickly chose because www.emilyryan.com was NOT available on that day in 2016 and this was the only domain name I could find. And over time, as my sister took on 50% of our workload, I hated standing behind just my name. She never minded and actually preferred it that way (she always says that I should be the “face” of the business, but it feel right). So we began the search for a new biz name.

 

And it took FOREVER to come up with something that made sense for our business, for both of us and where the domain was actually available (harder than you think!). I think we went through 100 names. It had to be special for us. It had to be cool.

 

And then one day, we landed on a name that made so much sense to us both — Westfield Creative. Westfield (Road) being the street that we grew up on together in Charlotte, NC.  Liz and I lived at 3000 Westfield Road for 18 years (14 of those together) and it was truly a magical home to grow up in.

 

We grew up in an old, big blue house, covered in ivy. We could both tell you every corner of that house. We had a pool and a trampoline and our yard was a giant playground of awesomeness. We also had computers in several rooms of our house (which in the 80’s was pretty techie). Elizabeth actually went to a magnet school for science and technology (she was the real techie in our family) and I went to a performing arts school (I was the crazy, artsy theatre kid).

 

Westfield was our home and now with our new business name, it can be forever.