Imagine a content management system that gives you the ability to update your business website in real time or add new pages or business information to your live website within seconds. Sounds quite innovative right? Well that’s exactly what we think! Sure by this point we have all heard about the numerous benefits of having a content management system. But for this truly innovative tool and its far reaching effects, it’s worth mentioning again. A CMS is basically a platform that allows even a non-technical individual to edit, modify or even publish specific content on a website. These updates or modifications can actually be made in real time with just a few clicks of a mouse. Adding new products, blog posts or additional press releases to your website becomes a breeze. Nowadays a content management system is a common addition to most newly developed websites and also part of the value proposition offered by web design agencies on custom web products. We do however, want to bring up a few things that sometimes get overlooked. 

First of all, websites do not automatically come with a content management system. In fact, most of the websites in existence don’t have one. Without a CMS your company is actually tied down to that specific web design agency for the life of your business. Unless you have an in-house developer you’ll need to rely on that agency for any and all changes. It’s definitely not the ideal or most cost effective solution as your business may be quite active in the online world and require weekly or even daily updates. For businesses that have an eCommerce website, this is especially true. All sorts of updates and changes to your online store can be facilitated through a robust CMS and eCommerce solution, including product description, product images, quantity, pricing, shipping, taxes and various other attributes.

Some businesses also ask us if there are any drawbacks to having a CMS. While we don’t see any real drawbacks there are a few items to keep in mind. One item to note is that not every CMS is created equal. There are various options available but even within the best 4 or 5 CMS solutions there are vast differences. Some are better suited for complex functionality and equipped with robust, feature rich options. Some are better suited for eCommerce websites or provide greater flexibility for future growth, while others handle just the basics without all the bells and whistles. Obviously knowing how much functionality your new website will require and your business goals will help determine the right CMS. In addition, you’ll want to consider data uploads or integrations with your ERP software or additional databases when scoping out requirements.

Another interesting item to keep in mind is that not every CMS is user friendly. Some are easier to use than others and of course “user friendly” is quite subjective. WordPress for example is considered the most popular and most user friendly CMS available. Many clients actually prefer or even request WordPress as the CMS for their new handcrafted website.

Lastly, a content management system in the hands of an inexperienced individual may lead to headaches. Unless you know what you are doing the changes you make to your live website may not look good or turn out as anticipated. It’s always best to have an experienced individual assigned to manage your CMS and all updates as you don’t want just anybody playing with your live website. Sometimes your changes may cause a shift in the alignment or accidentally delete content or even break a specific website page, all of which get seen by the online world instantly. So unless you’ve been properly trained or know what you are doing we recommend leaving CMS access exclusively to experienced individuals.

Even considering the few items we have mentioned here, overall the benefits of a CMS clearly outweigh the drawbacks. Clients love the freedom and flexibility that a content management system provides. Businesses enjoy and even demand the ability to make important changes without having to rely on an outside party. We are certain the CMS will continue to be a popular addition to business grade websites globally.

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Is your website contact form optimized for conversion? Thanks to your strong SEO campaigns and social media activities (maybe even your popular industry blog), you’ve observed that your business website is receiving more traffic. Your PPC advertising is also providing a nice boost in traffic as well. Things appear to be looking good, but is all this extra traffic providing a return on investment? Simply stated, is all this extra traffic actually generating leads? Traffic means very little if you are unable to convert those visitors into high quality leads, and the online portal to strong conversion begins with the always important yet often poorly-planned part of your website: the contact form.

I’m sure you’ve seen your fair share of bad contact forms out there. There are a myriad of factors that can render a contact form ineffective. While a strong contact form will provide you with more qualified leads, a poor contact form will cost you leads. So what are the basics for an effective contact form? What should be considered from a design perspective, functionality and even the user experience? We’re so glad you asked!

Your Website Contact Form Should Be Short
We know: it’s tempting to ask your visitors and potential leads for a wide array of information. Of course you want to know everything about them, how they heard about you, where they’re from, demographic information and various ways to contact them. It’s tempting to ask all these questions but rest assured it will work against you. No one likes long contact forms and even fewer will actually take the time to fill it all out. In fact, forms with fewer, more pertinent questions get more submissions and better leads.

Remember, in order to expedite the lead nurturing process you need to make it easy to receive a lead in the first place. As the lead becomes more willing and interested in engaging you can always gather more information at a later time. We recommend, at the very least, gathering a lead’s name, email, perhaps the subject of their inquiry, and provide a space for their message to you. This is the basic and pertinent information you need to even classify the submission as a lead. Again, there is a real temptation to capture as much information as possible upfront, but even asking for a mailing address on a contact form can turn away a potential lead.

Your Contact Form Should Be Simple
On another blog post, we talked about the concept of “Don’t make me think.” At its most fundamental level, your website visitors should never have to think too hard about what exactly you’re asking them to provide. Keep your questions as simple and as concise as possible. In the same way, make your contact form easily accessible throughout your site, such as a bold link in your header and footer, and maybe even a link in blog posts (where appropriate). Strong calls to action also become key here and can be used to effortlessly guide a potential customer to land right on that contact form.

Build Your Contact Form with Responsive in Mind
Mobile has taken over and will eventually take over desktop views in terms of Internet access. That means more of your visitors will be accessing your website on their smartphones and tablets and less on the wide displays you’ve probably built your website for. If your website as a whole is currently not responsive, make sure redesigning it to be responsive is in your marketing budget within a year, as you are undoubtedly losing leads daily without a responsive website.

Your contact page must also be built with responsive web design in mind. If visitors are looking to contact you and your contact form is glitchy, hard to click through, the wrong size, or simply does not work from a mobile device, you are losing leads regularly – count on it! Users will not take the time to switch to a desktop computer in order to access your contact form later. If you can’t reach these leads on mobile, you can consider these leads lost for good.

For starters, your responsive design should include larger icons that are easy to click, functional country and state dropdown menus (which are often overlooked), and an easy to locate submit button. Designing with mobile in mind will also help you eliminate unnecessary fields, as mobile users should see an even shorter and simpler contact form.

Anticipate Their Moves
What happens on your contact form when a visitor forgets to complete a field or purposely leaves it blank? Is there a clear and concise error message explaining how what to do next or what information is required? Do all previously filled-in fields get cleared away forcing the user to start over again? Or worse, does the form get submitted with only partial or incomplete information?

User errors are inevitable. But they can be made a lot less frustrating if you prepare ahead of time. Building a contact form that doesn’t clear previously entered information is important. Clearly defining the format and expectation for each and every field in your contact form is also important. Phone numbers, for example, come in many different formats, and some contact form plug ins require a certain format, such as xxx-xxx-xxxx. Adding a note such as Note: Phone number should be in xxx-xxx-xxxx format will cut down on user errors and speed up the completion process. A red error message with the issue clearly defined should also appear for a visitor when they fill out a data field incorrectly.

Trust & Credibility
This concept is important throughout your business website, but is especially important when asking visitors for personal information. A user’s information is precious. With spam and identity theft and any number of other threats on the Internet, no one is as willing to hand over even their basic information to just anybody. Because of this, it’s important to make a user feel that they can trust you. And your website and contact form play a crucial role in delivering such credibility.

Sometimes this can be achieved by having a link to a clearly defined privacy policy in your contact form, letting them know how you will use their information. But often that’s not enough. The design and functionality of your contact form will provide visitors with the greatest impact. Make sure your form is clean and customized with your business goals in mind. There should be zero doubt that your contact form is an integral component of your business website. The questions should be tailored to your potential customers and should be kept straightforward. Ask for basic, necessary and business specific information and leads will have little to no problem handing over the information you seek.

Your website’s contact form should be a powerful and vital extension of your website. It’s also an important tool for generating and tracking leads. It should be easy to use, easily understood, and kept simple. Asking for too much information on a website contact form can be a turn off. By redesigning it with simplicity and ease of use in mind, you’ll be amazed at how many more qualified leads you generate each month.

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When crafted with the user experience in mind, hotel web design can be quite effective at driving guests to take action. That action can be picking up the phone and calling in for a room or actually making a room reservation online. Such conversion metrics are critical in the hotel industry where travelers are looking to quickly book rooms online.  A hotel’s website should be the property’s most important booking channel.  Hotels are always looking for ways to increase online bookings and since not all hotel web design is created equal this is a perfect place to start looking. So prepare yourself for a visual vacation that will make you want to book your next getaway for real! When it comes to designing a website for a luxury hotel or a tropical resort, it’s all about visuals and smooth functionality. Guests want to catch more than just a brief glimpse of where they’ll be staying. They want to see the resort’s views and accommodations offered. If fine dining is available they want to salivate over the delicious cuisine and cocktail photos. Potential guests want lifestyle photography that allows them to really picture themselves at the resort before making a reservation.

We’ve spent some time reviewing several dozen resort and hotel websites from all around the world and wanted to share some of the essentials for creating impactful hotel web design. To be effective, the website must be beautiful and functional. Simple navigation menus, easy-to-find reservation buttons, and stunning – yes, stunning photography must be present. In addition, a touch of creativity regarding how the reservation process functions is also necessary. Here you want to focus on the user experience and make sure that selecting a room and paying for that room is quick and easy. Once again, the combination of web design and functionality are what ultimately sets a website apart from the rest.

We consider the following websites (from around the globe) to be very effective. They also provide excellent examples of web design and smooth functionality that provide visitors with strong visuals of the property and a great user experience. So pack your bags and prepare yourself for a visual vacation to some of the best resort websites and hotel web design on the Internet.

1.    Terranea Resort
Terranea, LA’s oceanfront resort, seeks to transport you out of the city and off to its rocky and luxurious cliffs – and so does its website. From the informative yet gorgeous carousel images to the easily accessible reservations system and buttons, this beautiful website creates an air of sophistication and class that only an oceanfront resort in Los Angeles can offer.

2.    Palacio Nazarenas
Utilizing parallax scrolling and animation, Palacio Nazarenas’ website design does a great job of helping guests visualize themselves at the property! As you scroll, the doors of the resort open to reveal the suite they’ve reserved for you. The rich colors, mixed typography, and vibrant resort photos all add to the effectiveness of this website design.

3.    Haramara Retreat
Haramara Retreat’s website features spectacular visual tours of the resort – so spectacular that you can collapse the left-hand navigation menu for a full-screen resort tour. Each image is unique and takes you to a completely different view, showcasing the variety of vistas available to guests. When exposed, the navigation takes you deeper into the resort, revealing even more amenities and activities offered.

4.    Villa Campuhan
Villa Campuhan’s simple navigation and custom fonts – not to mention its spectacular showcasing of the resort’s grounds, are what make this website design a favorite (yes we also did the web design and development)! The white typography blends seamlessly with the rotating hero images, creating an easily understood navigation menu that doesn’t distract from the full-browser images. The homepage features stunning professional photography of one of the villas and the view is absolutely breathtaking. You can’t help but to imagine the incredible possibilities of an exotic and luxurious escape in East Bali. There is also no scrolling involved on the website homepage and the footer rises upon clicking to reveal the reservation form.

5.    The Phoenix Belize
The Phoenix Belize’s website is comprised almost entirely of full-browser images for a truly visual user experience. The left-hand navigation window integrates in and out of view at the visitor’s discretion and the left and right navigation arrows on the right-hand side of the screen are easily accessible for viewing even more images. But perhaps it’s the use of simple white text with phrases like “Relax” and “Enjoy” that help potential guests believe that just by loading the page they are one step closer to a tropical weekend vacation.

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If you have yet to consider Google AdWords for your business there has never been a better time to put this powerful online marketing tool to use. Did you know that people use Google to search for things such as products and services over 1 billion times a day? That’s over 41 million searches each hour – truly staggering figures. Try and imagine a better opportunity to get your product or service out in front of millions of potential customers instantly.

Yes you need to start with incredible business branding and amazing website design. But that alone will not secure a market leader position for your company. High quality branding and website design will give your business an incredible advantage, as most businesses are still operating with severely outdated websites. However, that alone is just the first important step. Marketing is the next important step, and when it comes to online marketing nothing delivers results like Google AdWords. For businesses looking to reach a wide demographic range of millions of consumers or businesses interested in purchasing products and services, Google AdWords is the way to do it. Let’s take a quick look at just a few of the factors that make this software such a success.

First we start with the platform. Having used dozens of tools and software programs it’s refreshing to see that Google’s software is so intuitive and easy to use. I mean afterall, what would you expect from corporate giant Google? Everything is neatly organized into four main categories. The navigation bar is intuitive and moving from one area to the next is a breeze. Creating reports and tracking results in real time could not be easier. From number of clicks each day, to CPC to editing your budget, the dashboard makes excellent use of space and provides you with all the information you need to make informative decisions.

Speaking of clicks, for experienced pay per click marketers this tool is a just joy to play with. Watching your daily adjustments to ads or adding new keywords to gradually improve overall effectiveness could not be more rewarding. The ability to add negative keywords to remove those unwanted clicks is super beneficial. The pay per click advertising model is our favorite and by far the most effective in the online advertising world. Pay per click really means that you are paying for results. What better way to put an advertising budget to excellent use than to only pay for results.

The use of specific long tail keywords and the ability to manage these keywords effortlessly is what keeps the Google AdWords engine running strong. Keywords are the critical ingredient and it’s what customers use to locate various businesses and find specific services. Well-written ads with high click through rates will undoubtedly point your customers in your direction while providing your business with a boost in the ad ranking. The ads are organized within campaigns and every detail can be monitored, tracked and edited within seconds. Pinpointing what target audiences or locations and determining when and where your ads will show up is completely within your control. Finally a tool that allows you to create highly targeted ads while paying only for the results your business determines is important!

While there are many more factors that make Google AdWords world-class we wanted to end on the premise of Search. For it’s within this premise that you will discover why Google AdWords should be a component of your online marketing strategies.  It’s one thing to create a cool ad and stick on a website or create a highly innovative print ad and place it in a magazine. These types of ads are nothing more than intrusive and even unwanted distractions. By this point we all know that consumers don’t want to be advertised to, especially when an ad is considered nothing more than a noisy distraction. Search on the other hand is entirely different. With search, you are capturing the consumer’s attention at that very moment when they are most likely to purchase. It’s at that very moment that their interest level is high and their mindset ideal, meaning they are thinking about your service, wanting to learn more and considering making a purchase. It’s this searching with intent that businesses want to be capturing. As a business I want to be competing for your attention at the moment that impulse hits you and you become ready to purchase. And not when you are browsing through your Facebook messages with zero intention to do anything other than chat with friends. The brilliance behind Google AdWords isn’t so much the tool itself, but simply that search advertising is more powerful than regular advertising. Master capturing your customer’s attention at the exact moment they want to buy and watch how you’ll gradually leave the competition far behind, in the dust.

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Business website design is a delicate matter for most companies. The scenario often encountered is that you’ve got a great business and performance is good. Your sales are increasing and you aspire to be leader in your industry in the next few years. Your web design however is truly another story. It’s outdated, unorganized and difficult to navigate. Employees often make jokes about how bad it is and you cringe at the sight of certain pages. Sure it contains some important information but its likely visitors are having a difficult time finding it or reading through it all. Your website features your company logo, contact information and maybe even a blog you update regularly with industry news. You know however that your website could be much better and often speculate on how a new and modern re-design would dramatically improve conversion. You know your website could also be more effective at engaging visitors and attracting more customers. In fact, an outdated website is not only hurting credibility but impacting conversion.

Over 80% of business websites are outdated and over 60% are not even optimized for tablets or mobile devices. It goes without saying that this represents a terrific opportunity for those businesses that are ready to update. With professional web design agencies everywhere, why not add a modern and high performing website as yet another advantage over competitors? Fortunately, you are aware of the facts and know that action needs to be taken in order to restore confidence and revitalize your website. Simple changes such as updating the copy or adding new pages to your current website will not solve very much. Your current website does not appropriately represent your brand. It does not convey the right message and it’s causing potential customers to go elsewhere. How many opportunities are you losing daily? It’s a scenario that is quite common and one that web design companies are all too familiar with. It’s time to get expert help and hire a professional web design company for a complete overhaul that includes a redesign and web development. To dramatically improve results and make your business website your most powerful online marketing tool, you need a new website built from scratch.

The following questions will assist your business in evaluating your website as it currently stands.

Is your business website design an extension of your brand?
Your website should represent and communicate your brand effortlessly. It should communicate your company’s purpose within seconds and serve as one of your most powerful marketing tools. The terrific experience and perception a customer has when walking into your physical location should be just as good (if not better) than the experience he/she has when interacting with your website. People will judge your website and your business credibility within a few seconds. And that can mean the difference between closing a deal and losing that client forever to a competitor. Even worse is when you have a website that hurts your brand and causes you to lose credibility. It’s quite difficult to change that perception once it’s firmly planted in the mind of a consumer.

Has your business website design evolved?
A lot has happened over the last few years including the mobile and tablet revolution. New languages such as HTML5 and new techniques such as responsive web design now provide business websites with a serious advantage. You ever notice that your website doesn’t show up correctly on iPhone or iPad? Or that certain design elements are missing or that a page is broken? Your potential customers notice too. An optimal viewing experience over these devices is more important than ever. Your website should be easily understood, efficient, and free of errors across all major platforms and devices. This is also where quality assurance testing for your website becomes an invaluable task.

Does your business website design engage?
As a marketing person you want receive feedback from customers on how great your web design looks. You want to hear that customers really enjoyed reading a certain article or watching a custom video. In fact, you need to know what elements on your website made the difference in that customer’s mind and became the turning point for deciding to make a purchase. Aside from the fact that the feedback feels good, it’s that very type of feedback that confirms your website is engaging potential customers and fulfilling its intended purpose.

Engagement is that unique interaction that every user has when visiting your website. It’s that personal experience that people enjoy when visiting a website page. It’s what pages they visit, how many pages they visit and what elements they click on most. It’s how much time they spend reading an article or completing a contact form. Most importantly, engagement is just a hop skip and jump away from conversion. Some websites fail to engage plain and simple. Such websites are a disservice to both the brand and the business. Engagement is what causes people to start talking, and that is precisely what we want to encourage.

Does your website convert?
A website is an exceptional way to drive highly qualified leads into your office. But too often websites fail to deliver leads or do a poor job on the “qualified” portion of the equation. While your website is just one piece of the puzzle, it’s an enormously important component in the world of conversion. And whether conversion is an email address, a phone call, or a contact form submission, your web design and web functionality combined play a vital role. There are a number of items that impact conversion. Just using the wrong keywords or having a contact form that is too long or challenging to complete can derail your results quickly.  A website that has yet to be optimized for SEO is another way to hurt your conversion. As a business you know that there are various ways to capture potential customer information, including qualified leads directly from your website. Information collected can be as simple as a name and email or it can be as detailed as a contact form submission with various industry or demographic data. However carefully guiding your visitors through your website with the end goal of conversion is the key. Monitoring and tracking these conversion related activities is also important, as you can’t begin to improve these conversion metrics unless you can measure them first. Without tracking your growth or decline, you are unable to track your website’s effectiveness and ROI. For most businesses conversion is what it’s all about. More importantly, without strong conversion most businesses would be out of business!

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In our last Marketing Strategies blog post we reviewed a great social media marketing book, Pinterest Power, and broke down some of the most helpful concepts of the book. Many of the tips outlined were universal but some were central to the power of Pinterest and its unique compounding effect. However, one concept that we can’t emphasize enough is how important it is to create killer content. For this post, we’ll unpack just what ‘killer content’ means and offer simple rules on how you can create some of your own content to die for!

What is Killer Content?
Killer content comes in all shapes, sizes, and media. On your website, it can be a clear, concise description of your business on your homepage. On Pinterest, it can be an incredible image or inspirational photo. On your blog, it can be an authentic, information rich blog post that educates your customers. And on your press page, it could be a YouTube or Vimeo video that your company is featured in. At its core, killer content is anything you create that’s well executed, relevant and engages your visitors. If that killer content is also search engine optimized then your business is way ahead of the pack!

How do I Create Killer Content?
With quality content, a blend of art and expertise is often the key. While we won’t touch on all the ways to create killer content we will touch one that provides an immediate impact; writing! Adding a great writer to your staff is often step one, and it provides big returns right away. A writer that has a strong command of the English language and can articulate ideas creatively through words is quite powerful. To be able to write interesting copy while captivating readers is a rare treasure. While this can be costly, there is no substitute for having such a resource at your fingertips. Below are four simple rules to keep in mind when creating killer content:

• Know your audience.
• Keep their attention.
• Keep it simple
• Don’t scare them away!

Know your audience
Talk about marketing strategies 101; we’ve talked about this many times before, but understanding your target audience is the key in generating relevant content. Enticing your audience on your website and through social media through engaging content is how you can capture more eyeballs for a longer period of time. Your target audience is at the core of your brand identity, and everything you create should be done so with your audience in mind – no exceptions.

Keep Their Attention
Keep it short and simple – don’t kill your audience with too much information or pages and pages of text – spoiler alert most will not take the time to read any of it. Providing clear, easy-to-understand information should be standard practice at this point. In the same way, don’t create a website that says nothing or has too little text. Rewarding your audience with useful information will also be rewarding to you – you’ll cultivate and avoid having to explain things over the phone if the information is clear and readily available on your website. To keep their attention you will need to create content that’s relevant to your target audience – after all, they are your customers, your future customers and possibly your brand advocates.

Keep it Simple
Try not to make your audience think – clever or cryptic wording that requires deciphering is not the way to go. Using big technical terms when unnecessary does not come off as expertise. On the other hand, if your audience is in fact industry specialists, then don’t dumb it down either. Just really consider your audience and their needs before attempting to come up with the right text. There should never be a need to over complicate any aspect of a business.

A Word About Keywords
When Google launched its Hummingbird algorithm last August, word spread quickly through the Internet that keywords and SEO were a thing of the past – creating quite a stir for marketing departments nationwide. But despite all the hoopla, keywords and SEO are alive and well. Just check out Google’s recent financial statements for all the evidence you can digest. And keywords are still a powerful component of the engine that drives qualified leads your way through search engine searches. “If you focus on writing clear, concise and compelling copy, you will naturally write keyword-dense copy,” says Copyblogger Media’s Chief Copywriter Demian Farnworth. “You’ll naturally write for the search engines.” While keyword-rich content is not what it used to be, it’s not yet something you want to start ignoring.

Conclusion
The pursuit of killer content requires some time, a deep understanding of your target audience and a blend of art and technique. It should be ongoing, relevant and frequent, as search engines love fresh new content created often. This also does wonders for your SEO. So take it as a necessary part of providing value and remaining relevant. Incorporating these simple rules into your marketing strategies will get you closer to establishing a meaningful and engaging relationship with your customers.

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Marketing Strategies – Let’s check out why Pinterest is the world’s hottest social network and just maybe the only social media you need! Does Pinterest look like a website just for collectors, foodies, and vintage fashionistas? While it may be all of those things, over time we’ve learned that it is much, much more.

You would be wise to incorporate some social media marketing into your marketing strategies. However, as every business knows, it’s an important yet time consuming endeavor. You can spend hours updating your page and reaching out to your followers or fans via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, and unless you are seeing actual results – social media can feel like a lot of work and wasted effort. Pinterest is one of a few select platforms that really does pack a powerful punch! We recently reviewed a great book called “Pinterest Power” by Jason G. Miles and Karen Lacey. It’s now a must read for any social media manager. Since following the book’s basic principles, we’ve seen substantial growth on our Pinterest company page, and we’re firm believers in its benefits. We wanted to highlight just a few of those benefits.

One incredible thing about Pinterest is it’s compounding power. In about half the time it takes to build a following on Twitter or Facebook, Pinterest generates about double if not triple the results! Here’s how your business can shine on Pinterest.

Pin from the heart. Pinterest offers a business the opportunity to share its own likes, desires, inspiration – and to be inspired by others as well. As Pinterest Power puts it, Pinterest allows people to “discover new things handpicked by people that we trust, not search bots.” Allowing followers to see the emotional and inspirational side of your business will not only build trust, it will create a sense of authenticity.  “Pin your passion. Pin images that mean something to you and resonate with what your brand stands for. This can be design ideas, creative assets, quotes, projects you’re proud of, or ideas that you like.

“As you emotionally engage your viewers through your images and Pinterest activity, a personal connection and trust will develop. Some of these relationships will convert into sales,” say Miles and Lacey.

Use great images! Pinterest is an image-driven website! Using high-quality images will generate interest and, if done right, clicks back your business website. Generating killer content and sharing it on Pinterest will also allow you to do this. “By pinning content from your own website or blog you create the links that will direct people to your products or services,” say Miles and Lacey.

Use theme-specific and keyword-titled boards. Create a theme for each board – as specific or narrow as possible. This will allow your followers to know what they’re going to be viewing when they follow your board. Keywords in posts and titles of pinboards are also important.  We recommend organizing your boards based on these two aspects to maximize searchability and interest.Label your pins with long tail keywords so they can easily be found during a search. Remember to label your boards with keywords and make sure to categorize them as well.

Be social. We know, this seems a little obvious for a social media website, but it’s a point that must be reiterated as you’ll achieve substantial success by doing so. To be social on a site like Pinterest means not just following other boards, but also commenting and re-pinning engaging content onto your own boards. Commenting is a great way to reach out to followers and other industry professionals. If done correctly this also will establish additional trust and credibility for your business.

Pin from all over the web. Pin from multiple sources – not just one pin board and not just your own website. Pinning from external sources, other boards, and different followers will allow you to reach many different users. This will also generate attention to your own boards, and create a sense of community amongst your followers.

Make sure Pins lead back to you. For marketers, the idea behind Pinterest is to generate clicks back to your website. Make sure all of your own pins with your own content lead back to your website. If you search Pinterest and find someone else has improperly linked your content, it’s always fine to leave a comment with your URL.That being said, only lead followers to your website for your own content. Never change another pin’s URL.

Measure your success. Keeping track of your monthly growth by tracking pins and followers is important. As we previously stated, Pinterest generates feedback and followers in about half the time it takes to keep an active presence on Facebook and Twitter. There are other ways to measure your growth on Pinterest as well.“Understand which are your most popular pins and which get pinned the most times from your website,” say Miles and Lacey. “This will show you what kind of information appeals most to reader and which posts you should be promoting more.”

Aside from an important component in your marketing strategies, Pinterest is fun, engaging, and inspiring. While this blog post breaks down just a few key points and benefits we found especially helpful, we highly recommend marketing your business on Pinterest. You will be amazed by how fast your pins will pickup speed when creating quality content and socializing with other pinners in your industry.

Follow Isadora Design on Pinterest!

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When New York based IdeaRocket approached us for web design and development we jumped at the opportunity to work with an established brand. IdeaRocket is a full service animation studio that produces innovative videos for businesses. These video animation experts wanted a new handcrafted website that properly reflected the brand’s expertise and creative work.

We spent about a week reviewing the old web design before putting together a new optimal website structure. IdeaRocket’s old website was just simply outdated and it was impacting the company’s credibility. This was a classic example of a great business with a website that failed to represent the brand. In addition most of the web pages were extremely text heavy and poorly organized, which immediately turns visitors away from reading content. Let’s dive into some of the discoveries and web design solutions associated with the new website. We will not go into every page but instead just highlight some of the notable work on the Home, Portfolio and Contact pages below.

From the get go we knew that responsive web design for this website was a must! Starting with the Home page we had concerns with the navigation of the website right away. The navigation is a critical area of any website and it was barely noticeable. The font used was extremely small and the navigation placement was almost completely out of sight. Probably the worst thing you can do with the navigation is make it difficult to find. Some of the main navigation pages were not even clickable, causing user confusion. In addition there were too many subcategories, which were not only unnecessary but not properly aligned making the overall navigation ineffective. We decided early on that keeping the color orange was one great way to produce a vibrant color palette for the new website we had in mind. We also knew we wanted to incorporate movement and give visitors a little flavor of the animation services offered. The new homepage would be highly engaging with movement and stronger calls to action. The overall minimalist style we incorporated also helps keep more of a visitor’s attention on the company’s custom video. See the difference below:

The Portfolio page received an extreme makeover as we wanted the custom videos to be prominent and move into place as the user scrolled down. HTML5 & CSS3 was used to create movement and better display creativity and craftsmanship. Whereas the old page lacked energy and missed an opportunity to showcase great work; the new page is well organized and provides a smooth user experience. 

The old web design for the contact page was likely the weakest link in the puzzle and was failing to convert visitors into inquiries. The map used was boring and the page was uninviting. The contact form was also too long and the font was small. We re-designed everything from scratch and made certain the new contact form was was inviting and the contact form easy to read with only the necessary data fields. When conversion is critical you want to make certain your contact form is a breeze to complete and submit. These days nobody wants to spend 4 minutes filling out a contact form. Stay concise and make sure the contact form is quick and easy to complete (under 60 seconds is ideal). Often times contact forms fail as they bog the user down by attempting to collect too much information with various questions. Avoid losing potential customers from frustration. The new web design for the contact page and contact form provide a streamlined user experience which will lead to an increase in conversion.

The final product delivered was work we are quite proud of. IdeaRocket is thrilled with the new look and functionality of the new business website. Now the website immediately grabs visitor’s attention while carefully guiding them through the most important areas including the online portfolio and contact form. This client is a long term partner and we’ll check back with them throughout the next several months to see just how much the handcrafted website has improved results!

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You have a great company but branding for business or logo design has never been much of a priority. You know with the right marketing and advertising you’ll be competitive but now you’re looking to grow and become an industry leader. So where exactly should you begin? Increase marketing activities? Ads? Social Media? A new website? Before you buy ad space, launch a social media campaign, or hire a web design agency, there’s something very important that your business should start with – something we call Branding and Identity. While branding is a broad subject matter in this post we will cover just a few of the branding rules that businesses should know about.

Brand identity, or, as Bloomberg Businessweek writer Karen E. Klein calls it, your company’s “personality,” is one of the very first steps you want to consider when building your company or when re-invigorating an established business. “Define your brand identity—your ‘personality’—before you spend a dime on advertising or marketing,” says Klein. Define your brand identity – sounds vague and a little daunting, right? Don’t worry, we’re here (alongside some industry experts) to break it down for you so that’s it’s clear.

What Does Your Brand Stand For?
No successful company ever moved forward with a logo design without first understanding who they are and what they stand for. Defining these core elements will require some time and research, collaboration and buy-in from the executive team. However, it is essential to have a cohesive understanding of who you are and what your brand really stands for before you can communicate your brand to the public. Your company must know the answers to the following questions:

• What’s the purpose of my company?
• What’s the vision and mission?
• What’s our market position?
• Who exactly do we target?
• (If already established) What do people already know and think about our brand?

You may think you already have the answers to these questions – but you would be wise to go over them with a fine toothed-comb and really make certain your answers are accurate and shared by everyone in the executive team. It’s the answers to these simple questions that will provide your company with the basic building blocks for your brand identity and logo design.

A Strong Logo Design
Once you know who and what your company really stands for, it’s time to create brand elements for your business. No other brand element is more central or important than your business logo. This visual symbol is important but must be combined with the actual business name. A few months ago, we published a blog stressing the importance of your business logo. In it, we proposed five important points to consider when working on a logo refresh or logo design:

• Distinctive (make sure your logo is unique)
• Likeable (you want customers to feel a positive affinity towards your logo)
• Meaningful (your logo should stand for something)
• Memorable (make sure your logo leaves a lasting impression and is easily recognizable)
• Timeless (a logo is not something you want to re-invent every few years)

The business logo is often the central component of all brand elements. It’s the symbol most commonly used to identify a business. If created properly it will stand out and be easily recognizable. Once you have a strong business logo that accurately represents your brand use it consistently and at every opportunity.

Unify, Unify, Unify!
A unified appearance is something that can only be established once you have a solid brand definition and logo design, but its importance cannot be overstressed. As you begin to think about all business-related marketing materials – from your company website to your brochures and from your business cards to the content you publish on your social media channels – you want your brand to have a consistent look and feel at all times. Here are some important things to unify:

Color Palette
A terrific way to make a brand distinctive is through color. A color palette should be determined ahead of any branding and identity package. Your brand’s colors may have already been established with the creation of your logo design, but maybe a color palette refresh is in order? Once established, the color palette will be used consistently and for all creative assets and marketing materials. Since all marketing materials you create should feature your logo, the color palette should blend and create a seamless appearance.

Typography
Like your brand’s colors, typography can provide quite an impact. Typefaces come in thousands of styles but most of us are only aware of a few. It’s important to select the appropriate typeface for your brand because the wrong one may hinder the communication process. Certain typefaces communicate certain feelings. There are even typefaces that can communicate masculinity or femininity. Make sure your typography helps communicates the your brand effectively.

Your brand will never appeal to everyone, but it’s your company’s calling card. It’s also your first and last impression to the world. So creating strong brand identity from the beginning and carrying those elements we mentioned through to the end are the way to go. These elements will enhance brand recognition and help keep your business in the minds of consumers. And that’s exactly the place where your business should be seeking permanent residence!

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With every year we can expect small and large-scale web design trends from the websites we know, love, and use every day. Already, Twitter has launched its new desktop interface, which looks quite similar to its mobile app. The New York Times also launched its new website, updating key technical features for an optimized user experience but taking typography and design elements back to basics. We’ve compiled a short list of five web design trends we’ve seen across a wide range of websites. These trends will continue to provide strong influence throughout 2014. Use this as a guide when thinking of fun and innovative ways to update your own website.

1.    Responsive Web Design (RWD)
A few posts ago, we wrote about the benefits of responsive web design (RWD) and how it is changing the landscape of user experiences across all devices. In the post, we discussed the various benefits of RWD – mainly the use of multi-device adaptation and seamless user experience. RWD has proven to be huge, as it addresses and solves many of the issues users experience on a daily basis. Slow navigation, unsearchable text, and annoying redirects when viewing a website are just some of the frustrations associated with attempting to access a full-sized website on a mobile devices. Let’s face it, a full size website was never intended to be viewed from a tiny cell phone screen! Creating responsive web design, while slightly more costly and time-consuming, proves to be the most effective way to ensure that each user can access your website the way it should be – regardless of device or screen size. At this point I think we can all agree that responsive web design is more than just a trend – it’s a permanent fixture in our industry.

2.    Flat Design
The launch of Windows 8 and Apple’s iOS 7 in late 2012 and 2013 made flat design an aesthetically appealing part of our everyday lives.  While it strips away the three-dimensional effect formerly considered standard for apps and logos, it allows website designers and graphic designers to get creative with typography and colors. Another great benefit of flat design is that it often creates a finger-friendly type of “clickability” for a website, which automatically optimizes navigation logos and pages for mobile access. This clean and inviting look feeds into a simplified user experience.

3.    Design and Navigation Simplicity
Creating a simple, easy-to-use homepage for visitors to see your business online, purchase your product, and find out about your services is imperative for keeping visitors on your page. As previously discussed, flat design is a terrific way to create an aesthetically-pleasing look and feel for your website. However, there are many more ways to simplify your website further. Simple color schemes and even a refresh of your logo help create a fresh look, which keep visitors comfortable while viewing your page. White space and minimalist design provide a visitor with easy-to-decipher navigation, avoiding frustration and potential loss of valuable customers.

4.    Less Pages, More Overlays
To keep from losing your visitor’s attention, avoid creating unnecessary page redirects. Many new websites are using web design features such as overlays and expanding tiles to keep users on the same page without redirection. This is particularly popular on eCommerce websites, but can be used to convey any sort of “extra” information that does not need to be displayed unless requested with a click or hover by the user.

5.    Parallax Scrolling
Innovative and fun scrolling patterns have taken over website design! This modern feature creates an interactive way for a user to view several screens or layers in an entertaining and eye-catching way. Parallax scrolling is often interactive, incorporating HTML5 animation with moving background parts to keep a visitor engaged. As a visitor scrolls through, images or layers will change direction and location. Although the term layers seems like a juxtaposition to flat design mentioned above, it’s the background images themselves that are layered – and they still remain flat.

While the true nature of trends is the fact that they come and go, we believe these web design trends will stick around for a long time. Innovative and fresh ideas are always a necessity for website design, and we look forward to the exciting new trends the year has in store.

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