Professional insights and the latest trends in digital marketing. These articles cover topics such as SEO, PPC, content marketing, email marketing, and more. Stay up-to-date with the latest strategies and tools to help you succeed in the digital marketing space.
These articles aim to bring the latest news and trends in the digital world to our readers. We cover a wide range of topics, from digital marketing trends, ecommerce website tips, the future of the internet, current trends, latest tech and much more. We strive to keep business owners up to date with the most relevant information and to provide the tools they need to stay on the cutting edge of the digital world.
Browse through all of articles that range in topics from SEO to design, ecommerce to the ever changing landscape of technology. We are passionate about the online economy and we strive to provide our readers with an up to date and unique perspective into the business of being online.
The short answer is yes but the longer answer is "it depends".
Looking for someone to build your website?
What does it depend on? Well, it depends on what you are trying to achieve really. Wix is a really easy to learn and intuitive website builder that has limitless possibilities. This means that you can create any kind of website on Wix but knowing how to create any kind of website is where many people get stuck. If you simply want a basic site that looks like a template with your pictures in it, then Wix is by far the easiest tool out there to get your business online. But if you want a custom site that has specific features and functionality, it may be a little more difficult for the first time Wix user. That's why Wix has created the Wix Partner programme and the Wix MarketPlace. Through the Wix MarketPlace, users can find a Wix professional to assist them in building their websites. Some partners specialise in doing the basics very well, while other partners specialise in things like adding custom code to Wix sites to unlock extra functionality.
No matter your experience level, working with a Wix partner is a great option and makes the Wix platform very competitive in comparison to Wordpress or Squarespace which have no such programme to help their struggling users.
Can you learn Wix on your own?
Absolutely, but you also don't have to because Wix has a bunch of really good training and tutorials with my favourite one being on the Codecademy Website. If you are just getting into Wix and want to learn how to code Javascript, then this is the tutorial for you. Wix also has so many independent users making awesome YOUTUBE CONTENT THAT TEACHES OTHER USERS HOW TO USE WIX. So that is really great too!
Is Wix expensive?
This is one of the questions i get asked all the time. The short answer is no. The longer answer is, it depends. It depends on what you need. If you need an e-commerce platform, Wix is way cheaper than the alternatives and has way more functionality. If all you need is a simple one pager, then you can definitely build that cheaper on other platforms. I see Wix kind of like how I see Apple because Wix is one eco-system that has many components, where as Wordpress for example is a more open source platform that has people from around the world making components. This means you end u paying per feature on Wordpress, whereas on Wix you pay one fee and get all the features. In the long run, this makes Wix the cheaper option.
Here is a "short" list of just 115 of Wix's most sought after features:
The internet changed a lot in 2021. Here is what we learned as digital agency...
Two thousand and twenty one was a crazy year. We saw the rise of new and wonderful innovations on the web alongside a myriad of concerning and downright crazy trends. From online advertising to e-commerce, web3, NFTs, the metaverse and more - everything changed in 2021.
Instagram and Facebook are dead
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of what was once Facebook, even admits this fact himself. The days of social media in a traditional Web2 sense are over. In 2021 the Facebook founder launched the new direction for his monolithic enterprise and at the heart of it, is the abandonment of the internet we have all become so comfortable with.
The future of online interactions, according to Zuckerberg and the likes, lies in the metaverse; a virtual reality world where people can truly feel as though they are present online through their avatars.
Of course, such a shift away from Facebook is still years in the making, however already in 2021 we are seeing trends that spell the beginning of the end for this online tech giant.
Research shows that Facebook advertising has become less effective, not only because of the fact that Apple has waged war on the Facebook business model, but also because people are starting to trend towards more niche platforms. Gamers have their own social media - Twitch - and the younger generation views Facebook as "an old person's platform".
With social media companies like Tik-Tok and Clubhouse leading the way in new forms of social media, the web is about to take a new form and that form is no longer in the image of old Zuckerberg.
Relevance is King
Given the downward trend of generalised social platforms and the upward rise of niche online experiences, it is vital that any content put out onto the web has an exact relevance to the audience. Understanding relevance and audience has historically been much easier, but with all the data and user information we now have it gives large corporations an upper hand in understanding their audiences and developing content that meets their exact specific needs on the platform they are active on. Knowing your audience and understanding what content they need has never been more important and the proof of this is in the major core updates to the Google Search algorithm.
Websites are getting cheaper
Every year we see the development of new tools to help businesses get a website up and running fast. As a rapid development agency we are acutely aware of the plethora of tools available to create a viable website for any client - no matter the size of the project. Using tools like Wix, Wordpress, Shopify, Webflow, Weebly, Google and more it is a mere few clicks away to get your business online.
Before you go mad in the comments, bare with me... In 2021, Adobe's flagship creation tool Photoshop acquired the internet company Canva. Canva allows users to create stunning graphics with just a few clicks and thousands of stunning templates to help fast-track the design process of just about any piece of content - be it for print, presentation, web or socials.
Photoshop will be a more powerful program and experts in photoshop will always have more design freedom that an expert in Canva, however for the average marketer, layman or designer Canva is an incredible tool.
As online tools like Canva become more mainstream it creates an imbalance in the eco system of designers with years of experience in programs like photoshop. Just like when Garage Band made it easy for the average joe to make an album in his bedroom, so too will Canva make it easy for the average Joe to consider themselves a designer. All of this has a profound impact in the industry rates for design... Only time will tell what the long term impact of Canva will be on the world of graphic design.
People are sick of MS Teams and Zoom
It's probably worth mentioning here that we are also sick of Google Meets, Slack, Monday.com and any other tool used for online collaboration and video conferencing. But, just because we are sick of it doesn't mean we won't still use it. According to most authorities video conferencing as a tool for remote work and meetings is here to stay. 2022 may see the return of workers to their office cubicles, but even in an office cubicle it is likely that at least one stakeholder in a meeting will dial in via Zoom and in all likely hood the entire meeting will take place there.
Metaverse
We briefly touched on this subject above, but it is worth mentioning here because in someways it is the answer to the above problem but in other ways it only makes it worse. If you are tired of 2d video conferences, what makes 3d virtual reality conferences any better? In our opinion and the opinions of many early adopters, the virtual reality world is still a headache - literally. If you thought screen time in front of your laptop was hard on your eyes, you're gonna hate a VR headset. Screen time aside, the biggest issue with VR is that too much time in the virtual world can cause severe nausea, headaches and other dissociative symptoms... Of course, the metaverse is not all bad - far from it. The metaverse will usher in the new era of the internet and lay the foundations for the billionaires of the next generation. We have already seen a steady increase in the number of metaverse related investments and businesses and 2022 will undoubtably continue that trend.
NFTs Web3 and Crypto
If you haven't heard of any of the above yet, don't worry. Although these are not new concepts, 2021 really brought them to the public attention. As 2022 continues we will see a heavy increase in the adoption of crypto and NFT based architecture.
An NFT (Non Fungible Token) is a digital asset that is making a huge impact on the art world. People are buying and selling NFT's at record high prices and the more people are spending, the more the world will pay attention. The future of NFT's will likely be more about assets that are usable in the metaverse or online games or even tradable assets that could be used as a means of exchange on Web3 applications and websites.
Web3 is the next buzz word you are likely to come across a lot over the coming months. Web3 is the next stage of the internet. Web3 application and sites will interact directly with Crypto wallets that store digital assets like cryptocurrency or NFTs.
Crypto, being at the centre of the next digital revolution will also make some pronounced developments over the next year as many countries race to legislate, legalise, criminalise, tax or other wise get involved with digital currency. Blockchain technology will pave the way for a new era of trading and purchasing online and the show has only just begun.
It has been just over a decade since the first BitCoin was mined and inn the coming years, we will see what the impact of decentralised finance really is. On top of the decentralised and community owned crypto currencies, 2022 will also see the real dominance of state backed crypto currencies called Stable Coins. Stable coins are backed by a physical currency and so their value is not tied to the runaway speculation that causes the BitCoin price to skyrocket and Fall (hence the name "Stable" coins).
Conclusion
2021 changed the web and the world that interacts with it. 2022 is bound to have new highs and lows. The world online is evolving and there is a heap of opportunity waiting those who have the mind to seize it.
What do you think the biggest trends in 2022 will be? We'd love to read your thoughts in the comments.
Ok so this seems like an abstract analogy (and it probably is) but the concept is rock solid. A digital eco system is the sum of all the tech that makes a service, platform, website or app work. It is more than just a tech stack, it is everything, from the facebook page to the python scripts, the slack channels and git repositories - it's everything. All the digital communications, software, security and storage that lets a project exist, is the project's digital eco system.
So why would this be relevant to business? Well in order to run your business, you are going to need to do things digitally. Whether it's just banking or capturing payments and creating invoices or tracking expenses - at some point you are going to have digital processes managing parts of (probably most of) your business.
Now that we know you need a digital eco system, we can talk about how to create one and why getting it right the first time can save huge amounts of money, headaches and time.
Growing a digital eco-system is like growing a garden. A garden should have at least a small variety of plants and each plant will have a specific need (and certain plants get along better with some plants than others) - so selecting the plants in your garden is the the most challenging yet rewarding job when first starting your planning. If all the plants live in harmony and support each other with beautifully matched husbandry, the garden will flourish. If certain plants do not fit in to the garden, it will need constant upkeep, maintenance and effort to keep it going.
Choosing the right technology to achieve your business goals is like choosing the plants. Some programs are going to work really well with certain other programs and less so with similar programs for no apparent reason... For example, a movie needs sound and video; and you can edit sound in Logic Pro and edit video in Final Cut Pro. If you use these two programs together, the process is seamless and easy. The files from Logic Pro easily go into the project file of Final Cut Pro and vice versa. However, if you were to use change that mix and use Pro Tools for the audio and Final Cut Pro for video, you would find yourself dealing with all kinds of annoying bugs when importing XML files between the two softwares.
Maybe a better example is credit card payment gateways. All businesses need to take payments. If you are a business who needs to take payments from a foreign country, you will need to make sure you have the right bank accounts and payment-gateway providers or you may not be able to accept payments from your overseas customers. So you could look at accepting payments from PayPal for your online purchases and even use PayPals banking facilities to conduct portions of your business that are dollar centric. If you were to do that, you should check which banks in your countries support payments from PayPal. The sweet mix of payment gateway and bank accounts are the digital eco-system and if the system is in harmony, your business flows smoothly.
I could give you a thousand more examples, but suffice it to say that there is "the right digital ecosystem" for you and using the right one will save you time and money.
Because there are so many possible configurations of a digital garden, I thought I'd share my digital eco system for my own company Food Mind Soul.
Here is an example using my own company's digital eco system:
Food Mind Soul is an online-only digital-content SaaS company that produces Vlogs, Blogs, Monthly Meal-Plans, Programs and a Podcast. The company is based (and registered) in South Africa but derives the majority of its clients from South Korea, Japan, America, UK and Australia. This means Food Mind Soul needs to be able to process worldwide payments and then cash them out into the South African business bank-account.
Food Mind Soul has four main objectives:
Produce content
Host and Store Content
Process Payments
Gain and retain subscribers
Each objective is accompanied by a tech stack:
Produce Content:
Blogs = Apple Pages, Fiverr, Google Sheets, Adobe Stock
Meal Plans = Apple Numbers, Fiverr, Google Sheets, Photoshop, InDesign, Adobe Stock
Vlogs = Final Cut Pro, iPhone Video, Logic Pro X, Adobe Stock
Podcasts = Logic Pro X, Apple Pages, Adobe Stock
Livestream content = Final Cut, Logic Pro, OBS
Create online = Google Chrome, Canva, Wix, enSave, FreePik
Host and Store Content
Blogs = Wix Blog App, FMS App (on Android and Apple)
Meal Plans = Wix Dynamic Pages, PDF (Adobe InDesign), Email (Wix CRM), FMS App (on Android and Apple)
Vlogs = Wix Video, YouTube, FMS App (on Android and Apple)
Podcasts = Soundcloud, Wix Music, Apple Podcasts, FMS App (on Android and Apple)
Backups & Filesharing = Google Drive, DropBox, WeTransfer
Process Payments
Patrion = YouTube subscriber proceeds
PayPal = Payments from around the world can be paid in PayPal dollars
Stripe = Credit cards from around the world can pay my Stripe Payment gateway on my website.
FNB = First National Bank in South Africa makes it easy for me to process international payments from my PayPal and Stripe accounts
Xero = Having an accounting software like Zero allows my business to track expenses versus earnings and provides analytics on my highest grossing content and marketing campaigns.
Ok, so just to host a classic (maybe slightly over the top) blog/ digital content company I make use of at least 42 independent softwares and platforms (and I left several out in the name brevity).
Now that we can see the eco system, we can start to see how the plants in this digital garden have good husbandry.
For starters you would have noticed I used Apple, not Windows. I am not here to start a debate about which softwares are better, I am simply making the case that some softwares work better with each other and every software has a specific use case where it excels over its competitors.
So I use Apple, this is mostly because of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro X. At the heart of my business is creating video and audio content. I also create a lot of graphic elements (Photoshop) and do a lot of writing (Apple Pages).
I could use a Windows based software like Ableton and Premiere or Audition and Premiere, but I don't want to do that - that's called preference. Some people think Microsoft Word is as good as Apple Pages, but I disagree. For my purposes of writing blogs - Word is overly complicated where Pages is just right. I could use Adobe Premier over Final Cut Pro, but FCP on a Mac is fast - like really fast. I continue to test FCP versus Premiere every year and FCP has never lost. The Final Cut Pro program handles video and video previews way better than Adobe Premier. So it's Final Cut Pro all the way. Final Cut Pro works with Logic Pro X and Logic and Final Cut are only available on Apple (specifically the Pro series).
So that's the basis of my garden - it runs on MacOS, which is kinda like saying I am building a shade garden and if I am to build a shade garden, I need plants that like the shade. I can't put a Sun Flower in my shade garden, no matter how much I like Sun Flowers. Just the same, I also can't run Vmix Pro on an Apple Computer no matter how much I want to, so I have to settle for OBS. Is OBS as good as Vmix Pro? No, but is the difference critical to my objective? Also no.
Is the difference between Microsoft Word and Apple Pages mission critical - no.
Is the difference between Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro mission critical - yes. Time is money and wasting time on watching a render bar in Adobe Premier is so 2007.
In my experience, Wix also works better on Google Chrome in MacOS than it does on Google Chrome on Windows 10.
So how do you start building your garden?
I started out small; one plant on a balcony type of small. I started in 2009 with Logic Pro X and a second-hand Apple iMac. That was the first digital eco-system I used to make money. I offered audio production services for Radio and TV and all I ever used was Logic Pro X, and then WeTransfer (on Google Chrome) to deliver my files. In order to use WeTransfer, I had to have an email address and so I created a free one using Gmail. Because I had a free Gmail Address, I started using Google Drive. Because I used Google Drive I started using using Google Sheets, Docs and eventually Workspace. When I started vlogging I never considered Vimeo - because YouTube was already part of the Google Eco System I was thriving in.
So my advice to you as a digital gardener, no matter how big or small your project is, start with the essential needs and find the right tool to achieve that. Once you have chosen your ideal tool to achieve the first and most pressing need, see what else you need done and if there are digital solutions that are more compatible with your existing digital garden.
Michael Marshall and Marshall Arts provide digital solutions for businesses who need non-stop awesome online content to engage with their audiences. Book a call with us to grow your digital audience today.
OK, so that was hella abstract... Kinda like this cool fantasy landscape image that I love... But it's a really crazy subject to try and concisely put into words. I could write a whole book about the technology that makes my business work, but no one wants to to read a play book for another team - we're all sitting around trying to write our own perfect playbook.
If you are struggling to decide on how to start building a digital ecosystem for your business, hit us up in the comments and let's talk about it! We'd love to hear your thoughts on what tech is right for you and your business model.
And of course, if your business is serious about developing a digital ecosystem that is optimised to your needs, you can always get in touch with Marshall Arts and our team will be happy to offer the right advice.
Are you a digital expert? We'd love to hear from you, work with you, have a coffee with you.
Marshall Arts works with remote digital experts from around the world to provide a host of digital solutions for businesses small and multi-national.
