Caribou Creative Blog

AO CRM Update from Q4 2022

paulgooder@gmail.com (paul gooder) — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 10:45:19 GMT

CRM Showcase from AO.com

The CRM team (including myself) at AO.com has produced over 75 emails over the quarterly period to March for a audience of over 2 million customers. With engaging campaigns like the Valentines campaign and the AEG Finance campaigns, our team provided pixel perfect XD designs to the email dev team delivering successful and revenue driving content to our growing customer base. Play the video below to see a bit more of what we've been up to.

Let's watch...

Up-skilling with Interaction Design Foundation

Sun, 08 Jan 2023 18:05:04 GMT

How the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) helped me build confidence professionally and personally after a 7-month hiatus

In November 2016, I had the opportunity to live in Singapore for 7-months. At the time, I was working as a full-time freelance web designer under my limited company which was later to become www.cariboucreative.co.uk .

Naturally, I jumped at the chance to visit Singapore again, not only because I was a little bored in my current role, but because Singapore was a place I had visited several times before and felt there was more to discover on this tiny island at the southern tip of Malaysia.

My situation was slightly different from the average tourist's because we were going to be staying with my girlfriend's family in Punggol. My son's 3rd birthday was the day after we arrived and the fact we didn't have any schooling obligations for at least another year meant that it felt like the perfect time for us to visit. We had rented out our house in the UK, secured accommodation and started to think about all the places we wanted to visit whilst we were in South East Asia: Penang, Thailand and Australia were all included in our itinerary.

Photo by Karl Solano on Unsplash

Out of work, Out of mind

Breaking away from the job market by leaving a well-paid job behind played on my mind for the weeks leading up to our departure. With the promise of remote working not coming to fruition (due to reservations with my employer at the time) making me wonder if I had made the right move.

I look back now with no regrets, because a part of me relished in the fact we had the time to discover this amazing part of the world - and no excuse but to pack in so much in in our 7 months there.

Such a long break from the creative scene meant I would have had to work harder when I got back to the UK, in order to keep my skills relevant. UX Design as a career path was what I wanted to pursue and it became my long-term goal.

Fast forward to June 2017, and I was back on UK soil. Luckily, I managed to secure my old contract in Manchester and whilst there, a colleague recommended me to an online learning platform called The Interaction Design Foundation . This platform suited me perfectly as it allowed me to learn at my own pace, without the pressures of final exams at the end of each course.

The mix of open-ended and multiple-choice questions alongside a variety of articles , exercises and video webinars was ideal as it fitted around my busy family life. Once I enrolled on each 6 to 8-week course I could study at my own pace without apprehension of imminent deadlines and revision for exams.

Now we are in 2023, I am undertaking my 6th distinction in Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide . My journey has not been quick. With a hiatus in 2020 I have to keep reminding myself that 'slow and steady wins the race' .

Photo by Amélie Mourichon on Unsplash

Paul Gooder - Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF)

I feel a lot more confident both in my personal life and in my current role as a senior CRM designer. The UX courses I've studied have allowed me to understand timeless design principles, psychology and how we all think as customers and consumers in the digital arena.

My side project www.charactertoystore.com , an online Shopify store selling plush toys and gifts, has benefited too from the courses, mostly by my favourite course so far : Psychology-of-e-Commerce - How to Sell Online .

View my Behance design portfolio here.

Interested in User Experience Design?

Join the IxDF community

Join like-minded students in a collaborative environment to gain industry recognised certification so you can forward your career.

Whether you are just starting out in the field of UX or you want to further your User Experience journey, I cannot recommend IxDF highly enough.

You will feel encouraged and nurtured as I did, within a collaborative environment with constructive feedback to open-ended questions as well as through active participation in discussion forums, which I found empowering both on a professional and personal level.

Paul Gooder - UX and Digital Designer

Available for hire

If you need a UX Designer on a freelance basis, get in touch with us and tell us about about your next project.

Local Business Schemas - What are they?

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 13:53:35 GMT

What are Google Local Business Schemas and Why Do They Matter?

What is Local Business Schema?

In a nutshell, Local Business Schema enables better SEO for businesses near to your location. These rich results go beyond the standard blue link by presenting meaningful information to the user and incorporating images, carousels and other non textual elements within the search results.

What are Rich Search Results?

When a user searches for a business on Google Search or Maps, they are presented with a panel of information about the business matching the query. With Local Business Schema (structured data) you can tell Google extra details about your business such as opening hours, reviews with the option to show image carousels, reviews and more. For example, if a user searched "restaurants in Manchester" they may see a carousel of businesses related to the search term. Users can even make a table reservation, make a payment and other actions directly within rich search results using the Maps Booking API.

How do I know if I have Rich Results Enabled?

All of the websites we design come prebuilt with Local Business Schema enabled so that they are visible to Google's rich results from the date they are published. Google has a handy tool which will tell you if your website supports rich results. If it doesn't and you wish to show with these enhanced listings, then do not hesitate to call us and we can help.

Check whether your site is structured for rich results here >

Why blogging is so important for your business

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 10:27:31 GMT

The free marketing tool you wish you’d started using sooner, plus 5 tips on how to write effective blog posts.

Having your very own blog is one of the most effective marketing tools you can utilise. And all it costs is your time. In this article we run through the basics of why starting your blog is essential in today's climate and how it can set your business on a path to success well into the future.

History of the Blog

The term ‘blogging’ was not coined until the 1990s and there were many precursors in use before it came to be. With roots in Bulletin Boards, where users could log in and send messages and read the news, the modern blog evolved from people keeping personal diaries online, often known as diarists or journalers. Proliferating in the 2000s, with the likes of Twitter gathering momentum with micro-blogging, we fast forward to a generation who want short snippets of their daily news. As of January 2020, there are over 500 million blogs out of 1.7 billion websites (with 1 blog post published every 0.5 seconds) according to Blogging.org

The Advantages of Blogging

Blogging has become a tool marketers rely on to engage with their customers and a way to increase their company profile. Despite the SEO benefit, a blog brings through keyword integration, its a sure-fire way of driving traffic to your website through ranking on Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

The Formaula to Effective Blogging

Blogging has become synonymous with SEO. In fact, it's an indispensable tool in a marketers arsenal to incorporate into their SEO strategies. Sure, everyone can create an Adwords campaign, and that might work initially at driving traffic to your site however over the long term, writing quality content to cater to the needs of your end-user, is the best way to ensure long term engagement with your customers.

“There are no shortcuts when it comes to organic search engine optimisation”.

5 Handy tips to creating a great blog post.

Tip 1: Make Your Title Catchy

Having that all important title that draws the reader in is vital if you want to attract people to read your blog.

Think of the magazine shelves in the local supermarket. Which magazine to purchase largely depends on which ones catch your eye. Those dramatic headlines are what works to cut through the noise of the hundreds of other magazines fighting for your attention.

Tip 1: Introduce Your Article

Having that all-important title that draws the reader in is vital if you want to attract people to read your blog.

Tip 3: Create Meaningful Sub-headings in the Body of the Content

People like to skim read. We all do it. Catering to this habit is necessary to engage with your reader. Sub-headings are best used with five or six lines of text to support each subheading. Large reams of text put readers off altogether so keep things simple. Short and sweet and informative and tell your story.

Tip 4: Link Out to Others

Having links to other resources on the web is great for raising your profile. Doing so builds your sources and citing them and it builds credibility for you making you look more like an expert. Once you've linked to that URL, send an email to them to let them know you're linked to that source. After all, flattery goes a long way. The goal here is for that source to link back to you because having that backlink to your site will improve your page rank giving you a significant SEO boost in the process.

Google will see those multiple shares/links and through its algorithm, you will begin to see higher page rankings as a result. The more content you create using these steps, the more people are likely to read them.

Dwell time is the time spent on site which is also a factor in Googles search algorithm. If you want further insight into creating backlinks, be sure to check out Neil Patel's How to Create High-Quality Backlinks.

Tip 5: Have a Conclusion

Concluding your blog post gives the reader a summary of the article. Look to end with a proposition or question. To encourage engagement, a question in the conclusion can significantly increase the likelihood of this. User comments can be read by other readers and offer a chance to open dialogue with your target audience.

By engaging with your audience on this level shows that you are passionate about your industry, your brand and your community. It's a perfect opportunity to upsell your service or product. A call to action here can pay off dividends.

Conclusion

See what we did there!? I hope the above helps give you the confidence to get started with your own blog. If you need help writing an article or blog post, then do not hesitate to contact Caribou Creative. We can help you devise an SEO strategy to work alongside your blog writing.

We offer content writing and organic SEO services to small to medium-sized UK businesses.

If you're one of our clients, you can check out some further reading on how to integrate a blog into your website.

Whether you are looking for web design services , looking for some website design inspiration, please see some of our designs here and give us a call for a chat.

#webdesignrochdale #webdesigninspiration

St. Pancras Clock Tower goes live

paulgooder@gmail.com (paul gooder) — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 13:32:46 GMT

Caribou Creative launch a new websiteone of London's most unqiue residences.

A well deserved revamp for one of our clients, Peter Tompkins, an actuary in the city of London for his unique city pad - inside the actual clock tower of St Pancras station . The duplex apartment now has a website worth shouting about. A major overhaul gives Peter client access, SSL, a secure contact form and much stronger user experience and beautiful photography to truly reflect such a unique property.

Caribou launches its new website

paulgooder@gmail.com (paul gooder) — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 11:17:35 GMT

Caribou sets out to launch its new website on July 3rd 2020.

We've been hard at work creating our new website this month. Launching on the 6th July, we are excited to say that our site is now live. If you need a consultation, no obligation quotation, we can arrange a call back and discuss your requirements.