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Why You Need a Killer Website (And Not Just a Stellar Social Media Presence)

March 22, 2021 By Heather Tabers Leave a Comment

  • Why You Need a Killer Website (And Not Just a Stellar Social Media Presence)

As an entrepreneur or non-profit, you have your hands full.  Between building relationships with clients, managing your products and services, and keeping track of the bottom line, there’s little time left to leverage the power of the ever-changing world of online marketing.

Is your audience more present on Facebook or Instagram? Do you have a large enough following on Pinterest? How do you convert “Likes” into sales or donations? These types of questions are exhausting. While social media is a crucial component of your communication strategy, we think you could be missing out on great opportunities if you’re not giving enough attention to your website.

We know, we know. We just acknowledged you have your hands full running an organization, and that social media is time consuming and fickle, so why are we suggesting you add one more thing to your plate?

Because websites are an under-appreciated goldmine and we just happen to be great at mining for gold.

Advertising Roles

We’re not knocking social media. It absolutely has a vital role in your organization as the mouthpiece of your message. Whether your message is “Save the Sea Turtles” or “Buy These Shoes”, it needs to get out there. Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are great for getting out your message, making your brand recognizable, and communicating directly with your clients and consumers. The primary duty of your social media campaign is to help you communicate clearly and efficiently with your audience.

Your website, on the other hand, should be showcasing everything your social media is bragging about. Think of your social media posts as those sign twirlers that stand on the corner, getting people’s attention,  driving customers towards a business.  You’re not going to make any money if your sign twirlers direct people to an empty store. Your website has to serve up the goods and services that your social media has been advertising and make your customers want to come back for more.

Street Cred

Frankly, owning a website is just foundational to owning a business or running a non-profit. It shows your commitment to building a trustworthy enterprise and strengthens your reputation and social integrity.

A business without a website lacks credibility. A business with a poorly constructed website lacks sustainability. If you want to earn the reputation of a competent and professional organization, invest in creating a website that will showcase your strengths, not your weaknesses. Never let what you lack overshadow what you have in abundance. A haphazard website suggests a lack of time, effort, and energy. And even if you’re out of all three, you don’t want that to be the message your customers receive.

Control Issues

One of the greatest advantages your website has to offer you is that it is all yours. The design, format, and content are completely and fully yours to do with as you wish. There are no censorship issues to deal with or fears that someday your posts will be gone. As long as you own your domain, you own the content on your webpage. You are free to customize your site to reflect your brand, values, lifestyle, products, and goals in a professional and fully controllable online atmosphere.

Social media platforms do not offer the same level of personalization and creative freedom that your website possesses, so why devote all your time and energy into a service that you only get to manage verses one you get to completely design? The sky is the limit for your website, and we want to see your organization fly high.

Let’s Talk About ROI

When it comes to social media, one of the greatest perks is the cost- it’s free, (unless you spend money on ads which many entrepreneurs and non-profits do). But as the old adage goes, sometimes you get what you pay for.

What’s beautiful about owning a killer website is the high return on investment (ROI) that it brings. A modest investment into the brick-and-mortar equivalent to your business’s online presence is invaluable. Your website provides a one-stop shop to meet all of your clients’ needs.

Show Me the Money

Finally, in addition to the many amazing tools a website offers such as video capability, blogging, customer reviews, and FAQ’s, a website also provides the greatest opportunity for your audience to spend or donate their money. While your social media accounts are busy talkin’ up your meat and potatoes, your website is checkin’ them out and baggin’ them up. The greatest marketing tools in the world are useless if they don’t inspire your audience to do something and your website is the place that magic happens.

Let Us Help You

Here at HeartWired, we understand that building an exceptional website is not in everyone’s wheelhouse. You’ve created a business or a non-profit with amazing products and services. You’re trying to make the world a better place, trying to see your dreams come true, and trying to keep your head above water. You’re working with clients and customers, vendors and voters. You’re spinning so many plates right now that they’re making you dizzy, and we just told you that you need a dynamite website if you want to survive and thrive.

It’s ok. We’ve got this.

Let our team of creatives design and build the website you and your organization deserve. We can help you tell your story, refine your brand, and teach you how to take the reigns to maintain your website.

Book a Consultation Today

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: business strategy, business website, nonprofit website, social media marketing, website design

New Year, New Team Members, New Services

January 8, 2021 By Charles Johnston Leave a Comment

new services, team members, service solutions, web agency, marketing, service offered

Since HeartWired’s inception in 2016, we have been known primarily as a web design agency. While we have offered others services and solutions all along, we did not market or promote them, until now. We have been holding this secret for a little while now. I am personally excited to announce we also are adding new team members and services.

Businesses and nonprofits each have different level of needs when creating their brand. While a website is a large portion of their identity, and we will continue to focus on that service, we recognize there is more involved. By providing more solutions, we are able to be your go to agency for all your brand needs in the New Year.

Creating a brand identity goes beyond simply a fancy logo and a pretty website.

While both are critical in our opinion. Part of developing the brand identity is to dive into the heart behind that brand. We have brought on a team member, our new ‘Graphic Wizard’, Lucy. Lucy will magically guide you through the branding process with mood boards and other tools of the trade. Guiding you in developing a logo and other assets that really amplify your brand.

About our Graphic Wizard (Graphic Designer) Lucy…

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Lucy Kates was born and raised in Jacksonville, FL, and has been a creative her entire life. She knew from a young age she wanted to be an artist, and has been aiming to be a professional doodler ever since. Lucy graduated from the University of North Florida with a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design & Digital Media in 2019. Outside of graphic design and illustration, she’s dabbled in painting, digital photography, and various other artistic mediums. She’s happy she can work in a field she’s passionate about while helping small businesses grow and actively shape the community around us.

When you have a business or nonprofit, you have a story that is at the center of it’s existence. One way of sharing the compelling story comes in the shapes of words and content. We have found that many times this content can be the most difficult part of any project for the client. While you know what and why you do what you do best, sometimes telling others is quite difficult. We can now help create professionally written content for your website. Offering other opportunities as well, such as blog posts, press releases and more. We would like to introduce Heather, our new content creator or ‘Word Slayer’.

A tad bit about our Word Slayer (Content Writer), Heather…

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Heather is the trusty Swiss-army knife in the communication toolbox, capable of using multiple skills to perform multiple tasks in a wide variety of situations. Technical writing, creative writing, editing, marketing, and event planning are a few of her strongest skills. Military families, human trafficking victims, and homeschooling are a few of her greatest passions. From raising and homeschooling five exemplary children with her wounded warrior husband to graduating Summa Cum Laude from Arizona State University (Dec 2015), she has the consistent dedication necessary to see tasks through from beginning to end. Heather’s experience working with a variety of ministries and non-profit organizations combined with her heart for serving others makes her uniquely positioned to compassionately address many issues while using her knowledge base and skill set to accelerate results.

We also will be hosting an intern for the spring semester. Safiya Dewji is Marketing major with a minor in Digital Media at University of Central Florida. She will providing Social Media and Marketing expertise for the next few months as she works alongside our team of experts.

Won’t you join us in welcoming our two newest team members and part of the HeartWired family. We look forward to continuing to provide services that matter. One way to do that is to build a team of passionate people that truly love what they do. We are looking forward to the New Year, and opportunities to serve our clients.

If you or someone you know is interested in joining our growing team, we are always looking for creatives to join us. So if you are a web designer, developer, project manager, or other creative contact us and lets chat.

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: branding, content creation, content writer, graphic design, logo design, marketing, new services, social media marketing

How to Create a 2021 Content Calendar + 10 of Our Favorite Blog Post Ideas for the New Year

December 31, 2020 By Heather Tabers Leave a Comment

Create a content calendar, content, schedule content, blog posts, content creation

A new year means new goals, new strategies, and new opportunities. It also means new content for your blog which can seem overly daunting and time-consuming at first glance. Fortunately, we have some suggestions and methods for alleviating the stress and exhaustion of coming up with daily, weekly, or monthly content.

In this post, we show you the best way to organize content for the coming year using a simple tool – the content calendar.

What is a Content Calendar?

Before we show you a simple how-to guide on creating a content calendar, we should probably start with explaining what it is and why you need one. Simply put, a content calendar is a shareable tool that your team can use to visualize how content will be shared throughout the year, offering these great benefits:

  • Time saved during the creation and publishing processes
  • A centralized location for tracking blog content, social media, newsletters, etc.
  • Full team alignment, with all team members knowing what is being published, when and where it’s being published, and what is expected of team members
  • Ability to plan around holidays, events, and other occasions

3 Ways to Save Time with a Content Calendar

Batching Content: One of the greatest benefits of creating a content calendar is the time saved by planning ahead and batching content, whenever possible. For example, a bookstore may want to create a content calendar for their store’s blog, featuring a different genre of books for each month. By creating the calendar in advance, the store ensures that romance novels will be focused around Valentine’s Day, travel books will be featured over the summer travel months, and children’s books will be highlighted just before Christmas. 

Once the calendar is laid out, the bookstore’s blogging and social media teams will be able to save time by working on batches of posts, all at once. Graphics can be created for the theme of each month and reused across social media and the store’s blog. Not only does this save time, but it looks professional, polished, and reader-friendly, allowing a consistent flow of quality content from the store.

By batching their content, the bookstore is able to ensure that their posts look well thought out and planned rather than appearing to be someone’s last minute thought. (Face it, we’ve all been there.)

Repurposing Content:  Create more with less. Perhaps the greatest time-saving tip of all when it comes to creating content would be to repurpose your content. Do you have old blog articles that you published long before you had a large following? Dig them out and re-use them! Freshen them up and give them new life on your blog.

But don’t stop there. There are other ways to repurpose your content.

Let’s use that bookstore as an example, once again. During the month of February, the bookstore may want to highlight romance novels by interviewing a famous romance author. The interview can be recorded and shared as a video on social media or as an audio file on a podcast. An article can be written about the interview and shared on their blog. A quote from the book or from the interview can be made into a graphic and shared on social media. And just like that, one interview has been repurposed in several different ways. A content calendar makes this a seamless process.

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Publishing Content: Once your content has been created in batches and repurposed appropriately, it becomes much easier to schedule the publication of your content in advance. A number of online tools exist to help users schedule both social media and blog posts to be published at certain times on specific days. This eliminates the need for sticky note reminders and cell phone alarms that urge you not to forget to make a social media post or share your blog. Imagine the amount of stress that would roll off of you if you only had to think about your blog and/or social media once a week, a month, or even a quarter!

Spontaneous posters, have no fear! A content calendar does not prohibit you from impromptu posts or spur-of-the moment blogging. In fact, it frees you up to be more responsive to the world around you. There are times when our logically flowing media campaigns need to be interrupted and important world issues need to be addressed. Having a content calendar full of pre-batched media allows you to focus on what needs to be said in the moment, without losing your other content.

How To Create a Stellar Content Calendar

  1. Choose Your Format The world wide web offers everything from templates to apps to plugins for formatting your content calendar. You can open up an Excel spreadsheet, a Google Calendar, or any number of apps such as BaseCamp, Trello, or CoSchedule. There’s no right or wrong way. Use what works for you.
  2. Define Your Needs Do you need to be posting on social media every day? Twice a day? Twice a week? 
  3. Brainstorm Get out a piece of notebook paper or work collectively on a dry erase board and start brainstorming topics you want to cover. Can they be grouped together cohesively in a logical manner? (Think about the bookstore covering a different genre each month.) Don’t get stuck here. There’s no rule that says your topics must follow a logical order. Sometimes this just helps creatives plan and organize their material.
  4. Start Scheduling Take a look at the calendar and take note of seasons, holidays, events, etc. Start broad and then narrow in. (One genre a month, a different author each week, interviews on Mondays, videos on Wednesdays, podcasts on Fridays, etc.) Then start plugging in your topics where they fit best to you. 
  5. Decide How Often to Batch Do you or your teams need to sit down and batch out your content weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Even yearly? Every business is different and no one can answer this question except you and your team.
  6. Schedule Creative Time It’s easy to schedule the topics you want to cover each month, but it takes more thought and effort to schedule each piece of the creative process. Don’t forget to schedule time to record videos, podcasts, and live social media events, as well as time to write scripts, create graphics, reserve film spaces, and any other pieces of the process that may need to be scheduled.

Your time is valuable and implementing the use of a content calendar is sure to take your marketing strategy to the next level while saving you time, effort, and energy.

To get you started, here are ten of our favorite blog ideas for the new year:

  1. Make a Top 10 List
  2. Share Why You Started Your Business
  3. Disprove a Myth About Your Niche
  4. Take a Topic Seemingly Unrelated and Compare it to Your Vocation
  5. Do a “This Day in History” on a Day Related to Your Company
  6. Ask for Questions on Social Media and Write a Blog Post Answering Them
  7. Film a “How To” Video Post
  8. Invite a Guest Blogger to Post
  9. Share a Life Hack from Your Industry
  10. Share a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Your Life or Business

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: 2021 content calendar, blog post ideas, content calendar, content creation, content management system, content writer, create content

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