Author: Webmaster

Analysis, Communication & Collaboration – A Key To Great Web Design!

Written by Webmaster on June 11, 2012. Posted in Guest Bloggers. No Comments on Analysis, Communication & Collaboration – A Key To Great Web Design!

Of all the areas of web design and development that I enjoy the most – our Web Design meetings really rank highly for the part they play in ensuring a great website result for the client.

The key to the success of those meetings starts with analysis & research before the meeting, which can include reviewing the client’s business and marketing models , their current website, and industry leading websites for comparison and samples. Key communication actually starts in the sales cycle and should be in full “voice” – during the design meeting. Clients should be engaged in identifying their needs, aims and outcomes and the whole team (client and designer) should establish a collaborating process to ensure a successful outcome.

Surely Your Web Designer’s Skills Would be More Important?

Without a doubt you have to have a great web designer to produce great websites. But an accomplished Web Designer is not only measured by graphic abilities. He or she must have a strong knowledge of the development tools the website will be using (and how they function) and must also have the ability to understand their client’s needs and requirements and to create a design that is results oriented.

There are many great web designers out there who can create the most eye catching web designs. But not all of those designs actually work for their clients. If the site looks good that will no doubt pass the first test of a new visitor – the test of whether they like the website or not. But as soon as they start to look for the specific items and areas of interest this may quickly change from “Liking The Site” to “Leaving The Site”. As my dear mother in Australia used to say “Peter – Looks Aren’t Everything” – in my case and the case of a successful website she would be right. (p.s. I do have a great personality!!!!)

Good Web Design Planning Starts with Analysis & Research!

We had two web design meetings planned for a Monday recently. In order to ensure that myself and our Design Director Vicki Payne were ready for those meetings we spent around 1-2 hours preparing for each meeting. During the sales cycle we really focus on the business and marketing models of the clients, the desired results they want from the website, and their timeline and budget. In the design meeting we really start to home in on the look and feel!

Preparing for our Design Meeting:

To prepare for design meeting my primary responsibility is to prepare an agenda for the meeting that ensures when we leave that meeting our Design Director has direction and clarity as to the design the client is seeking (the “look and feel” of the website). Although the design is now in the hands of our designer this process should remain a collaborative process. The client will ultimately pick the design sample (or combination of) that they feel best represents them. This decision making keeps the client in the forefront of the design process.

Wouldn’t The Designer Know Best when it comes to Web Designs?

At Bear Web Design we have two of the best custom web designers in Middle Tennessee. Vicki Payne our Design & Development Director has designed and developed over 150 great web designs over the last 10 years (plus hundreds of other sample designs). She is clearly expert in her field – as is our junior designer, Dana Bryson, who joined Bear Web Design in 2010. Yet when we attend a design meeting with a new client we approach every design the same – analysis, research, business direction, and business and marketing models of the client. Those steps really help establish a great design plan, ensuring that it is never just “our opinion” that directs these meetings.

I am sure many small business owners have ended up with what they thought was a great looking website that 6 months down the track was deemed as non-functional. (or basically not working for them). If you have ever been involved in a web design project and you have been told “Don’t worry – our designer knows exactly what you need” – you probably need to be REALLY WORRY!

Without a strong analysis of your business, how on earth can that designer really know what your business is about and what specific outcomes you are looking for with your website? Pre-selecting a website template is a great example of how a website that only looks good on the surface is simply not the best option (because in all probability that template was never built for that client’s business in the first place).

Analysis – Starts in The Sales Cycle!

It is much more difficult for me to produce a proposal for a client without having the entire web project understood. The only way to understand a website development project is to have a full analysis of the business and marketing models of the client. There is no other way to do this but to ask questions and do research — including research on the client’s existing site and also similar sites in their industry. So when we have produced a proposal we have a complete timeline and pathway to designing our client’s new website. We understand the client’s business models and we understand the outcomes the client is looking for.

Design Meetings Focus On details

When we commence our design meeting we are really focusing our design on the details with a primary focus on the look and feel of the website. We must leave this design meeting with clear direction. To help show the techniques we use to accomplish this, here is our standard agenda we use to help us really focus in on the details (with some comments to explain each area)…

Introduction – Specific Aim of Meeting – Identifying Look & Feel of Website(s)
Client’s Mission Statement – Primary Business & Marketing Models
Slogans – Logos – Identifying Demographics and Customer Base
Design Discussion – Website Look – Site Functionality – Web Site Areas
Color, Images (Photos), Logos, Font Style, Menus, Graphic Techniques
Additional Extensions, Components & Modules and any integrating 3rd Party Software
Social Media integration and interaction as well as the website interaction
Review of current website (likes, dislikes) and good industry examples (that we can learn from)

Additional Questions – Next Step(s)

At the completion of the design meeting we have really established all the necessary information and direction for our designers to be able to produce design samples for our client. We do not actually start building the website until the client has signed off on the design through this process. Our designers then create and post 3-5 unique design samples in .jpg image format, which are the exact replica and size of a normal website. This saves time and money in deciding the final design. To design the site and then change the design after development has begun would be inefficient and extremely costly.

Once the client has selected the final design we are ready to move forward with the actual web development. To a very large extent the success of the website has already been established and — don’t be mistaken — it has been established with analysis, research, communication & collaboration, and of course a great web designer!

Is Your Website A Part Of Your Team?

Written by Webmaster on May 21, 2012. Posted in Guest Bloggers. No Comments on Is Your Website A Part Of Your Team?

Over the last few years I have really become very aware of the important connection between a website owner and their website. The arrival of Content Management Systems has provided website owners with the opportunity to update their websites directly and in my opinion (and most importantly) allows the website owner to be an active participant in the process.

And, I might add, not every website owner understands or view the website from this point of view, at least not initially. But make no mistake about your website – it is a part of the team and it is going to play an active role in your company’s success.

In the old days (first generation – or Web 1.0), websites were seen as electronic brochures to a large extent. You were really taking the marketing and sales brochure of your organization and placing it online. Based on past experience – and also by the process through which websites were primarily managed back then – creating and launching a website was a “one time” event, with the website going live and then “great – I don’t have deal with that for another few years”. Your connection to any updates to the website were through your webmaster. Generally to pay a webmaster to update your website was costly and quite often not very timely – so this only reinforced the view of a one-time setup process of a website….

Roll forward to Web 2.0 and websites have now become a much more active part of the operations of a company (including the marketing, sales, and operations). The basis of a glorified brochure sitting online is becoming a thing of the past, and content management systems have become the norm. Your website is now a key player within your corporate team. Here are just a few of the roles websites now play:

1. First impression of your company for a prospective customer. (Marketing)
2. Introduction information about your company and key staff.(Marketing)
3. Descriptions of services and products that your company sells. (Marketing & Sales)
4. Key contact information, including directions to your office, e-mails & phone numbers. (Marketing & Sales)
5. Inquiry forms that entice a prospect to send a sales inquiry, as well as Social Media to engage your customers and web visitors. (Marketing & Sales)
6. Online Content, blogs, e-NEWS, photos and multimedia (Operational & Marketing)
7. Online Shops and e-Commerce (Marketing & Sales)
8. Subscriptions, registration login and customer portals (Operational)
9. Customer forms and documents (Operational & Sales)
10. 3rd Party add-on products such as Real Estate IDX (Operational & Marketing)

These items should really highlight the roles a website can provide to your company. And like any other team member, the website and its results should be actively included in periodical staff meetings. For every organization to be able to maximize the use of their website, this team member must be given high consideration!

So take the time to consider your website’s role within your organization. Starting with the education of staff members who learn how to update and manage content (and become responsible for it). Expand your knowledge of website statistics (so you can track and measure your success) and make these results a part of your corporate reviews and analysis. Call your website “Wilbur” if you have to – but be sure to create a culture where your website is an absolute part of your team!

Facebook Spends One Billion Dollars – Why?

Written by Webmaster on April 30, 2012. Posted in Guest Bloggers. No Comments on Facebook Spends One Billion Dollars – Why?

Most likely no matter what your interest in Social media you would have heard of the recent purchase of Instagram by Facebook. I suspect the biggest reason we all heard about it was the actual buying price – one billion dollars (Somehow I could imagine Dr. Evil stating that price!).

What is Instagram? – Here is their explanation taken from their home page:

“Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it’s as easy as pie. It’s photo sharing, reinvented.”

Instagram has no reported income to date but it has become very popular very quickly – approximately 15 million users since conception in 2010. Without being a user of this product I believe the filtering options is one of the big reasons it is so popular helping make a digital photo taken on a mobile device better. It offers filters that you select once you have taken the photo to improve (and finalize) the shot. Then it’s ready to share.

So back to our big question – Why did Facebook buy this?

The answer I believe is simple – we now communicate thru photos.

On average we design around 30 new custom websites each year and this year we have really seen the demand go up for slideshows, photo galleries, and photo integration into articles with our new developments. The story and message is now a photo (and not just words). And those photos help us interpret the story in a very different way than when we read and most importantly in a much quicker fashion.

And it is very possible that that future story or message will be sent directly from the field as a finished product – to a website or social media site. And this is where I hear a very loud message from Facebook’s purchase –“We believe this is how people will communicate in the future”….

In 2010 I was visiting Australia and was sending my fiancé Vicki Payne photos of my trip from my Blackberry. This was highlighted as I spent a day in Sydney including walking across the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The actual reason I was not using a camera was for convenience and time – I could take the photo – add some “inspiring caption” – and SEND. At the time I did think it was rather magic in particular sending photos directly from the Sydney Harbor Bridge as I was experiencing the views.

But you are probably wondering how good the photos were? Were they keepers or did they have a 5 minute inbox life span? No doubt a tool that would clean up the photo at the point it was shot and then allow me to select an appropriate filter or theme and send it to my loved ones, my commercial website or social media may truly make a keeper.

So why did Facebook spend one billion dollars on buying Instragram?

Maybe they just recognized the evolution of that next “Kodak Moment”!

What is Google Adwords?

Written by Webmaster on April 5, 2012. Posted in Guest Bloggers. No Comments on What is Google Adwords?

Recently I had a prospect ask me to focus (almost exclusively) on improving their Google Search Engine positioning based on key words and phrases. The belief of the prospect was that you can manipulate results on Google easily and quickly and that regardless of your website (and its design) this methodology (known as Search Engine Optimization) could be implemented very easily.

Of course this information had been passed on to our prospect by a “Search Engine Optimization” expert selling their services, ranging in cost anywhere from $100.00 – $500.00 a month, maybe a lot higher. Regardless of the price, the premise itself should be considered and understood by every website owner. In a nutshell, if a company could “manipulate” the results of Google Search Engine it is obvious that Google would lose business (as the best websites would not come up on a search, only the best manipulated websites.). Google clarifies clearly on its website that no one can manipulate these results. They also identify that companies can help you with this process but it should start at the design phase. If you want to have the best search engine results you have to have a website that has great content. (PERIOD)….

Here is what Google Stats about companies offering number 1 ranking search engine results – http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291 .

Big and bold this article states “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” So with that in mind, there is a service offered by Google where you can ensure placement on a search engine. It is called AdWords.

Here is a basic introduction to AdWords from Google’s Website:

With Google AdWords, you can create and run ads for your business, quickly and simply. Run your ads on Google and our advertising network, no matter what your budget, you’ll only pay when people click your ads.

AdWords ads are displayed along with search results when someone searches Google using one of your keywords. Ads appear under ‘Sponsored links’ in the side column of a search page, and may also appear in additional positions above the free search results. That way, you’ll be advertising to an audience that’s already interested in your business. You can also choose to display your ads on Display Network sites in the growing Google Network. Also you can choose the exact Display Network placements where you’d like your ad to appear, or you can let contextual targeting match your keywords to content.

You can choose from a variety of ad formats, including text, image, and video ads, and easily track your ad performance using the reports available in your account. There’s no minimum monthly charge with Ad Words, just a nominal activation fee. Learn more about the cost of advertising with Google AdWords.

Based on the requirements of our prospect, we have now offered the service of implementing an Ad Words Campaign. Bear Web Design itself has engaged in a month long AdWords Campaign primarily to get a better understanding of how it works and what work is involved in implementing a successful program. One of the major benefits in running an Ad Words Campaign is that you really can hone in on what your customers are searching for (which gives you a great deal of direction from both an AdWords Campaign and SEO)…

Keep in mind there are 3 faces of Google that are relevant to a business today – Adwords (which we discussed here), Google Places (which is tied heavily to location and type of business), and then organic search – which is pure content that google ranks websites on (along with many other parameters). And if you ever wondered how Google makes so much money the answer is their Adwords program.

I will be covering both Google Places and Organic Search in upcoming blogs. Having a good understanding of these can really help a small business make good decisions and direction in terms of their internet marketing plans.