New tools for WordPress, like Kadence, are making it increasingly easy for anyone to build more effective websites without ever touching a line of code. And yet, it's still critical to make strategic design decisions towards a goal of engaging your audience rather than driving them away. It's easy to take an effective strategy and apply it in ways that don't work well. We look at a few examples that don't work while also providing some key examples that work spectacularly. When do you use a slider? How can you best use animation? What about popups? This is an episode about key strategies that help your website make meaningful impacts in building your brand online. And, of course, we also take a look at new features in Kadence, the Kadence Marketplace, the upcoming Kadence Amplify event, and more.

After checking out WordCamp US, Ben, Hannah and Kathy share some of their impressions on both the future of WordPress and Kadence, as well as what the legacy of Kadence might be. Ben shares his observations on the progression of full site editing (FSE) and the things he thinks need to happen before FSE becomes widely adopted. Ben also shares what's dropping in Kadence updates this week. Kathy shares her thoughts about WordPress.com's plans to offer 100-year domains and website hosting and puts Ben on the spot: what do you think the legacy of Kadence will be?

In this episode of The Kadence Beat, Liberty Fleming of The Freelance Market joins Ben and Hannah to talk about marketing, the challenges and benefits of freelancing, and why saying yes to the work that sings to your soul can lead to some of the best experiences. Liberty shares her perspective on "the living room theory" and how you can use it to create a connecting experience for your audience.

The Kadence Team is in the midst of summer glory, and we're also getting Kadence Blocks 3.1 Beta ready for testing. Listen in to learn what new features are coming to Kadence Blocks as well as a new licensing system and Kadence AI. We also talk about the benefits of working on a remote team that is as close knit as the Kadence team and the benefits of working with people from around the world. Adventures with Hannah continues, but maybe a little more laid back now that the dog days of summer are upon us.

Join us on Adventures with Hannah, Ben's Productivity Experiments, and Kathy's newsletter writing cohort class. Kathy shares a haunting conversation with a Lyft driver that has her thinking about how WordPress could be more effective in a sea of numerous ways to get a website online. This leads to a conversation about how important it is to just get started building your dream and building audience without being distracted by which tools you're using.

In this episode, Ben gives an update on the upcoming features in both Kadence Blocks Pro and Kadence Blocks 3.1, and an overview of the teams working on new blocks as well as Kadence AI. As well, the team looks at the purpose of landing pages, elements that make a landing page effective, as well as things that make landing pages miss their target.

It is impossible to be anywhere in tech news and not hear about artificial intelligence and how ChatGPT has changed the world as we know it. In this episode, Shane Pearlman from Modern Tribe joins Kadence Founder Ben Ritner and Kadence Marketing lead Kathy Zant for a discussion about AI and the emerging world of AI in WordPress development. Modern Tribe has been leading an initiative with Kadence to bring website development to an entirely new level where custom sites are built rapidly based on modern WordPress development standards and the power of OpenAI.

In this episode, Ben, Hannah, and Kathy talk about what's new with WordPress 6.2 and the future of full site editing and new changes in the Kadence Design Library before diving deeper into strategies for effective content creation. Where can WordPress site owners find ideas for great content that connects with their audience, ranks well in search engine result pages, and helps their business grow? We've got some ideas and strategies that might help you make better decisions when developing your site's content.

Through serendipity, we stumbled upon a podcast with one of our community members, Shelley Marmor, who runs some very successful travel blogs and teaches others to do the same. Shelley switched her blog's theme to Kadence and began finding greater success online. Through both affiliate marketing and a successful advertising network, Shelley's business focuses solely on building effective sites with Kadence. In this episode, we talk about how Shelley got started blogging, how the switch to Kadence helped her find greater success, and Shelley explains some foundational blogging advice as well as how anyone can start building a business online.

When we're just starting a project, we often have to provide our own motivation to keep moving when challenges arise. In this episode, Ben, Hannah, and Kathy talk about how they work through challenges, set goals, and achieve more through mindset, surrounding themselves with supportive people, and keeping their "why" in mind through difficult times and setbacks. Ben also gives us some timetables for the release of Kadence Blocks 3.0, and some advice on updating any major WordPress software release. Hannah is in Mexico for this recording, providing its own challenges.

Humans are social creatures and we rely on the advice of trusted influences in our life to make purchasing decisions more than we often realize. In this episode, we check in with Ben on updates on Kadence development, and we review examples of trust based marketing with some ideas on how small WooCommerce store owners and even WordPress agencies and freelancers can leverage trust-based marketing to grow their businesses.

In episode 23 to kick of 2023 of the Kadence Beat, we take a look at how exemplary customer support affects our perception of a brand, whether it is an airline, fast food, or clothing company. We talk about Kadence's philosophy on customer support and how it began from an empathetic perspective when founder Ben Ritner started the company. Everyone at Kadence does support, and we talk about how customer interaction informs both our devs and our marketing team to be more effective in meeting market needs. 

Jake Pfohl has been one of the most active members of the Kadence community since the early days of Kadence as an innovator in building effective websites with blocks. Jake started his blog, StartBlogging101.com and evolved into a full library of design solutions with StartBloggingBlocks.com. In this episode of The Kadence Beat, Hannah and Ben talk to Jake about how he got started blogging and his evolution towards providing solutions to help other bloggers do more with WordPress and Kadence. Jake, Ben and Hannah talk about the challenges of getting started, how sharing your expertise makes awesome content, and where they are focusing their learning now.

Kadence is so much more than a theme. With a suite of plugins that help anyone create more effective WordPress websites, Kadence also provides opportunity for empowerment for developers looking to create additional streams of income. In this episode, Kathy and Hannah are joined by Maestro Stevens, a WordPress developer who has created a set of impressive design libraries that can help anyone create more effective sites with Kadence Blocks.  

With the era of new no-code tools including those found in the Kadence suite of solutions, we discuss the question of what makes someone a WordPress developer. We also talk about some ways to get started in WordPress, how to set yourself up for success, and ways to stick with problems in order to really solidify your learning. We also talk about the Kadence Power User Course and the upcoming teardown event with The Good on Nov 10th. Ben, Hannah, and Kathy also share some of their thoughts on productivity techniques to get the most out of each day.

In this episode, the Kadence team takes a look at a recent algorithm change that Google released that they are calling the Helpful Content Update. This new change is targeted towards elevating "people-first content" in Google's search engine result pages. Once you’ve got the fundamentals of the technology in place with WordPress and Kadence, how do you give Google, and your customers, what they’re really after? What exactly is helpful content and how can this new algorithm change actually help guide you towards creating more effective websites?

The Kadence team is entirely remote and works from home, the beach, coffee shops and various locations around the world. Remote work is a big part of freelancing, agency work, and many in the WordPress community have found ways to do remote work right. Ben, Hannah, and Kathy talk about their own unique remote work styles and what works for them, and how our remote work philosophy has actually helped create a unique community helping WordPress users create more effective sites. In this episode, we left in some of our "bloopers" as they were perfect illustrations of some of remote works challenges, and benefits. We hope this episode makes you laugh as much as it made us laugh. 

In this episode, we talk about Ben's experience at WordCamp US in San Diego, California, and how building a personal brand is good for both entrepreneurs as well as employees. But just how do you go about building a reputation and a personal brand? We determine that being of service to others and helping others learn and solve problems in your niche of expertise is the fastest way to build authority and a reputation that serves you for years to come. 

Whether you're just starting a business or you're looking to improve your business' marketing, naming and branding your business can make or break your efforts to grow revenue. In this episode of The Kadence Beat, we look at the challenges of naming a business, coming up with logos, color schemes, and of course why this is all so important. A strong brand is critical to so much of marketing, but how do you establish that strength? We talk a little about how Kadence was named and the story we have to our brand, as well as some iterations of other brands we've worked with. We also talk a little about StoryBrand and why their philosophy works so well for marketing.

We all need a little help getting things done on our WordPress sites sometimes. Maybe that involves hiring a designer, a developer, or maybe you want to hire someone to handle it all for you. In this discussion about best practices for hiring WordPress help, the team talks about everything from deciding when you need help to scoping a project, and the importance of putting your focus on the end user of the site, messaging, and communication. Ben and Hannah also talk a little about their family trip to the Madison Range in Montana while Kathy sweats it out in the Texas heat wave. 

In this episode, the team talks about how they got into WordPress, coding, and technology, and they ask some deeper questions about the difference between technical and non-technical people. Is WordPress too technical for some people? Can agency and freelancers can help their clients succeed by encouraging them to try to break their sites? How does curiosity and confidence develop a mindset of success in technology? We also discuss what sets Kadence Support apart from other WordPress providers and why we have to go the extra mile for our customers. We also talk about what’s happening with Kadence Shop Kit, Kadence Blocks, and the entire Kadence solution online documentation.

WordPress is an amazing tool for sharing your content with the world, but it can't do everything. (Yet?) In this episode, the Kadence team talks about some of the tools we use to make publishing with WordPress better, easier and faster. We not only discuss tools to help you create content, but how to determine what kind of content your audience wants to consume. From social media to copywriting, design, stock photos and project management, we've tried dozens of tools to help make publishing compelling content easier. 

Kadence Shop Kit 2.0 is currently in beta, and it promises to change how WooCommerce sites engage with their audiences. With new methods of providing shoppers engaging experiences with products, we expect to see a new wave of innovation in the eCommerce space. In this episode, we talk about the benefits WooCommerce has over other cloud based commerce services and how Shop Kit aims to expand that. The team also goes deep on a shared passion: coffee. 

Every new design starts somewhere, and tools like Figma, Invision, Axure, or Adobe XD provide designers with innovative ways to create visual representations of web design. However, in the WordPress world, innovations in the block editor make creating designs natively, in the space closest to implementation, even easier. In this episode we get real about web design in WordPress. These tools can be helpful, but it's critical to remain focused on the most important components of creating effective designs in WordPress. Unique content, an understanding of your customer, and effective communication through the design of your site is the best recipe for success.

There's nothing more frustrating than building a beautiful site that no one visits. At Kadence, we're committed to helping our customers build beautiful sites that are effective, and attracting website traffic is a huge part of that. In today's episode, we talk about attracting traffic to your site through everything from social media and influencers to effective SEO strategies. We also talk about the importance of authenticity in marketing, and why your advertising dollars might be better spent elsewhere. 

Marketers use popups because they are so effective at gaining a user's attention, however, they can create a user experience nightmare if implemented wrong. We review some of the best ways that popups, modals, and even slide-ins and banners can be used effectively in a way that supports your business objectives while being useful and supportive to your site visitors. We also review some thoughts about what marketers should give away versus what they should charge for when creating a customer relationship, as well as what's upcoming with Kadence products.

personal and get them on your email list. In this episode, we talk about email marketing strategies, both from the perspective of site owners and digital marketers, but also as consumers. We discuss ways to connect with audiences in the inbox as well as how to get them to invite you into their most personal communication medium. We also review updates to Kadence Conversions and what's coming in the new version of Kadence Blocks.