What to Look for in a Blogging Platform

3 août 2021/par Service comm.

Top Blogging Platforms Worth Considering in 2021

Actualités, Actualités

Want to know which of the top blogging platforms you should consider using this year?

Blogging is still one of the best ways to draw attention to your brand, generate thought leadership, and build your credibility. Research suggests that US internet users spend 3x more of their browsing time on blogs than on email. Additionally, people view about 20 billion blog pages on average each month.

So, how do you join the blogging revolution? You’ll need the right platform.

Essentially, a blogging platform is a CMS (Content Management System) which supports blog creation. Many come with additional tools like SEO support and integrations with email marketing too. There are tons of great blogging platforms out there, which means knowing where to start searching can be tough. To help you, we’ve put together this list of the leading blogging platforms.

What to Look for in a Blogging Platform

Before we sort through our list of the leading blogging platforms, let’s start with a quick overview of what the best blogging solutions typically include. Notably, depending on what you’re going to be using your blog for, you may have other features to prioritize besides those listed here. These features will act as a starting point for your comparisons:

Ease of Use

Uploading, publishing, and sharing your blog shouldn’t be a headache.

There are many website builders out there that seem to have blogging tacked on as an “extra” rather than having it built into the foundations of the software. This often leads to a clunky backend experience when you’re building your site.

If you’re a new blogger or don’t want to spend time messing around with HTML and coding, make sure that your blogging environment is easy to use. The simpler it is to distribute your content, the more likely you’ll stick to your blogging strategy.

Cost and Revenue Opportunities

Many of the top blogging platforms come with a fee to think about. Even if you use an open-source platform for blogging, you still need to consider domain names, hosting, and security costs. Finding the right balance between spend and return on investment is crucial.

Remember, just because a blogging platform is cheap doesn’t mean it’s good value. Similarly, expensive software may not be the best for your business. Ideally, you want something that’s going to deliver a good blogging experience, combined with plenty of opportunities to grow your readership for the lowest possible price.

If you want to get the best return on investment, focus on the kind of monetization options you can access with each platform. Medium, for instance, has a partner program that allows you to earn money on the posts that customers read. Platforms like Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace can all offer earning opportunities too. You can use them to place certain content behind a paywall, create subscriptions, and sell products or services.

Marketing and Growth Tools

Most blogging platforms will come with at least some tools to help you build your online presence. Wix and WordPress integrate with Google marketing, so you can purchase PPC campaigns and track your organic content through an SEO dashboard.

The majority of CMS tools equipped with blogging capabilities also come with integrations for your email marketing service. This ensures you can create automated campaigns that inform your audience whenever a new blog post goes live.

One of the best things about WordPress is how many plugins you can access to boost your readership levels. Access to extra tools like SEO solutions, landing form creators, and pop-ups can all boost your chances of converting and capturing leads.

Custom Branding

If you’re keen to save money on your blogging platform, you might be tempted to start with a free version of a popular service. This is fine when you’re just testing the waters. However, you will need to spend extra if you want to remove the ads that other website builders put on your site. For instance, Wix’s free version will place ads on your pages and show the Wix identity in your footer.

To build your own brand identity, you’re going to need to replace that CMS branding with your own. Look for a blogging service where you can buy your own domain name, customize your themes, and add your own colors, images, and logos into the mix.

While tools like Medium won’t run ads on your campaigns, they also don’t allow you to customize your site to showcase your brand personality. It’s much easier to build a memorable identity when you can control what your site looks like.

Upkeep and Maintenance

This ties in a little with the “ease of use” factor above. Before you invest in any blogging platform, think about how much work it’s going to require. A hosted blogging platform is pretty easy to manage because you don’t have to worry about security and uptime yourself.

Products like Wix and Squarespace will give you access to SSL certificates, patch security issues on your behalf, and handle other complicated site maintenance issues. WordPress and other open-source solutions require you to take more of a hands-on approach. You’ll need to manage your own web hosting and check the security of your site regularly.

Flexibility

This feature is often overlooked in some guides to the best blogging platforms, but it’s also growing increasingly more important in today’s digital age. If you want your website to work for years to come, you need to make sure it’s flexible. This could mean that you look for something that allows you to upload different kinds of content, like written blogs and connecting podcasts.

It could also mean investing in a service that has a lot of integrations and add-on options available. Plugins are fantastic for extending the functionality of your blog without having to move your entire site to another location.

The right plugins can even allow you to transform your blog into a store if you decide to start selling your services or products later.

The Best Blogging Platforms for 2021

Now we’ve covered what to look for in a blogging platform, we can begin to explore some of the top platforms on the market today. We’ve chosen these platforms for their ease of use, flexibility, performance, customization options, and value.

WordPress

The best-known and most popular blogging platform in the world, WordPress is the go-to choice for most bloggers and website creators. Currently, there are around 64 million websites actively using WordPress as their chosen CMS. Usage stats also show that around 400 million people visit WordPress websites every month.

WordPress powers most of the internet as one of the most flexible and easy-to-use platforms around. The biggest decision most users need to make is between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

You can create a blog for free at WordPress.com, and the company will host your site for you. However, you have to use a subdomain (rather than your own domain) with the free version. You’ll also lose control of your ads with the free package until you upgrade to a premium plan.

A personal plan on WordPress.com starts at about $4 per month, and it removes all ads from your site. The more functionality you need, the more you’ll need to upgrade. WordPress.com is very easy to use and requires minimal initial setup, but it’s not very scalable. There are no custom themes, and you don’t technically “own” your blog this way.

WordPress.org is a different story. With WordPress.org, you’re accessing an open-source blogging platform that allows you to build your site from scratch. You do need to purchase your own domain name and hosting with this service, but the software is free to use.

WordPress.org is a lot more appealing to most bloggers because it’s so customizable. Features include:

Free and premium themes that you can customize to suit your brand;
Thousands of plugins to help with security, SEO, subscriptions, and more;
Gutenberg block editors to make creating and publishing blogs easy;
Tons of SEO friendly solutions to help you stand out online;
Access to a huge community of experts;
Infinite control over your design options;
Advanced user permissions and roles.

Pricing: WordPress.org is different from most blogging platforms because the foundation technology is free. You just pay for the a-la-carte options, like plugins, hosting, and domain name subscriptions. This means you can choose how expensive your site is going to be.

Pros:

Extremely easy to use with lots of community support available;
Free platform (though you do need to pay for the domain and hosting);
Lots of customization and plugin options to expand site functionality;
Search engine friendly as-standard, to help you grow;
Plenty of ways to make your brand stand out.

Cons:

It can be difficult to control your own website at first;
You have to manage your own backup and security;
Extra costs can quickly build up.

Squarespace

Squarespace is one of the more popular website design and blogging tools for people with a creative streak. Unlike WordPress.org, Squarespace gives you everything you need to build your own website straight out of the box. This includes hosting, the option to purchase your own domain name, and access to a range of beautiful templates.

Squarespace stands out for its focus on small business owners. You can choose from a range of stunning designs and customize them however you choose with a convenient drag-and-drop builder. There’s also a fantastic customer service experience available from Squarespace, with a team that’s ready to help you with anything you need.

Like many other hosted blogging platforms, you start on Squarespace by choosing the templates you like and customizing from there. There are some limitations in what you can do here, particularly if you have a lot of coding knowledge, making Squarespace less appealing to growing companies or larger brands. On the plus side, you do get features like:

Dedicated blogging templates to get you started;
Categories, tags, and featured post options;
Built-in scheduling for your blog posts;
Contributor roles and permissions;
Analytics to track your readers’ favorite posts;
Email marketing tools;
Social media and SEO solutions built-in;
Mobile app access.

Pricing: Compared to some of the other leading blogging solutions on the market, Squarespace is also quite affordable. The personal package at $12 per month will power a website with a stunning blog. You can also upgrade to the Business version for $18 per month, or if you decide to start selling your own products through your blog, you can transition to “Basic Commerce” at $26 per month.

Pros:

Squarespace is easy to use for beginners;
Fantastic range of stunning templates included;
SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing included;
SSL and HTTPS support;
Access to eCommerce features on some plans;
Useful analytics tools.

Cons:

Not very scalable for bigger brands;
Limited in terms of integrations and customization.

Medium

Medium is a different kind of blogging platform to many of the options mentioned here. This isn’t a tool you can use to build your own websites, like Wix or Squarespace. Instead, it’s a community you join with a monthly membership fee.

Medium comes with a built-in audience, so you can immediately start speaking to customers and generating results from your content. As mentioned above, there’s also a Partner Program, which is free to join. The Partner Program allows you to earn money if people are reading your blogs regularly.

For companies or individuals who just want to generate brand awareness but don’t want to invest in an entire blog-ready website yet, Medium can be a powerful choice. You can easily share posts and view what other people are posting. The biggest downside is that you can’t build an entire community and earn a fortune through your website with Medium.

Medium is more like a social networking site, where you can begin to develop thought leadership than a true space to carve out your piece of the online world. But it does feature things like:

An easy-to-use environment for publishing content;
Analytics and insights into your campaigns;
Some design customization for your blog layout;
Access to a pre-existing audience of readers;
Support for monetization in the Partner program;
Access to picture uploading options;
Mobile-responsive blog posts.

Pricing: You don’t have to be a paid member of Medium to sign up for the partner program and start publishing blogs. This does make it a pretty good way to enhance your existing blogging strategy if you’re trying to generate more attention online.

Pros:

Free to use for Partners and creators;
Excellent for appealing to already-engaged customers;
Easy to use, with no coding required;
No requirement to create a website or pay for hosting;
Communicate with a team of like-minded people.

Cons:

Limited customization options;
No ownership over your audience or readership;
Limitations to how you can make money (no ads).

LinkedIn is among the most popular platforms for professionals in the world. It’s the go-to place for people in search of reliable ways to develop their professional network. Currently, there are around 756 million members on LinkedIn. When they’re not searching for connections with their peers or chatting about work opportunities, they’re checking out the content on the platform.

If you’re keen to develop your position as a thought leader but prefer social media accounts to full websites, LinkedIn is the perfect choice. The more you publish on LinkedIn, the more you’ll attract new people who might want to work with you, invest in your company, or just work as part of your team.

LinkedIn is a great place to generate attention if you’re in the B2B marketplace because most professionals already have their own account. You can also earn social proof by getting people to “endorse” your work. Some of the features of LinkedIn for bloggers include:

Private messaging for interactions with connections;
Notifications to help you keep track of valuable content;
A full profile posting section where you can publish your blogs;
A convenient network of active B2B professionals;
Endorsements for social proof;
A resume and blogging platform in one (you can list your skills);
Job searching and employee searching features.

Pricing: It’s free to access a basic membership with LinkedIn, but you will be limited on some of the features you can unlock. For instance, you can only send messages to people already in your network, and you’ll have limited analytics. LinkedIn Premium gives you slightly more functionality, with Business accounts starting at around $29.95 per month.

Pros:

Tons of people ready to read your blogs;
Great for building your professional network;
Good environment for thought leadership;
Access to extra tools like job listings;
Notifications to keep you on top of relevant posts;
Engagement options like private messaging;
Reports and insights.

Cons:

No access to full website branding;
Limits to how you can monetize your content;
You don’t own the site or your traffic.

Wix

Easily one of the most popular website building solutions for beginners, Wix can help you build both a blog and a fully-featured website. You can even design your own store with Wix and start selling products whenever you choose.

Wix is a straightforward site builder which you can use to build a site in a matter of minutes. There are hundreds of website themes to choose from, and you can also add as many customizations as you choose with the convenient drag-and-drop editor. The blog manager section of the CMS is also simple and intuitive, with SEO and analytics built in already.

Wix aims to make jumping into blogging as quick and painless as possible. Elements like comments, social tools, hashtags, and subscriber forms are already available, and you can add further plugins if you choose. There’s also the option to include sharing buttons for social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and more. Features of Wix include:

An extensive range of blog templates;
Drag-and-drop customization (no coding required);
Subscriber forms, comments, likes, and categories;
Social media connections;
Extra features like store access;
Analytics and insights;
Quick and easy blogging interface.

Pricing:

The most basic features of the Wix website builder are free to use. With a free Wix account, you’ll get a subdomain where you can’t choose the name of your own website, unfortunately. However, you can add a custom domain for only $4.50 per month. If you want a full premium plan with Wix, costs start at $8.50 per month and extend to $24.50 per month.

Pros:

Lots of pre-built blogging themes;
Easy customization options with no coding skills required;
Quick and easy to load and publish blogs;
Connections with social media platforms;
Access to various third-party apps and integrations;
Free option for beginners.

Cons:

Some limitations to the free account;
Ecommerce features are limited to paid plans;
Not as scalable for bigger companies.

Ghost

Lesser known than some of the options we’ve discussed so far but still brimming with value, Ghost is a minimalist blogging platform that’s all about content creation. Ghost promises a range of ways for you to turn your blogging into a business, with access to customizable templates, newsletter integrations, premium subscriptions, and more.

The dashboard for Ghost is clean and intuitive, with access to simple sections where you can add tags to your posts, create drafts, track published content, and access valuable insights. You’ll have an easy view of important metrics like email open rates and numbers of paid members at a glance. You can also find integrations to make your Ghost experience even better.

Ghost works alongside things like Buffer, Stripe, Twitter, Slack, MailChimp, and many other tools so you can take your blog to the next level. There’s no need for any coding knowledge, and because everything is written in JavaScript, it’s ultra-fast too. Features include:

Easy-to-use and intuitive interface;
Blogging and writing focused;
Clean and clutter-free design;
Integrations with various powerful tools;
Super-fast JavaScript coding;
Lots of templates and customizations;
Comment, mobile apps, A/B testing, and more;
Analytics and reporting.

Pricing: There’s a 14-day free trial to get you started with Ghost, then subscriptions start at $9 per month when billed annually for up to 1,000 members, 1 staff user, 2k views per month, and an SSL and CDN. The same plan is $15 per month billed monthly. Prices go all the way up to $199 per month billed annually, or $249 per month for 1 million views per month, 35,000 members, 15 staff users, and a 99.99% uptime SLA.

Pros:

Focus on writing and blogging;
Clutter-free and clean backend environment;
Easy to use and speedy performance;
Lots of packages to choose from;
Great integration options.

Cons:

Some limitations in scalability;
Complicated setup when installed;
Not a huge number of themes.

Choosing Your Blogging Platform

Whether you’re blogging because you want to build your personal brand or you’re looking for a way to strengthen sales opportunities for your company, you’re going to need the right blogging platform. The options above are just some of the best blogging solutions available right now.

Remember, do your research and explore the free versions available whenever possible, so you can confidently invest in the software that’s best for you.

Featured image via Unsplash.

The post Top Blogging Platforms Worth Considering in 2021 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

31 mai 2021/par Service comm.

Accenture et SAP vont aider les entreprises à accélérer leur transformation en matière de développement durable, à créer de nouvelles sources de valeur et à se positionner comme leader en matière d’économie circulaire

Actualités, ERP & Applications, SAP

NEW YORK et WALLDORF – Accenture (NYSE : ACN) et SAP SE (NYSE : SAP) étendent leur partenariat de plusieurs décennies pour aider les entreprises à intégrer le développement durable à l’ensemble de leurs activités, de la stratégie à l’exécution, afin de dégager une nouvelle valeur au sein de leurs entreprises et de leurs chaînes de valeur et d’approvisionnement.

En associant la technologie SAP aux services de développement durable d’Accenture et à leur vaste connaissance du secteur, les partenaires élargissent leur alliance afin de créer conjointement de nouvelles solutions qui permettront aux entreprises d’accélérer la dé-carbonisation complète de leurs chaînes d’approvisionnement et d’obtenir leur part des 4 500 milliards de dollars de croissance économique que l’économie circulaire pourrait générer*.

Grâce à ce partenariat étendu, Accenture et SAP prévoient de co-innover et de co-développer la nouvelle solution de SAP pour la production et la conception responsables, qui comprend des fonctionnalités aidant les entreprises à intégrer des mesures de durabilité dans leurs chaînes de valeur et d’approvisionnement, en mettant l’accent sur la conception et la fabrication des produits. Grâce à des données intégrées provenant de l’ensemble des opérations, les entreprises peuvent mieux concevoir et fabriquer des produits produisant moins de déchets, plus recyclables et contenant davantage de matières recyclées. Cela contribuera également à réduire le coût croissant de la conformité induit par les nouvelles réglementations en matière d’emballage et de responsabilité élargie des producteurs (REP).

« Notre collaboration permettra aux clients de SAP, qui comprennent 92% des Forbes Global 2000, d’utiliser leurs systèmes centraux pour les aider à mener leur programme de développement durable, à optimiser leurs performances ESG et à atteindre leurs objectifs », a déclaré Julie Sweet, chief executive officer d’Accenture. « Cette collaboration élargie s’appuie sur notre longue histoire avec SAP – notamment notre partenariat conjoint avec le Pacte mondial des Nations unies et 3M – et sur notre engagement commun à favoriser la réalisation des objectifs de développement durable. »

Accenture soutient également l’initiative Climate 21 de SAP, qui permet aux entreprises de tout secteur d’activité d’utiliser des outils d’analyse pour mesurer et minimiser les émissions de dioxyde de carbone (CO2) et réduire l’empreinte carbone tout au long du cycle de vie des produits. Par exemple, les recherches montrent que les émissions des fournisseurs en amont sont en moyenne plus de cinq fois supérieures à celles des opérations directes**. Grâce à l’ajout de mesures de durabilité dans l’ensemble de la chaîne d’approvisionnement de bout en bout, les entreprises disposent d’une vision intégrée des économies environnementales et de l’impact des coûts et peuvent plus facilement optimiser leurs opérations.

« Pour réussir à lutter contre la plus grande menace qui pèse sur notre monde aujourd’hui, nous devons collaborer à tous les niveaux de l’entreprise et de la société « , a déclaré Christian Klein, chief executive officer de SAP. « En s’appuyant sur notre partenariat de longue date et de confiance, SAP et Accenture unissent leurs forces pour aider nos clients à réaliser une croissance à long terme de manière durable. Nous apportons une visibilité sur l’impact environnemental de l’ensemble de la chaîne de valeur, en fournissant aux entreprises les informations dont elles ont besoin pour prendre les bonnes mesures et accélérer leur transition vers l’économie circulaire. »

Le mois dernier, SAP et Accenture ont donné le coup d’envoi d’un programme d’accélération mondial axé sur le développement durable au sein de SAP.iO Foundries. Le programme Sustainable Future, la plus grande cohorte de SAP.iO à ce jour, vise à aider les startups B2B en phase de démarrage à favoriser la transformation numérique et l’innovation dans quatre domaines cibles : le suivi et le commerce du carbone, l’efficacité des ressources, le suivi et l’atténuation des risques climatiques et l’économie circulaire. Treize startups ont été sélectionnées pour travailler avec SAP.iO Foundries Berlin et Munich, en tandem avec des experts d’Accenture et des entreprises leaders dans divers secteurs.

« La mise en œuvre de la gestion durable de la chaîne d’approvisionnement et des principes de l’économie circulaire est une tâche incroyablement difficile pour les entreprises, compte tenu de la diversité des questions ESG et des multiples parties prenantes concernées », a déclaré Bjoern Stengel, senior research analyst, Worldwide Business Consulting and ESG Business Services chez IDC. « Selon les recherches d’IDC, les questions relatives au processus de création de valeur des entreprises (conception et gestion du cycle de vie des produits, approvisionnement en matières premières, etc.) sont les sujets d’ESG qui généreront le plus de demande à court terme. Cette nouvelle offre d’Accenture et de SAP permet aux clients de générer des informations critiques, fondées sur des données, de bout en bout, qui prennent en compte les paramètres non financiers nécessaires pour construire des chaînes d’approvisionnement durables et aider les entreprises à créer une valeur partagée. »

Cette collaboration est la dernière d’une série d’initiatives d’Accenture et de SAP qui aident les entreprises à tirer de la valeur du développement durable. Le Pacte mondial des Nations unies, avec le soutien d’Accenture et de SAP SE, en faveur des objectifs de développement durable (ODD), a lancé SDG Ambition en janvier 2020 et a publié les guides SDG Ambition et Integration en septembre 2020. Ensemble, grâce au SDG Ambition Accelerator qui a débuté en février 2021, plus de 600 entreprises dans 65 pays sont en train de monter en compétences pour appliquer ces outils à leurs activités.

À propos d’Accenture

Accenture est un des leaders mondiaux des services aux entreprises et administrations, avec une expertise de pointe dans les domaines du numérique, du cloud et de la sécurité. Combinant une expérience unique et une expertise spécialisée dans plus de 40 secteurs d’activité, Accenture s’appuie sur le plus grand réseau international de centres de technologie avancée et d’opérations intelligentes pour offrir à ses clients des services Strategy & Consulting, Interactive, Technology et Operations. Avec 537 000 employés, Accenture s’engage chaque jour auprès de ses clients dans plus de 120 pays, à réaliser la promesse de la technologie alliée à l’ingéniosité humaine. Accenture s’appuie sur le changement pour générer de la valeur et créer une réussite partagée avec ses clients, ses collaborateurs, ses actionnaires, ses partenaires et ses communautés.
Site Internet : www.accenture.com/fr

À propos de SAP

La stratégie de SAP vise à aider chaque organisation à fonctionner en “entreprise intelligente”. En tant que leader du marché des logiciels d’application d’entreprise, nous aidons les entreprises de toutes tailles et de tous secteurs à opérer au mieux : 77 % des transactions commerciales mondiales entrent en contact avec un système SAP®. Nos technologies de Machine Learning, d’Internet des objets (IoT) et d’analytique avancées aident nos clients à transformer leurs activités en “entreprises intelligentes”. SAP permet aux personnes et aux organisations d’avoir une vision approfondie de leur business et favorise la collaboration afin qu’elles puissent garder une longueur d’avance sur leurs concurrents. Nous simplifions la technologie afin que les entreprises puissent utiliser nos logiciels comme elles le souhaitent – sans interruption. Notre suite d’applications et de services de bout en bout permet aux clients privés et publics de 25 secteurs d’activité dans le monde de fonctionner de manière rentable, de s’adapter en permanence et de faire la différence. Avec son réseau mondial de clients, partenaires, employés et leaders d’opinion, SAP aide le monde à mieux fonctionner et à améliorer la vie de chacun.

Pour plus d’informations, visitez le site www.sap.com .

Contacts presse SAP
Daniel Margato, Directeur Communication : 06 64 25 38 08 – daniel.margato@sap.com
Pauline Barriere : 06.13.73.93.11 – presse-sap@publicisconsultants.com
SAP News Center. Suivez SAP sur Twitter : @SAPNews.

The post Accenture et SAP vont aider les entreprises à accélérer leur transformation en matière de développement durable, à créer de nouvelles sources de valeur et à se positionner comme leader en matière d’économie circulaire appeared first on SAP France News.

30 avril 2021/par Service comm.

9 Tips for Better Live Logo Design

Actualités, Actualités

Have you ever wondered why we’re so amazed by motion? A moving image is more likely to grab your attention than a static one. Motion is exciting and attention-grabbing – plus, it allows us to access more information in a short space of time.

For a while now, companies have been experimenting with all kinds of motion and animation in their design choices. We’ve seen the rise of animated website backgrounds or live-playing videos instead of images on a home page. There are videos and 360-degree pictures on product pages to help people get a better view of certain items and immersive AR experiences on apps.

So why has the power of motion not made its way into the logo design landscape yet?

Sure, there are a few examples of animated logos out there, but they haven’t had the same long-lasting impact as animated websites. Perhaps that’s because people don’t have the right tools to bring their animated logos to life?

Today, we’re going to cover some top tips for live logo design.

1. Understand What “Live Logo” Means

An animated logo or live logo can be a powerful tool in a company’s branding strategy. Although there’s more to a company’s identity than its logo, it’s fair to say that logos make a huge difference to how we feel about brands and their identity.

A powerful logo can make an emotional connection with your target audience and help your brand to thrive in virtually any environment. Live logos, or animated logos, bring more attention to the brand image, by helping a customer to focus on the logo’s action. A live logo might tell a story about what the business does through motion, or just be eye-catching.

The level of animation varies depending on the designer, but it can go all the way from a short video presentation to a few simple moves. The Skype logo is an excellent example of something simple, that multiple designers have played with to great effect.

Today, there are plenty of open-access tools helping to create more immersive animated graphics in the logo design world. Additionally, the types of animation available are becoming more impressive all the time.

2. Explore the Types of Logo Animation

The next stage of properly leveraged live logos, is knowing what kinds of logo animation are available. There are plenty of different styles of animation to explore today, depending on the kind of impact you want to have.

For instance, sometimes the animation you choose will be connected to your business. A vehicle company might have a logo that seems to “drive” into the central space on the screen. An electricity company might choose a logo that pulses like an electric charge. This animated FedEx logo is an excellent example of how animation can show what a business does.

Options for animation might include:

Rotation: Make an emblem stand out by moving it to the sides or allowing it to move on its axis. Rotation gives a logo a sense of 3D space.
Appearance/Disappearance: You can make a logo grow on the screen by bringing to life one pixel at a time, or have it dissolve and disappear in a similar way.
Transformation: Your logo doesn’t have to start out in the shape it’s going to achieve. You might start with a seed that gradually grows into a tree-shaped logo for a gardening company, for example.
Replacement: Another great way to tell a story is to replace a graphic related to the company in question with the logo through an immersive animated experience.

3. Set Goals for the Live Logo

If you’re not sure what kind of animations to experiment with, then it’s a good idea to start with some solid goals. Your goals will give you a direction to move in with your logo choices. An animated logo can be a dynamic and modern way to present a brand to an audience, but it’s only going to be effective when implemented carefully.

Let’s look at some of the goals you can choose for your live logo:

Differentiation: While it’s true that animation and live content is gaining more attention lately, it’s still relatively new as an overall concept. With an animated logo, you could help a brand to create a more unique image for themselves, which sets them apart from the other organisations in the same space.
Storytelling: As mentioned above, animated logos can tell a story about what the company or product actually does. In this example for Firefox, for instance, the logo mimics a loading wheel to demonstrate a speedy internet browser.
Brand awareness: Dynamic logos and animations are more likely to capture your audience’s attention than static images. They’re also more of a novel experience, which means that customers might want to share them with other people too.
Memorability: Today’s customers are bombarded by hundreds, if not thousands of logos all the time. They need something special to convince them that one image deserves a spot at the front of their mind. Animation can help to make a business more memorable.

4. Do Your Research

Doing your own research is an excellent way to get some inspiration for a live logo or animation. Ideally, you’ll want to focus on the industry you’re already working in, as this will give you some guidance as to the kind of movement that can attract the most attention from the correct audience.

Watch as intros to brand videos and check out as many live logos as you can. Check out the kind of animations that people use in their videos when they’re showcasing products online. You can learn a lot about what works just by evaluating what other people have done before. Just be careful not to simply copy what you’ve found elsewhere.

The aim of your live animation should be to tell a unique story about the company

The aim of your live animation should be to tell a unique story about the company in question. If you’re not sure how to start with differentiating the image, check out the brand guidelines for the company in question. The guidelines that the company used to choose the right brand colors, fonts, and other visual assets can work just as well for your animation strategy.

Remember, the aim here is to tell a specific story, send a message, or evoke a certain emotion. Don’t make the mistake of designing something that looks cool but doesn’t have much of a purchase. Most human beings will naturally look for the meaning behind the content that they see. If there isn’t anything there, it’ll just lead to confusion.

5. Use Live Logos on Brand Websites

The most obvious way to begin experimenting with animated logos in web design, is to implement live logos into a client’s website. Some companies have a “welcome screen” for their site which uses an animation to introduce visitors to the home page and other navigation options. There are also brands out there who love the impact that animation can have but want to use it more subtly.

In these cases, live logos can be an excellent way to draw the eye to a specific spot on a website, perhaps the area just above the “contact” button that encourages a client to reach out. Crucially, to avoid weighing down the website and distracting visitors, companies and designers will need to make some important choices.

Although it might be tempting to keep the animation looping at all times, just in case someone misses the first round, this requires a lot of extra processing power. Too much animation also makes it harder for businesses to push the focus of their visitors to other points on the website, like landing pages for products, or testimonial pages.

Often, as with most innovative decisions in web-design, the best bet is usually to start small and work your way up. Don’t over-do it with animation on day one. See how the visitors to the website respond first.

6. Find the Right Balance

Animations in a live logo are there to grab attention quickly, and effectively. They shouldn’t go on for too long, or you risk overwhelming your audience before they have a chance to browse the rest of the website or check out other content. A live logo should only be active for a few seconds at most, and in that time, it needs to say something valuable.

Often, the best strategy is to start by building up curiosity, and getting your viewer engaged so that they’re keen to see more. Every frame will count to pull the customer in and make them feel connected to the brand in question.

Make sure that the logo animation is dynamic so that it doesn’t just capture the attention of the viewer but maintain their interest for the full time required. During the motion, the viewer’s brain should be working to figure out what’s going to happen next.

Just like most logo design and graphic animation strategies, the key to success is finding the right balance between clever experiences, and simplicity. You want to do something meaningful that earns your viewer’s attention, but you need to compete with the fact that attention spans are plummeting all the time.

7. Explore Logo Animation in Video

One of the best ways to use logo animation, is to draw interest for a company at the beginning of a video. Video is gaining incredible levels of popularity lately, particularly in a world where you can view video content almost anywhere. Companies are adding videos to their product pages, social media accounts, applications, websites, and so much more .

For the majority of companies, a live logo at the start of a video can help their brand to seem more professional. It’s a reminder to viewers of the brand that they’re learning about with that video content. Plus, a logo at the beginning of a piece of video content can also build on the consistency that companies attempt to create by using the same brand assets in various mediums online.

(Starting a video with an animated logo is great for presentation, but it can also be frustrating to customers in certain pieces of content where they’re looking for quick answers to questions. If an animated logo is more than a couple of seconds long, it may be better placed at the back of a video instead.)

With videos for news reports or announcements where you want to get straight to the point and generate excitement about a new product or service, it can be better to jump straight into action. Ending a video with a live logo keeps the brand image front of mind for the customer for longer, even after the message has ended. On the other hand, ending a video with a logo could increase the chances that customers miss the animation, because they click away from the content too quickly.

If you’re new to adding live logos into videos, consider experimenting with different strategies to see which works best. Different companies might get unique results.

8. Bring Logo Animation to the Real World

Another interesting option for live logo design, could be to step outside of the computer screen for a while. In today’s digitally transforming landscape, it’s becoming more common to see the real and digital worlds converging. Most events and trade-shows come with presentations that rely on digital content, like animated presentations and slide shows.

Depending on the signage solutions available at industry events, companies could even use an animated logo above their booth to draw attention in a cluttered environment. Around 48% of exhibitors agree that a more eye-catching stand or booth is often the most effective way to attract visitors and customers at an event.

Animation and live logos may have started life on the computer screen, but they can appear in much more diverse environments today. Offices could use a live logo in the reception room or lobby to make their on-premises environment more appealing. Retail locations could display ads on digital signage, followed by live logos that work to both separate messages, and keep shoppers entertained when they’re enjoying the bricks-and-mortar experience.

9. Include Live Logos in Brand Signatures

Remember, a live logo doesn’t just have to sit on a company’s app or website until someone discovers it. Sometimes, the right logo can also be a powerful way to “sign off” on a message from a brand or its management team. For instance, email remains to be one of the most valuable tools for business marketing and customer relationship building today.

It’s the third most influential source of content and news for a lot of B2B audiences, and yet, most companies aren’t taking full advantage of what their email marketing software solutions are capable of. If you can display gifs and animated videos in an email (which most software solutions can), then you can also add a live logo to the brand signature.

The important thing to remember is that if you’re going to be adding a signature to a lightweight thing, like an email, it needs to be lightweight too. Don’t make the live logo too long and complicated, or it might prevent the email from loading properly.

Outside of email, don’t forget to consider options for live logos in things like social media profile pictures too. According to experts, around 80% of companies use visual assets in their social media marketing. A live logo is a great way to go beyond the basics with a company’s imagery. Motion grabs attention, and video content is quickly gaining steam on a lot of social media platforms.

Embracing a New World of Live Animation

Designers are only just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible with animated logos. For many companies, live logos are an excellent way to capture audience attention and encourage engagement with a brand.

A live logo at the beginning of a video, at the start of an app loading screen, or even at the top of a website can differentiate a company and make them stand out. As technology continues to evolve, and customer expectations continue to expand, the options for live animation could continue to grow. You might even be able to infuse live logos with elements of VR and AR, to impart brand essence in a brand-new digital world.

If you haven’t begun experimenting with live logo design yet, now could be the time to start.

Featured image, via Gav Five.

The post 9 Tips for Better Live Logo Design first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

14 avril 2021/par Service comm.

Les achats peuvent sauver le monde

Actualités, ERP & Applications, SAP

En août 2018, Microsoft avait fait la une des journaux en exigeant de ses fournisseurs qu’ils mettent en œuvre des politiques de congé parental rémunéré. Toute société qui souhaitait vendre des biens et des services à Microsoft devait offrir à ses salariés un congé payé d’au moins 12 semaines.

Voici un exemple de grande entreprise qui cherche à influencer ses fournisseurs, et pas uniquement sur le niveau de prix : il s’agit de voir au-delà des coûts financiers pour également prendre en compte les coûts sociaux et environnementaux. Lors du Social Enterprise World Forum (événement pour encourager le développement des entreprises solidaires) les participants ont mentionné que si les grandes entreprises adoptaient des exigences plus durables en matière d’approvisionnement, cela pourrait avoir un impact positif sur les bénéfices, les populations et la planète.

Johnson & Johnson, l’un des plus grands laboratoires pharmaceutiques au monde, a assisté à l’événement. Julian Hooks est directeur des achats (B2B) chez Johnson & Johnson. Il a déclaré : « Nous cherchons à faire du monde un endroit plus sain, étape par étape, et ce en partie via notre stratégie d’approvisionnement. ». La stratégie de Johnson & Johnson est de privilégier les achats auprès de fournisseurs qui sont des entreprises détenues par des femmes ou une minorité.

Selon Julian Hooks, en 2017, la société a dépensé 1,45 milliard de dollars auprès d’entreprises détenues par des femmes ou des gens de couleur. Selon lui, « pour changer l’image de l’industrie pharmaceutique, il faut changer l’image de la chaîne logistique. C’est ainsi que l’on pourra faire progresser la société et exercer un impact. ». Comme Johnson & Johnson opère dans 165 sociétés et travaille avec 70 000 fournisseurs dans le monde entier, il renferme le potentiel de favoriser considérablement la diversité aux postes dirigeants à l’échelle mondiale.

La technologie facilite les achats solidaires. La technologie peut également promouvoir les biens et services que les entreprises solidaires proposent aux entreprises commerciales. C’est là qu’est intervenue SAP, fournisseur mondial de logiciels. Marcell Vollmer, directeur de la stratégie digitale de SAP Ariba, a expliqué dans son allocution au Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) comment Ariba Network (anciennement Ariba, fournisseur cloud pour l’approvisionnement en ligne acquis par SAP en 2012) connecte plus de 3,5 millions de sociétés dans le monde à des entreprises socialement responsables.

« Lorsque nous discutons avec des professionnels de l’approvisionnement, nous constatons qu’ils tentent de résoudre divers problèmes dans les chaînes logistiques, notamment l’esclavage, la pauvreté et la diversité. Cependant, ils manquent de visibilité et de données sur leurs fournisseurs, ce qui leur complique la tâche », explique M. Vollmer. SAP Ariba fournit cette visibilité et peut surveiller plus de 200 critères différents, tels que la performance environnementale, les pratiques professionnelles et commerciales équitables ou encore la diversité parmi les cadres dirigeants. Ces informations permettent aux sociétés d’évaluer les risques et de classer les fournisseurs potentiels, ce qui se traduit par des chaînes logistiques plus éthiques et durables.

Étant donné que SAP Ariba met en relation plus de 3,5 millions de sociétés pour un volume de transactions commerciales d’environ 2 100 milliards de dollars, elle offre aux entreprises solidaires une occasion formidable d’accéder à un marché plus vaste. Les sociétés peuvent ainsi adopter des stratégies commerciales plus durables, simplement en achetant auprès de fournisseurs socialement responsables.

SAP développe également un écosystème de partenaires qui aide les sociétés à trouver des entreprises à vocation sociale. Par exemple, grâce à son partenariat avec Made in a Free World, SAP Ariba a réduit le nombre de produits fabriqués par des travailleurs esclaves, en offrant une transparence sur les pratiques professionnelles des fournisseurs. SAP collabore également avec des organisations comme ConnXus dans le but de promouvoir la diversité des fournisseurs : elle aide les sociétés à trouver des petites entreprises, détenues par des femmes ou des minorités.

Cet article est également disponible sur Medium : Innovation Spotlight.

The post Les achats peuvent sauver le monde appeared first on SAP France News.

2 mars 2021/par Service comm.

Popular Design News of the Week: January 18, 2021 – January 24, 2021

Actualités, Actualités, Business

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

UI Design Trends for 2021

10 White Label Tools for Web Designers

12 Content Marketing Trends to Keep an Eye in 2021

We Can do Better than Signal

I Wasted $40k on a Fantastic Startup Idea

Mnm – An Open Source Project to Replace Email and SMTP

Shuffle – An Online Editor for Busy Developers

New in Chrome 88: Aspect-ratio

Everything About React Server Components

8 Examples of Icon-Based Navigation, Enhanced with CSS and JavaScript

Amazing Free UI Illustrations and How to Use Them

Is it Time We Start Designing for Deviant Users?

7 B2B Web Design Tips to Craft an Eye-Catching Website

Legendaria Font

16 Things not to do While Designing Dashboards

How to Train your Design Dragon

Enterprise UX is Amazing

7 Visual Design Lessons from Dmitry Novikoff Based on Big Sur Icons

DIY UX Audit – Uncover 90% of the Usability Issues on your Website

Vector Pattern Generator – Customize Seamless Patterns for the Web

The Year in Illustration 2020

Design Trends Predictions for 2021

Twenty Twenty-One Theme Review: Well-Designed & Cutting-Edge

9 Best Code Editors for Editing WordPress Files

The State of Design in 2021

Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.

24 janvier 2021/par Service comm.

The Latest Research for Web Designers, December 2020

Actualités, Actualités

2020 has been an interesting year, to say the least. And although I’m sure many of you can’t wait until the calendar flips ahead to 2021, it doesn’t look as though we’re going to be able to say goodbye to 2020 so easily. Many of the changes we’ve had to make this year are now expected to stay with us — a least for the following year.

The latest research gives us some hints about what’s to come.

If you want to start preparing for 2021 now, then these reports and surveys from organizations like 99designs, Upwork, Content Marketing Institute, and McKinsey & Company are a must-read:

1. 99designs Reports on the Common Challenges Freelancers Faced in 2020

I don’t want to make 99designs’s Design Without Borders 2020 report sound like it’s all doom-and-gloom. Because it’s not.

That said, 2020 has been a rough year and it would be irresponsible for me not to acknowledge the challenges that all of us freelancers have encountered this year. This report is one of the few I’ve found that includes data on the major challenges freelancers have dealt with this year, including:

36% have struggled to maintain a steady flow of work or a stable client base;
27% had clients who cut their business budgets and, consequently, their freelancers’ workloads;
26% had at least one project cancelled or indefinitely paused;
22% have been ghosted by at least one client.

Beyond working more hours and hustling to find new clients all the time, what else can freelancers do to weather a business disruptor like COVID-19? There are a number of things.

For starters, it would be really helpful to have a crisis management plan for your finances. It would also be beneficial to refocus your efforts on finding clients who pay for the value you provide and not for the hours you spend building websites. Clients who see the value in what you do will be less likely to ghost or drop you at the first sign of trouble.

2. Upwork’s Survey Reveals Educational Opportunities for Freelancers

Upwork commissioned Edelman Intelligence to put together its very first Freelance Forward survey. The goal of the ensuing report was to shed light on the state of freelancing, how the pandemic has changed it, and what we can expect in the future as a result.

One of the data sets I think web designers should pay close attention to is this:

According to this survey, freelancers only spend about 52% of their time on billable work.

Now, one of the reasons why entrepreneurs and enterprise companies make so much money is because tasks are relegated to different team members. For instance, if a design agency owner is good at building relationships with prospects, they’re going to spend time on sales calls and managing social media. The day-to-day admin tasks would then get offloaded to virtual assistants and billable project work would go to designers, developers, writers, and so on.

But as a freelancer, you don’t have the ability to delegate and scale when you’re working solo.

Rather than burn yourself out trying to handle all these things yourself, the report suggests there’s something else you can do:

Although freelancers recognize how important soft skills and business skills are, the first data set suggests that not enough attention might be paid to them.

What I suggest is that you take a look at the division of your work hours. If you’re spending less than half of your time on billable work, it might be a good idea to strengthen your non-design skills. That way, things like marketing, contract preparation, and client management won’t consume so much of your time in the future and you can bill more.

3. CMI’s Annual Report Reveals Profitable Opportunities for Web Designers

Content Marketing Institute’s annual B2B Content Marketing Report is, once again, chock full of useful tidbits about the state of content marketing.

While a lot of the data is focused around marketing organizations and how they’ve pivoted during the pandemic, I thought this bit of info would be really helpful for web designers:

For those of you who design B2B websites, take note of where these companies plan to invest in 2021. If 2020 has been particularly hard on you, or you simply want to expand your horizons, there are some other opportunities worth jumping into:

B2B Marketing Investment => Web Designer Opportunity
Content creation => Blog graphic design, infographic design, and schema markup creation
Website enhancements => Website redesign, website audits
Content distribution => Social media ad design, Google ad design, schema markup creation
Getting to know audiences better => UX research, UX design
Customer experience => Chatbot/live chat development, support portal creation

4. McKinsey B2B Analysis Suggests That Digital Is Here to Stay

For those of you who’ve worked for a B2B sales organization before, you know how important in-person interactions are to them. It’s not as though they can just sell their products or services online the way B2C ecommerce companies can. The key to B2B success is through customer (and partner) relationship building.

Prior to 2020, this meant lots of in-person meetings, phone calls, and emails. But something has changed this year, on both sides of the fence.

This chart from McKinsey suggests that digital relationship building and customer service aren’t just a temporary solution for COVID-19. B2B decision-makers are coming around to the idea that this is going to be their “next normal” (as McKinsey refers to it).

These new “go-to-market models” include the following:

Talk to prospects, customers, and partners via video calls;
Digital self-service options for customers who prefer the DIY method.

As a web designer, you can help your B2B clients level up their efforts to achieve this next normal.

For starters, you can integrate scheduling into their websites. This’ll empower prospects to schedule video meetings (for demos, discovery calls, etc.) with your clients’ sales teams.

Another thing you can do is build out self-service elements like live chat or chatbots, FAQs pages, knowledgebases, and support portals. As consumers become more confident with doing business online, these self-service options will make a world of difference in their experience with brands.

Wrap-Up

I know, I know. 2020 sucked. But at least we have a good amount of research and experience that gives us a much clearer idea of what we’re getting ourselves into with the coming year. (At least, I hope so.)

30 novembre 2020/par Service comm.

Logistique : quelles leçons tirer de la crise ?

Actualités, ERP & Applications, SAP, Supply-Chain

La crise sanitaire a appris aux entreprises combien il est essentiel de savoir s’adapter rapidement. Que ce soit en termes de production, de sourcing ou encore de distribution. En adoptant un modèle plus durable, il est possible de garantir la continuité de l’activité, même en cas de changement inattendu et massif de la demande.

L’économie d’expérience s’est imposée comme la thématique clé de l’année 2019. Ce concept a toutefois été éclipsé en 2020 par un invité inattendu, la résilience. Les PRA et autres plans de préparation aux risques ont en effet été confrontés à une réalité de terrain : une crise sanitaire et économique, doublée de schémas de consommation et de distribution profondément perturbés.

Défi 1 : éviter la rupture d’activité

Les moins chanceuses des entreprises sont celles pour lesquelles le confinement a enlevé toute possibilité d’activité. Au plus dur de la crise sanitaire, certaines ont dû ainsi purement et simplement fermer leurs portes. Mais d’autres ont su également rebondir, au travers de la distribution multicanale, de l’innovation métier, ou de la saisie de nouvelles opportunités de marché.

Les industriels qui ont su rediriger rapidement leur production vers de nouveaux produits (masques, respirateurs, gel hydroalcoolique, repas à emporter…) ont pu tirer leur épingle du jeu. Avec les crises économiques, sanitaires et climatiques qui s’annoncent, il faut s’attendre à une multiplication de ces défis de flexibilité, et s’y préparer.

Défi 2 : le télétravail

Dans l’absolu, beaucoup d’entreprises pourraient poursuivre leur activité avec une majorité de leurs salariés en télétravail. Mais peu étaient prête à travailler de la sorte, du fait d’un back-office inaccessible hors des murs de l’organisation et manquant de flexibilité opérationnelle. Des solutions cloud, comme Teams ou Zoom, ont pu compenser en partie ce manque. Mais ce n’est pas suffisant.

Il faut maintenant mettre en place des systèmes plus agiles et intelligents, capable de mieux analyser et prévoir, mais aussi de mieux s’adapter à une forte volatilité de la demande. Ceci doit d’accompagner d’infrastructures ouvertes vers l’extérieur et sécurisées, mettant en œuvre des technologies comme des équipements informatiques mobiles, des solutions informatiques en mode cloud, des systèmes de communication unifiée, de la blockchain, etc.

Défi 3 : se rapprocher du consommateur

Qui dit télétravailleur dit consommation à distance. Les entreprises se doivent donc d’aller vers le consommateur, en privilégiant le B2C, par exemple au travers de l’e-commerce. Mais aussi en transformant le B2B en B2B2C ou encore le Direct Selling en Social Selling.

Cela induit des changements profonds dans la structure logistique, avec une nécessité d’optimiser à la fois la production et la chaîne de distribution, afin de desservir un maximum de clients en un minimum de fret. Nous retrouvons ici une problématique que nous avions déjà rencontrée avec la montée de l’économie d’expérience. Celle-ci se traduit en effet par une hyper-personnalisation des produits, qui doivent être directement livrés au client, sans délai.

La solution est donc peut-être de combiner ces deux problématiques, afin de les transformer en opportunité : savoir combiner l’impératif de résilience imposé par la situation économique et sanitaire à la volonté d’expérience portée par les consommateurs et partenaires.

The post Logistique : quelles leçons tirer de la crise ? appeared first on SAP France News.

23 octobre 2020/par Service comm.

SAP accélère sur sa plateforme collaborative : SAP Logistics Business Network – offrant plus de visibilité et de traçabilité des livraisons et un écosystème partenaire étendu

Actualités, ERP & Applications, Innovation, SAP

Levallois – 8 octobre 2020 – SAP SE (NYSE : SAP) annonce une nouvelle version de SAP® Logistics Business Network, qui apporte de nouvelles capacités dans la gestion du réseaux des partenaires logistiques en termes de visibilité, de collaboration et intègre de nouveaux partenaires à sa plateforme logistique.

SAP Logistics Business Network est une plateforme cloud de business network dédiée à la logistique, conçue pour permettre aux clients SAP de connecter leur système d’information à leur réseau de partenaires pour étendre le suivi livraison des commandes et assurer la traçabilité des produits.

« Comme preuve supplémentaire de l’engagement de SAP, annoncé lors de SAPPHIRE NOW®, de proposer une offre complète de business networks : SAP Business Network, nous continuons d’ajouter de nouvelles capacités et d’étendre nos partenariats sur SAP Logistics Business Network notre business network dédié à la logistique », a déclaré Paige Cox, vice-président senior de SAP et responsable du SAP Business Network. « Les APIs ouvertes et les partenariats élargis sont des preuves de notre stratégie visant à créer un véritable réseau des réseaux. »

Cette nouvelle version constitue la prochaine étape de notre stratégie visant à permettre une visibilité de bout en bout, une efficacité accrue de la logistique et une collaboration transparente grâce à un réseau d’entreprises unifié qui inclut :

La visibilité sur l’exécution des commandes client grâce au suivi et à la traçabilité de nouvelle génération intégrée à SAP Logistics Business Network. Notre business network permet un suivi des étapes de livraison en temps réel pour tous les modes de transport offrant ainsi une couverture mondiale.
Des capacités de collaboration transport étendues, notamment le suivi multimodal des ordres de fret qui accroît la visibilité sur les événements routiers et maritimes.
Des APIs standards pour connecter les partenaires et les plateformes de fret, permettant de nouvelles collaborations entre partenaires routiers et maritimes.

SAP Logistics Business Network étend la couverture de différents modes de transport grâce à des partenaires nouveaux et existants, tels que :

project44, offrant une connectivité B2B pour la contractualisation transport, et des fonctions de visibilité pour le suivi en temps réel des envois routiers et le suivi des transports maritimes.
ClearMetal, permettant le suivi des conteneurs et des expéditions en transit grâce au Machine Learning reposant sur le référencement croisé des informations afin de faciliter le suivi maritime.
Shippeo, spécialiste du marché européen, offrant aux chargeurs un accès à son réseau de transporteurs, à son expertise en matière de réglementation et aux données de télémétrie de millions de camions pour un suivi des expéditions routières en temps réel.

« Grâce à ces partenariats, les entreprises utilisatrices de SAP Logistics Business Network peuvent désormais accéder tout au long du transport terrestre et maritime à la localisation exacte, aux changements de statuts et à l’heure d’arrivée estimée (ETA) de leurs expéditions. La nouvelle connectivité avec les transporteurs maritimes et les ports, ainsi qu’avec les systèmes satellitaires, apporte une visibilité sur l’ensemble du fret maritime mondial, » explique Rémy Vernet, Directeur de l’activité Digital Supply Chain de SAP France. « Nous sommes également très heureux d’intégrer la startup Française Shippeo que nous avions accompagnée il y a deux ans via notre fonds d’investissement SAP.iO Fund. »

SAP Logistics Business Network fait partie intégrante de SAP Business Network. Ce réseau des réseaux met à profit les informations fournies par l’ERP en temps réel, permet de réaliser des analyses poussées et offre des synergies avec des solutions de business networks performants tels que Ariba® Network – qui relie plus de 5 millions d’entreprises dans le monde et où plus de 3 460 milliards de dollars US d’achat sont traités chaque année.

La fourniture d’une intelligence collective par le biais d’un réseau commercial ouvert et interopérable permet de mettre en place des chaînes d’approvisionnement durables et résilientes, de transformer les business modèles et d’offrir la souplesse nécessaire pour faire face aux crises mondiales.

The post SAP accélère sur sa plateforme collaborative : SAP Logistics Business Network – offrant plus de visibilité et de traçabilité des livraisons et un écosystème partenaire étendu appeared first on SAP France News.

8 octobre 2020/par Service comm.

8 Design Secrets of B2B Vs B2C Websites

Actualités

Web design clients come from a wide variety of backgrounds. One day, you’ll be designing a portfolio website for a voiceover artist, the next you’ll be creating a comprehensive ecommerce site for a leading retailer. In an ideal world, you’ll get to a point where you eventually specialize in a niche. However, you’ll need to master both avenues first.

The more time you spend in this industry, the more you’ll learn that every client comes with their own unique requirements and challenges to consider. However, there’s a particularly huge divide between the kind of web design projects you do for B2B clients, and the ones you do for B2C customers.

Both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) websites need to be clear, concise, and aesthetically pleasing. They should always have a strong focus on user experience, and they need to work consistently across devices. However, being aware of the difference between B2B and B2C projects will help you to deliver better results to your customers.

Defining the Differences Between B2B and B2C Sites

Some web design trends remain consistent in any environment.

Whether you’re creating a site for a hairdresser, or a leading SaaS company, you’ll need to deliver responsive design, intuitive navigation, and excellent site security.

Your process is unlikely to differ from B2B to B2C much in terms of project milestones, phases, prototyping and wire-framing. The differences that arise between B2B and B2C projects often come in the approach you take to building certain elements.

Let’s take a closer look at the things you might need to consider:

1. The Target Audience

In any design project, it’s always important to keep the end customer in mind. Knowing your client’s target audience will help you to create both an image and a tone of voice that appeals to the right people.

B2B Websites

With B2B websites, you’ll be speaking to a range of highly-educated individuals who already have a general knowledge of your service. The aim here will be to show the end-user how you can help them achieve better results. For instance, m.io highlights “syncing communication” so you can “effortlessly chat” with your team.

The language and content of the website is all about highlighting the key benefits of the products, and the kind of outcomes that they can deliver. The Nielsen Norman Group reports that there’s often a lot of discussion between decision-makers when they’re checking out a B2B website.

Designers need to work harder at convincing B2B buyers that they’re making the right decision. This is particularly true when you’re selling something like a software subscription that requires a lot of long—term investment.

B2C Websites

On the other hand, while B2B customers make decisions based on logic, information, and well-explained benefits, B2C customers are more influenced by emotion. They want quick solutions to their problems, and the opportunity to purchase from a brand that “understands” them.

Look at the Firebox website, for instance. It instantly highlights an ongoing sale at the top of the homepage, addressing any concerns a customer might have about price. That combined with a quirky layout full of authentic photos and bright colors means that customers are more inclined to take action.

2. The Purpose

Another factor that can vary from B2C to B2B websites, is the motive behind a customer’s purchase. Knowing what’s pushing a target audience to interact with a brand will help you to create a website that appeals to specific goals.

B2B Websites

B2B websites often aim to solve expensive and time-consuming problems for companies. To sell a decision-maker on the validity of a solution, it’s important to thoroughly explain what the solution is, how it works, and how it addressees a specific pain point.

Look at the Zoom website for instance, they don’t just tell people that they offer video conferencing, they address the practical applications of the platform:

B2C Websites

Consumers are a lot easier to appeal to in terms of emotional impact, because many of them come to a website looking to fulfill an urgent need. Because of this, many web designers can take advantage of things like urgency and demand to encourage conversions. For instance, look at this website from TravelZoo. It takes advantage of a customer’s desire to get away:

A B2B website needs to focus on providing information that helps companies to make more confident decisions. What’s more, with B2B sites, decisions are often made by several stakeholders, while B2C sites ask a single person to make a choice. A B2C website needs to address immediate concerns and connect with customers on an emotional level. B2C buyers still want to do their research on products or services, but the turnaround is much quicker, and often requires less information.

3. The Design Elements (Visual Appearance)

Just as the focus of your website design and the audience that you’re creating the experience for can differ from B2B to B2C websites, the visual elements of the design might change too.

B2B Websites

In most cases, B2B websites are all about presenting a highly professional and respectable image. You’ll notice a lot of safe and clear choices when it comes to typography and imagery. It’s unusual to see a B2B website that takes risks with things like illustrations and animations.

Look at the Green Geeks website for instance. Everything is laid out to encourage clarity and understanding. Information is easy to find, and there are no other issues that might distract a customer.

B2C Websites

On the other hand, B2C websites can be a little more daring. With so many different options to choose from, and most customers buying out of a sense of urgency or sudden demand, designers are under pressure to capture attention quick. This means that it’s much more likely to see large pieces of eye-catching imagery on B2C sites, with very little text.

Movement, like slideshows and animations often play more of a role here. Additionally, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to experiment more aggressively with color. Take a look at the Yotel website, for instance. There’s very little textual information here, but the appeal of the website is conveyed through sliding images:

4. Website Content

The way that information is conveyed on a B2B website is very different to the messages portrayed on a B2C site. Usually, everything from the language, to the amount of content that you use for these projects will differ drastically.

B2B Websites

When designing for a B2B website, you’ll need to be careful with content, as you’ll be speaking to a very mixed audience. If your site caters to different industries, you’ll need to ensure that you show authority, without using too much jargon. Some companies even create different pages on their site for specific customers. The aspin.co.uk website covers the benefits from a company, sale and integration perspective:

Rather than try to talk to all business owners about their differing communication pains, G-Suite anticipates its audience and creates pages for each.

B2C Websites

Alternatively, B2C websites can make things a little simpler. For instance, on glossybox.co.uk, there’s no need to provide a ton of information for different types of shopper, designers can appeal to one audience, i.e. the “beauty addict”:

In both B2B and B2C websites, the aim of the content should always be to answer any questions that the end user might have.

5. CTA Buttons

Call to Action buttons are often a crucial part of the web design journey. However, it’s sometimes difficult to determine where they should be placed, or how many buttons you need.

B2B Websites

Because the decision to buy something won’t always happen immediately with a B2B website, these kinds of sites often use a variety of CTAs. For instance, you might have a “Request a Quote” button at the top of a page, as well as a Sign in button.

On the Klaviyo site, for instance, you can request a demo, sign up or log in:

You can place CTAs lower on the page with B2B websites too, as it’s more likely that your customers will be scrolling through the site to collect more information before they decide to buy.

B2C Websites

On the other hand, with B2C websites, you usually don’t need to give your visitors as many options. A single option to “Add to Cart”, or perhaps an extra choice to “Add to Favorites” is all your user will need. Customers need to instantly see what they need to do next as soon as they arrive on a page:

On the Evil Hair website, you immediately see how to add a product to your cart.

Remember, the sales process is a lot quicker with B2C customers. This means that you need your CTA buttons to be front and center as soon as someone clicks on a page.

6. Contact Forms

In a similar vein, the way that you design your contact forms will also depend on the end-user that the website wants to appeal to. There’s a very different process for getting in touch on a B2B website, compared to a B2C site.

B2B Websites

B2B websites often require longer contact forms, as clients need to collect additional information about a prospect’s position in a company, and what that company does. B2B companies need to share things like what they’re looking for in a service, and how many users they have, so a sales team knows what kind of demonstration to give.

As with any strategy for contact form design, you should always only include the fields that your client needs and no more. If you demand too much from any client, you could send them running in the opposite direction. Check out this straightforward option from Ironpaper, for instance:

The form addresses as many relevant questions as possible without overwhelming the customer. Because the site handles things like design, it makes sense that they would ask for a link to the company’s existing website.

B2C Websites

On a B2C website, there are very different approaches to contact forms. You may have a dedicated contact form on your website where people can get in touch if they have any questions. A FAQ page where customers can serve themselves is another great way to help your client stand out from the competition. Check out this option from River Island, for instance:

On the other hand, you might implement pop-up contact forms into a website if your client wants to collect emails for email marketing. In that case, it’s important to make sure that you’re only asking for the information you need, and nothing more.

The easier it is to sign up for a newsletter, the more likely it is that customers will do it. Being able to enter their name and email address and nothing else will make the signup seem less tasking.

7. Search Bars and Navigation

Whether you’re designing for B2B or B2C companies, navigation will always be a critical concern. End users need to find it easy to track down the information that they need about a company, whether they’re looking for a particular product or a blog.

B2B Websites

On a B2B website, the search bar often takes up a lot less prominence than it does on a B2C site. That’s because all of the information that a client needs, and the buttons they need to take their next steps, are already visible front-and-center.

As a designer, it will be your job to push as many people to convert as possible, by making the purchasing journey the most appealing path for visitors. For instance, on the Copper website, the “Try Free” buttons are much easier to see than “Continue with Google” or “Login”:

With B2B sites, the focus is on a very specific goal. Although navigation still needs to be available, it doesn’t need to be as obvious as it is on a B2C site.

B2C Websites

On the other hand, most B2C websites offer a wide range of products, and they’re perfectly happy for their customers to purchase anything, as long as they eventually convert. Because of this, they make navigation a much more significant part of the customer journey.

The search bar is often presented at the very top of the screen where customers can see it immediately. Additionally, there may be multiple pages within certain product categories, so that customers can browse through the items they’re most interested in. For instance, look at the homepage on the IWoot website:

The navigation elements in B2C websites need to be a lot more obvious, because consumers are more likely to use them when they’re searching through their options.

8. Social Proof and Testimonials

Finally, social proof is one of the things that will work well for improving conversions on any kind of website. When your customers aren’t sure whether or not they should buy from you, a review or testimonial could be just the thing to push them over the edge.

B2B Websites

On a B2B website, the decision-making process takes a lot longer. Because of this, it’s worth including as much social proof as possible in every part of the website. Client testimonials, reviews and ratings, and even high-profile company logos make all the difference. Many B2B websites include a page dedicated to case studies highlighting the success of other brands.

Your client might even go as far as to ask for a page that highlights their awards and recognition or showcases comparison tables that pit their products against the competition.

For instance, Authority Hacker has a “what the pros say about us” section as social proof:

B2C Websites

With a consumer website, you can include consumer ratings and reviews wherever you like. However, it’s most likely that you’ll want to have a place where customers can see the reviews of other clients on the product pages themselves. On the EMP website the company gives users the option to click on the star review section to jump to a different space on the page where testimonials are listed. This ensures that customers don’t have to scroll through a lot of excess information if they just want to add an item straight to their cart.

Designing for B2B vs B2C

In the world of web design, no two customers are ever the same. While you’ll need to adapt your processes to suit each customer you interact with, you can set your expectations in advance by learning the differences between B2B and B2C strategies.

Featured images by Chris Ross Harris and Mike Kononov.