Every business needs a website – everyone, and their grandma knows that! So, if you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur, and you don't have a site yet, you're probably facing the daunting prospect of how to go about it.
If you have a web developer on your team, designing your own website from scratch might be an option. However, for most entrepreneurs, a website building solution is the most viable avenue for creating a professional-looking site.
If you've had a quick scroll of our blog, you'll know there are tons of website builders on the market, many of which cater to slightly different audiences. But, today, we're taking a look at Zyro.
Zyro's a free website builder that provides all the tools you need to design and launch a website and e-commerce store within minutes. Zyro's suite of features is pretty impressive, including business management tools, selling functionalities, and it even dabbles in marketing tools.
With all that in mind, read our Zyro review to get a better feel for its the right website builder for you…
About Zyro
Zyro compares itself to a Swiss Army Knife, offering several valuable features across various areas of online business management from the convenience of one place. They provide users with plenty of tools to help them grow their business, both online and beyond. By offering web design, selling, management, and marketing tools from one platform, Zyro's undoubtedly a versatile website builder that meets a variety of needs.
Zyro, namely, appeals to individuals with personal brands, small local stores, and professionals looking to build their network. This is especially true of entrepreneurs that want access to all the latest web building technology. Zyro's team makes it their mission to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to tech so that they can bring users the newest features and tools. This is what brought about Zyro's AI writer (but, more on that in a sec).
And the best thing? You can get started for free!
Zyro’s Core Features
When choosing a website builder, it's worth examining all the features the provider has to offer. This gives you a better idea of whether there's potential for you to grow and expand in the future.
With that in mind, here are the features Zyro has to offer:
You Can Easily Design Websites from a Template
Zyro enables you to kickstart the web design process with a beautiful template. There are 55 to choose from (11 for e-commerce), all of which are customizable. However, at this point it's worth mentioning, all of Zyro’s templates can be made into e-commerce stores. You just need to add their e-commerce feature and, voila, you’re good to go!
You can upload your own images, tweak the design, and update the copy to suit your needs. It's safe to say, all of Zyros's templates boast, professional, modern, and sleek design.
Plus, all the templates are responsive and mobile-ready, so you can quickly create a stunning website that looks great on all devices – no matter their screen size?
Zyro provides users with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, which makes it incredibly easy to customize the templates. You simply drag your chosen web element to wherever you want it to appear on the web page and drop it in place. Then, you just click on the component to edit it further.
The drag and drop editor makes it easier for newbie web designers to get up and running. However, if you're a pro, it can feel very limiting. So, if you fall into the latter category, you might want to look elsewhere for a more advanced website builder.
Zyro's editor allows you to insert the following elements on your web pages:
- Text
- Images
- Video
- An Instagram feed
- Subscription buttons
- Social icons
- Contact forms
- A map
- Buttons
Notably, there aren't any options for you to create and publish image galleries or slideshows. This might be a problem if the main purpose of your website is to showcase beautiful product photography or your portfolio.
The Grid Tool
Zyro allows you to adjust your web pages using its grid tool for pixel-perfect placement. This enables you to be pretty precise with your design. Elements just snap into place, so everything's perfectly aligned without spending hours painstakingly tweaking everything to look just right.
Free Images
Zyro gives you access to a photo library comprising over a million license-free images through Unsplash. You can outfit your website with professional-looking snaps that underline your brand, without splurging on stock images or hiring a photographer.
The Zyro Online Store
Zyro makes it just as easy to design and launch an online store. In theory, you can start selling within minutes. As we've just said, there are 11 pre-built templates you can use as the foundation of your online store. All of which you can modify with Zyro's intuitive drag-and-drop editor.
All of Zyro's digital stores are secure and optimized for mobile shoppers. Plus, the platform makes selling simple with its ‘Buy’ buttons. Users can add these with ease to their product pages, and if you upgrade to their eCommerce Plus plan, you can use these buttons to sell near-on anywhere on the web – including Instagram, Facebook, and Amazon.
Track and Manage your Inventory
Zyro's main dashboard is nothing short of intuitive. From here, you can add and manage your entire product inventory – including categorizing and tracking your wares. This affords you full control over your stock.
Multiple Payment Options
You can take customer payments via PayPal, Visa, Visa Debit, Credit Cards, and Master Cards.
Shipping Management
Zyro provides plenty of shipping management tools, which make it simple to:
- Check your order history
- Track payments
- Monitor shipping status
- Send buyer's automatic shipping updates via email
On top of all of that, Zyro also automatically handles paperwork regarding shipping, delivery, and tax.
Marketing Tools
Zyro offers the functionality you need to run tailor-made ads on Facebook and Google Shopping. When done well, these work wonders for growing your reach and targeting your ideal demographic.
Plus, their built-in reports make tracking your sales and the success of your marketing campaigns a breeze. You can even integrate Zyro with Google Analytics to gather further data about what's working, what isn't, what could be improved, etc.
You can also sell gift cards and apply discounts to your products. These come in handy for running promotions to entice website visitors into making a purchase.
SEO
Zyro has an in-built assistant for SEO, which walks you through how to update your page titles and descriptions so that you fully optimize them for SEO.
The AI Writer
Are you worried about whether you can produce high-quality content for your website? If so, Zyro’s AI writer can take care of that for you. This populates your site with top-notch content in a matter of minutes. Rest assured, all website copy produced by the AI writer is designed to be SEO-friendly and tailored to reflect your brand voice.
It’s as easy as three steps:
- Write a few sentences to describe your brand and the context you need website copy for. Just one quick example is enough.
- Adjust the AI settings to determine the length of your desired content, creativity, and level of expertise.
- Click ‘Generate,’ and the AI writer will produce unique, SEO-friendly content to display on your website.
How does Zyro's AI writer manage this?
It analyzes handpicked copy from your industry to generate suitable web content for your field.
PLEASE NOTE: Zyro's AI writer is still being perfected. So while it can't replace the expertise of a human content creator (at this stage anyway), it's a good starting point for your copy.
Other Tools and Features
On top of the AI writer, Zyro provides several online tools that beginners might find particularly useful.
Some of these include:
The AI Heatmap
Upload an image of your website (.Jpeg or .png), and the AI Heatmap tells you where the eye travels. The heatmap outlines where accents and contrasts on your website draw the eye by bringing these areas to your attention using a color-coded system.
With this info to hand, you can then better optimize your landing pages to draw the attention of your visitors to your product(s) or CTA – which, in theory, should lead to a boost in conversions.
The Business Name Generator
Generate unique ideas for business names using Zyro's business name generator. Simply enter a few keywords relating to your industry, and Zyro populates a whole host of suggestions. Best of all, this tool is available for free on their website!
Slogan Generator
Similar to the business name generator, Zyro's slogan generator is another free tool on Zyro’s website. Unsurprisingly, it also works much the same way. Just enter a single keyword relating to your brand, and the AI tool comes up with a list of suggestions for catchy slogans.
The Logo Maker
Last but not least, Zyro also provides a free online logo maker that arranges your business name and tagline in a beautiful layout, alongside a basic silhouette or shape. You have a degree of design freedom in that you can edit the placement, fonts, and icons that accompany your logo.
Zyro’s Pricing
If you’re on a budget, Zyro is a phenomenally affordable website builder.
Each premium plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and hosting is included with every payment tier. But if you want to trial Zyro’s main features for longer, opt for their free forever plan.
The free plan provides all the basics, including:
- 500 MB bandwidth
- 500 MB storage
- An SSL security certificate
- Access to designer-crafted website templates
- AI branding
- SEO assistance
If you want to run a personal website, you're recommended to try the Basic Plan, which is available for $2.99 a month. This is ideal if you just want a small site with your own branding and domain. All paid-for plans enable you to customize your URL favicon, and on top of the features includes with the free program, the basic tier unlocks:
- 3GB of bandwidth
- 1GB of storage
- The removal of Zyro's ads
- You can connect your own domain
Next up is the Unleashed plan costing $4.99 a month. It's intended for small businesses that want to expand their reach online.
As well as the above features, you'll also get:
- You can integrate with Facebook's Messenger live chat.
- A free domain name for a year
- A Google Analytics integration
- You can insert your Facebook pixel.
- You can integrate with Google Tag Manager.
- Visitor remarketing tools
Then there's Zyro’s Ecommerce Plan, where we notice a jump in price, and for a good reason. This is where most of Zyro's advanced selling features get unlocked. If you’re serious about selling online, this plan is an affordable option that competes with other notable eCommerce builders.
At $19.99 a month, you'll unlock:
- You can accept online payments.
- No transaction fees
- All eCommerce functions get unlocked.
- You can sell up to 100 products.
- You can send email notifications and set discount coupons.
- Access to complete order tracking
- Access to inventory, shipping, and tax management tools
- You can offer multiple payment options.
If you want to get a little extra out of your online store, upgrade to Zyro's most tier. The eCommerce + Plan for $28.99 a month, which additionally unlocks:
- You can sell unlimited products.
- Abandoned cart recovery email campaigns
- You can present your store in multiple languages.
- Use Zyro to sell everywhere, including a Facebook shop, Instagram store, and Amazon.
Zyro’s Customer Service
Zyro has a 24/7 customer support team ready to answer your questions anytime. However, if you're yet to be a Zyro customer, they encourage you to send a message via an email app. So, if you don’t have this application installed, it's difficult to access their contact details.
Once you're a user, you can message Zyro via its live chat widget, which you'll find inside their editor. Typically, they'll get back to you within minutes. Zyro also offers an FAQ section, which we have to say, is quite small compared to other online help documentation competing website builders provide.
Zyro: Pros and Cons
If you quickly want to weigh the benefits of any software, a simple pros and cons comparison does the trick. So, here are the main advantages and drawbacks of using Zyro:
What’s Great About Zyro:
- Zyro is incredibly affordable for getting a personal website online. For a few dollars a month, you can enjoy hosting, your own domain, and a sleek looking website.
- Zyro’s eCommerce features are some of the most affordable on the market.
- Zyro’s team continually works hard to bring out new tools and features. They focus on AI learning to create features that save you time and make website creation easier.
- Editing a template with Zyro's intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create and customize your website.
- Zyro’s templates look great and are all optimized for mobile devices.
- Zyro’s desktop and mobile themes are optimized for speed to ensure high-performing sites across the board.
The Drawbacks of Using Zyro:
- Customer service only becomes easily accessible once you've signed up, and even then, they only live chat, and a limited FAQ section is available.
- The variety of templates Zyro provides is limited compared to other builders.
- Many of Zyro's AI tools are useful for complete beginners. However, the result isn't as professional as what a pro could create. Anyone serious about their business should look towards professional copywriting and logo designs.
- There's no in-built app store to install plugins that extend the functionality of your site.
- Integrations are quite limited and only available with premium plans.
- Due to its grid layout and the limited website elements on offer, Zyro's somewhat restrictive when it comes to design customizability.
Is Zyro the Best Website Builder for Your Business?
Zyro fulfills all the basics a website builder has to offer. You can create a website within minutes from one of their beautiful templates, and if you're only looking to launch a personal website, Zyro is immensely affordable. It's one of the cheapest options on the market for the features it offers.
eCommerce sellers can also use Zyro to sell almost anywhere on the web. The builder includes some nifty features for this, like abandoned cart recovery and inventory management tools. It's not as extensive and powerful as providers like Shopify, but small businesses might find everything they need within Zyro's suite of tools.
Overall, Zyro is a cheap and easy option. While they invest in innovation and aim to build modern tools for users, you get what you pay for. By this, we mean other builders can offer more features, better customizability, more store management options, and templates, for a higher price tag. So if you’re new to website design and just want to get online fast and easy, Zyro's a good choice!
If you’re unsure whether this website builder is right for you, why not simply try out its free plan and see for yourself? You have nothing to lose!
Have you given Zyro a shot? Let us know in the comments below what you thought of it!
The post Zyro Review: The New Kid on the Block appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.
from Ecommerce Platforms https://ift.tt/2NTHjxy via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment