Posts by Richard Gauder

AI has hit copywriting like kryptonite. For in-house marketers it’s like Clark Kent, enabling them to create far more content than ever before. According to Gartner, 63% of marketers are pioneering AI to eliminate internal and external roles. Consequently for lots of freelancers it’s more like Lex Luther, hoovering up work, leaving them feeling the pain of the new world order. One thing is certain, AI is not going to go away, so everyone involved in copywriting, whether they like it or not, has got to get with the programme. We have to harness its heroic qualities and vanquish its …

How many meetings have you been in where you hear the words: “We need to get our sales up”? If you’re involved in the digital marketing side of the business marketing, chances are you’re using various vehicles, like social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), advertising etc. to drive visitors to the website. But how much time and focus is spent on visitors once they arrive at the website? What if I told you your website may be frustrating or even preventing some visitors from buying or signing up for your product or service? Want a way to fix some basic …

Wasn’t that a historic couple of years! At CMS Web Solutions, we’ve been so impressed by our clients’ creativity and responses during this pandemic. Many didn’t change what they did, they changed how they did it. That opened new opportunities, new markets, new ways of running their organization. Big round of applause from us all here at CMS Web Solutions. Businesses don’t like surprises. We work extra hard to get ahead of issues, so our clients weren’t surprised. Most times, our clients have no idea what we do. But we thought we’d highlight five things that impact our clients. Our …

“What do you mean my website isn’t accessible because of the visual design?” the live audit client asked with irritation. I responded “Some of the colours you’re using make it difficult for people to see the information. In fact, the graph you’re using makes it impossible for 1 in 12 men who are colour blind to use.” “But we spent a lot of money on design“, the client explains, “why wasn’t the graphic designer aware of this; why didn’t the designer design for accessibility?” It’s a hard question to answer. But as of this year, many more organizations will be …

Want to know if your website is accessible or not?  One of the simplest ways to check is imagining you can’t use a mouse. Go to your website right now and try using only a keyboard to navigate. Use the tab key to move around. Go on, I’ll wait… Did you know where you were at all times? No? That means whoever built that website likely didn’t take accessibility into account. It’s a flag. It also means if you’re selling a product or service you may be excluding paying customers. And it could be even more serious. I had a …

We recently were asked to comment on web design trends for 2020. Top of our list: web accessibility. Why? Because for businesses in Ontario with 50 or more employees, an accessible website won’t be an option starting next year. Ignoring accessibility will cost companies money. Why?  Aside from the potential legal fines, businesses that ignore accessibility are cutting out 15% (at least) of their potential market.  I haven’t found a business owner yet who is happy to leave that kind of money on the table. What are the other trends? The folks at Digital Ducats Inc. summarized these web design …

What’s the point of creating valuable content for your business? It’s a simple question, but tough to answer because there are so many reasons: To generate leads, to win more business, to engage people, to raise awareness of your brand, to help your customers.  All of these are true, but there’s a step before all those goals which is far easier to focus on, and measure – and if you keep it in mind, will make content creation feel more manageable too. Better content, better conversations The point of content is to start good conversations. That’s it, in a nutshell. Business …

Over the years we’ve had many clients asking us if they should continue buying Yellow Pages advertising. My answer is the same. Look at your websites visitor data and see how many visitors are coming directly from yellowpages.ca. Use the numbers to determine if it’s good value or not. This year I received a different call, not from a client, but a prospect out in the west coast. He asked if he left Yellow Pages could we ensure that his website still be found in Google for his business name? “Of course”, I said, “you don’t need them for your …

Question: how often do you experience Microsoft, Apple or other apps sending you updates? They do it because of security patches, upgrades and improvements. So, who’s doing that for your company website?  In the last few years web designers have gravitated towards purchasing themes. These are pre-made templates often loaded with small scripts of codes called plug-ins. Buying and customizing themed websites is usually cheaper than a custom built website. Cost-sensitive businesses like the lower upfront cost. But what they don’t realize is that they come with technical debt, meaning they kick some costs to the future.     Many unsuspecting business owners don’t realize their websites need maintenance. They think it’s like …

We get it. We’re business people like you. We too look for ways of getting the most out of our marketing dollars.  Have you noticed the increasing number of marketing vehicles available to you? Offline, online, social, Pay Per Click. Confusion and doubt sets in. Then a salesperson or email arrives announcing that they have the answer. You buy their solution only to find that it wasn’t effective. So how do you ensure you don’t waste your money again and again? Coming from the world of website development, we see ways of using your website to help remove the guess …