Journal | Isadora Design

Consider Your Website When Branding Your Business

2015-02-23T12:13:29Z

Branding your business in the digital world is more involved than ever. Have you ever visited a website that took you back in time to the days of dial-up Internet service, AOL Instant Messenger and Alta Vista internet searches? You marvel at the glacial page load speed times, stock looking graphic design, broken hyperlinks and overwhelming amount of text. Dig a little deeper, and you find antiquated menu structures, a shopping cart that doesn’t take you anywhere, and an extra-long contact form that seems never-ending. Within just a few seconds your perception has been completely ambushed! You’ve developed negative opinions about the website, the service, the quality, the company and even the brand. You will not soon forget this experience and about 90% of the time you’ll never re-visit such a website. You may even mention what you saw to a few of your friends as often consumers will share such a poor experience with an average of 11 other individuals.

But now the scary question for a business to consider: Do customers get that same feeling when they visit your business website? Just imagine how that could be impacting brand credibility and the ability to generate online revenue. In many cases, companies are not fully aware of the detriment an outdated website has on the brand. We have found that a disconnect between customer perception and a brand’s visual elements, often plays a pivotal role in the evaluation and decision making process. Even something as simple as not properly conveying a brand’s value propositions, may result in an unintended hindrance within the target audience. But it’s these simple and even subtle factors that make an enormous difference.

The bottom line is that a business often has one chance to make a positive impression and capture a potential customer online – a chance lasting only a few seconds.

Econsultancy for example, reports that 40% of people abandon a page if it takes more than three seconds for it to load.

As that load time increases, more and more customers simply decide to leave. So before you’ve even had a chance to get your message through to customers, they could be gone — simply because your site failed to load fast enough.

This online abandonment translates into real customers lost, often permanently.

These individuals have no incentive to come back to your website and often share their poor experience in vivid detail. This negative word of mouth works against a brand as people start to hear that your business is out of touch. The target audience you so desperately want to communicate with is unable to connect with your brand. And from there your brand’s credibility gradually plummets as people lose trust in your company.

And where are all these potential customers going? Straight to your competitors. And we assure you that your competitors could not be happier. Your competitors’ websites don’t have to be the slickest, or use the most advanced platform and functionality on the web. In the case of a bad user experience, a competitor website needs only to be incrementally better than yours. A threshold so low, few competitors will have difficulty achieving success. And if the visual appeal is stronger and user experience seamless, those competitors gain loyal customers that could have and should have been yours.

But this doesn’t have to be the case and branding your business doesn’t need to be overwhelming.

As a rule of thumb, a business should take a fresh look at it’s website every couple years.

This is even more critical if you are in the technology, education or professional services industry. Five years is a lifetime in the world of web design and development as the industry moves efficiently with improvements. The longer you wait to overhaul your outdated website, the more customers find a happy home with your competitors.

So if you are reviewing the overall branding of your business. Or if it’s been a while since your website was built, now may be the time to partner with a strategic web design agency. Avoid the risk of harming business reputation and losing customers daily. Create an engaging and effective website that effectively represents your brand and get the appropriate visual appeal in front of your target audience.

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Content Strategy & Business Blogging

2014-12-19T19:52:13Z

While the benefits of blogging are numerous, content strategy will be necessary to create blog posts that are truly effective. Blogging simply for the sake of blogging or creating blog posts in the blind are two sure ways to confuse potential customers. Frequent blogging a great way to communicate directly with your target audience. The benefits range from instructional, to educational to even providing specialized information. We still come across several businesses where blogging is not used and often times this represents a missed opportunity. We understand that writing unique and compelling content on a consistent basis is not easy. It takes careful thought and planning and often a dedicated resource is either not available or too expensive. However from our experience we have seen the advantages of blogging and we strongly recommend it to many of our clients. It’s worth the investment in time or even hiring an experienced writer to do the job well. However blogging without a content strategy in place will not achieve nearly the same success.

Blogging and content strategy go hand in hand and one without the other may prove to be a fruitless experiment.

Content strategy is where you determine what types of content will be created and how such content will be used. Not only is subject matter a high priority, but also what types of assets such as photography if any will be incorporated. The content strategy will be unique to every business and should be tailored to the brand and business objectives. What content would be most influential and what type of content does your customer want to read about most? A professional writer will take a step back and dive deeper into understanding the target audience and specific needs. The businesses that take the time to study and analyze the demographic information of their customer base is definitely ahead of the game! This may sound complicated but it’s worth the investment in time.

There are a variety of tools available for performing such target audience analysis. In the B2B market you can even start preliminary work by creating a simple spreadsheet to track the demographic information of each and every client your business has acquired over the last 6 months. Other firms may choose to segment further and focus on a specific industry or review only the largest clients. Reviewing the data carefully and discovering what each client has in common may bring about some unexpected results. Consider where your company found these customers, or how these customers found your business. Take a deep dive into the data and look for patterns or similarities. Often times the similarities will jump right off the page and other times it takes a bit more work. Where the customer base is large it will take a more rigorous approach of going through the various data points with a fine tooth-comb. Regardless of complexity, the analysis is worth the extra work and will help determine key similarities that should be considered during the creation of content strategy. This strategy may then be blended with creativity to establish an effective strategy for communicating directly with potential customers.

It’s interesting to note that demographic information alone will not be sufficient to secure a deep understanding of your primary and secondary target audience. It’s important to understand your customer’s needs and intentions.

Understanding your customer’s frame of mind and where your customer is at in the purchase cycle will also impact content strategy.

Different customers are often at different stages within the purchase cycle. So when it comes to creating strong blog posts you really need to understand these various stages so that you are able to communicate effectively to each customer within each stage. It’s hard enough to pull a customer to your website, so when they arrive make certain your business takes full advantage of each and every opportunity. Because a lost opportunity, is one that will likely never return. Know what types of information your customers are looking for. More importantly, what types of information will influence customers to conversion or purchase. These are just a few of the basic questions an expert marketer will take the time to learn about. And such answers are required if you are looking to establish a content strategy that will lead to producing winning blog posts for your business.

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PPC advertising = integral part of your marketing efforts!

2015-03-16T21:54:10Z

When it comes to Pay Per Click advertising we are always amazed at how much time is spent reviewing keywords, creating and comparing campaigns, A-B testing, researching, looking for opportunities and just constantly optimizing for improved results. It’s a never ending job that requires a passionate marketer. In fact there are only a few things that get online marketers more energized in the morning than figuring out ways to increase click through rate while lowering the cost per click! It’s a little crazy, but as with any other advertising you need to constantly monitor results to get the best bang for your buck. If you don’t diligently keep an eye on the metrics your PPC advertising effectiveness will quickly deteriorate.

Having a dedicated resource to manage all your marketing efforts including PPC advertising is ideal. However, we know that with some small businesses owners are forced to wear many hats at once. Learning about how everything works will definitely take you some time. On the other hand, if you dedicate the required time it’s incredible how much additional value you can squeeze from your online advertising and dramatically improve your ROI. It’s also a big help to work closely with a professional web design company on creating original content. It’s incredible how fast an agency can take an idea, sketch out the concept and design the creatives for your advertising. Having a web design agency create all your creatives has terrific benefits. After five years of managing clients and the company’s advertising, we are still finding new ways to grow the Isadora Design brand through effective PPC advertising!

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Content Delivery + Feedback Delivery = Client Homework!

2014-12-17T09:24:12Z

There are many things a client needs to get in order at the start of a new branding and website project. A client must prepare for such a creative project much like they would prepare for any other business project. Sometimes clients don’t realize just how much work is involved or that the creation process is a collaborative effort. Time must be allocated and resources made available for the life of a project which can last anywhere from four to five months. There is a great deal of back and forth, discussions, meetings, revisions, updates and weekly communication between web design agency and client. Although a clear timeline is provided at the start of the project, it’s easy to overlook important dates or fall behind on content delivery when adequate time and resources have not been considered. So let’s examine the two major areas that take up most of our client’s time. It revolves around providing website content and feedback or what we like to call content delivery and feedback delivery. More than anything, these two areas combined are what keep our clients quite busy each and every day throughout a project.

Both content delivery and feedback delivery happen throughout the project, but is especially heavy during the first couple of months. But before we dive into content delivery, what exactly do we mean by content? Content, is what ends up on your actual website. It can be a variety of things, but for the most part it’s the text and images supplied by the client for a website. While a web design agency will assist you with finding great images for your website, the specific text for a website is often the sole responsibility of the client. And as you can imagine, gathering all the text for each and every website page can be quite time consuming. It’s not only gathering the text from all the different groups or departments involved, but reading through all of text to ensure it’s accurate and cohesive. Other important factors when creating text is to make sure your brand voice is conveyed throughout the pages, and that your text is well written, concise and website ready.

The actual delivery of the content is just as important! Content delivery should always be delivered in a clear and organized manner so that the Project Manager can easily read through it all and immediately understand what they are looking at. The content should be broken down by page and by each section of the page from top to bottom. Unorganized or incomplete content with internal notes and or acronyms are difficult to comprehend and often cause mistakes or things to get missed. So it’s better to spend extra time and ensure your content is clean, polished, grammatically correct, spell checked and ready for your website. Whether it’s text for the home page, a product page or a blog post, the same rules always apply. Keeping your text clear and organized makes things easy to understand. Going back and forth unnecessarily on incomplete or inaccurate content is a sure way to start falling behind on a project and cause delays. So remember to keep it clean, smart and concise. If you can say something in 10 words don’t say it in 20! You’ll always have the ability to make any final text or image edits through your content management system. So don’t worry so much about attaining perfection!

Photography is also considered content, and an important part of a client’s content delivery. Often times, and especially with eCommerce, clients provide their own professional photography, blog post images and product photos. These too should be provided in a clear, labeled and organized manner so as not to misplace or use incorrect images on a product or page. The images should be optimized for web so that they load quickly. Slow loading speeds will kill your website performance! Images should also be consistent, not just in style but also in size and format. Sending various different styles, sizes or formats impacts the overall quality of the website and slows down project progress. So take the time to resize all your images, group them correctly and save them in a consistent format prior to sending them over.

Website feedback such as design feedback provided on the multiple design rounds is just as important, and should be provided in a clear and organized manner. Above all, website feedback should be provided in writing. With the exception of very few things, where it’s easier to jump on a quick phone call, all website feedback should be provided to an agency in writing. Writing your feedback forces the writer to think just a little longer about what to write and the meaning of the words. It pushes the writer to be a little more careful about their word selection and thus makes the feedback more concise and accurate. Of course, it also serves to document the feedback process so that one can easily go back and reference the feedback from previous design rounds. This is particularly helpful in the event that management forgets what specific design decisions were made on a previous design round.

Believe it or not, sometimes a client may actually ask for more homework! A client may ask if they could help out by creating wireframes or even a design mockup. Rest assured, when working with a professional web design agency a client should never need to create either. Wireframes and design mockups are what strategists and design artists do best. So leave all that important work to the experts and allow them the creative breathing room they need to flourish on your project. These experts have decades of experience and spend quite a bit of time researching inspiration websites, top competitors, functionality and the various design elements to ensure that everything placed on your website page has purpose. Besides, the content and feedback delivery is more than enough to keep clients busy!

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Your Web Design Project Manager is vital!

2014-12-17T09:22:39Z

Did you know that your web design project manager is the glue that keeps projects together and running smoothly? Did you know that there are 109 important steps to successful web design project management? And that a Web Design Project Manager has the important role of making certain no step is missed? In addition, the role is an opportunity to work on a wide range of creative business websites every day. Most project managers wear several hats and assist in multiple areas of a project, including but not limited to client communication, scheduling, timeline creation, design presentation, quality assurance and even content management! This wide range of responsibility is part of what makes the role so interesting. You are always on your toes working on something new and creative. And there is no shortage of communication as the bulk of the day is actually spent on interacting with clients, designers, developers and the Creative Director to name just a few. In addition, each project scope is unique and so no two handcrafted websites are ever alike. The projects may incorporate various services ranging from branding to UX design, to responsive web design, to illustration to development, or even all of the above! Making sure these complex projects get broken down into manageable tasks is key.

Every web design agency has a list of documented steps, and at Isadora Design we actually have documented 109 steps! It’s these project tasks that keep a web design project manager aware of what’s been completed and what needs to get done. It also provides a first-hand look at how a project comes together. You are also the glue that keeps everything together and moving along smoothly. Making sure all project tasks get executed on time is a big responsibility. So it’s no surprise that the right individual must be a team player and be able to juggle multiple tasks at once. Sometimes clients fall behind or forget to turn in critical assets. Sometimes the designers falls behind or forgets to add certain design elements. Sometimes a developer will need more time to finalize complex code. Whatever you can think of happens! And while notifications and reminders are always sent out, things do come up that cause delays. These are just a few of the things that a strong project manager is always cognizant of. Most of the time projects get completed smoothly and clients are extremely happy with the results. But for the few times that there are small obstacles in the road, a good project manager is more than able to find a solution. It may sound like a lot to keep track of, but at the end of the day it’s a fun and dynamic role within any web design agency.

We’ve outlined a few of the 109 steps below, just to provide a flavor of what really goes on behind the scenes to keep everything moving along. These tasks are project management essentials that ensure nothing gets overlooked. Whether it’s weekly tasks, development related tasks, design related tasks, quality assurance tasks or even post launch tasks – all of them need to get done correctly and at just the right time. You can even think of project management as a puzzle, where all the pieces of the puzzle need to come together in order to complete the puzzle. Missing even just one piece leaves you with an incomplete puzzle! So it’s important that the project manager follows these steps each and every time to ensure a successful project. First a project manager gets assigned to your project and is made the main point of contact. That’s when all the fun begins! Take a look at some of the web design project manager tasks below:

Creates a private client area for posting of design rounds
Creates a timeline for the client
Update timelines throughout the project
Posts all client revisions to design
Sends notifications and reminders to client for assets that are due
Leads weekly phone calls
Leads the Design Presentations
Handles live calls to go over feedback
Conducts design reviews with lead designer, strategist and team
Coordinate agile process with development team
Monitors development progress every week
Monitors Quality Assurance progress
Secures hosting information from client
Integrating your social feeds such as Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook
Manages the launch of a new website!

Some of the listed task are just common sense while others are a bit trickier than they appear to be. Needless to say, a web design project manager has their hands full and when you consider they often times juggle multiple projects, you can really see just how valuable they are to the process.

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The Best Website Designers Evolve!

2014-11-14T10:45:52Z

Yes indeed – the best website designers are constantly evolving! At Isadora Design, we believe that good web design is just good business. So it’s no secret that when we’re looking to add some of the best website designers to our team, we have a rigorous screening process that looks at much more than just design ability. Aside from having an eye for attention-grabbing style, we dive further into how a web designer thinks and prepares for a new project. Preparation and planning are important, and a strong website designer requires numerous other skills in order to be successful. Organization, intelligence and exceptional communication are just a few that come to mind immediately. But at Isadora Design we also look to hire creative designers who enjoy staying on top of industry trends. Our designers are thinkers and collaborators, and they are constantly trying new things in order to improve. We encourage our design team to go way outside the box when appropriate and attempt the bold moves that will garner the most attention. An agency loves to see their work featured online, or talked about by customers. And our web designers appreciate the recognition as well.

When the initial search for talent begins, most often you’ll find that website designers focus on just one particular style. Even if they are not cognizant of that style, they tend to design within specific parameters that they are comfortable with. Naturally, this limits the breadth of creative style an individual designer can provide. You would think the solution would be to hire several dozen designers. But there are techniques that can be used to encourage innovation from each and every designer that is open to learning and taking such bold steps. Sometimes a designer just needs the right blend of freedom, encouragement and teamwork to go well beyond their comfort level. And once a web designer breaks through those walls there is no limit to how far the imagination can go. That’s why it’s so important that the actual scope of the work be interesting to begin with. The designer is then able to enjoy the diversity of each project. That diversity, combined with the specific requirements associated with each new project opens the door for the creation of something truly unique. It’s this very challenge to create something different every time that drives the best web designers to excellence. Our design team for example, enthusiastically accepts this challenge, as they understand the projects represent an opportunity to continue evolving as industry experts.

Speaking of industry, the web design industry seems to always be moving at record speed. Changes in technology are always in flux and new methods for doing things better and faster are constantly created. Business websites often go through a full web design overhaul every few years and in some cases annually. So when creating a new website it’s important that you select a web design company that hires the best website designers, stays on top of best practices and is up for the challenge.

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Content Management System = Innovation

2014-12-07T04:53:34Z

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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Optimize Your Website Contact Form

2015-03-23T22:13:01Z

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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Visual Vacation: Effective Hotel Web Design

2014-11-14T10:46:44Z

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.

The post Visual Vacation: Effective Hotel Web Design appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Google AdWords is World Class Marketing

2015-03-23T22:12:16Z

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.

The post Google AdWords is World Class Marketing appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Has your Business Website Design evolved?

2014-12-07T04:55:38Z

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!

The post Has your Business Website Design evolved? appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Marketing Strategies – Killer Content is KING!

2014-12-07T04:56:20Z

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.

The post Marketing Strategies – Killer Content is KING! appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Marketing Strategies – Power Up With Pinterest

2014-12-07T04:57:02Z

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!

The post Marketing Strategies – Power Up With Pinterest appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Web Design for IdeaRocket Animation in New York

2015-02-20T13:18:14Z

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!

The post Web Design for IdeaRocket Animation in New York appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Branding for Business and Logo Design

2014-11-14T10:49:05Z

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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Pivotal Web Design Trends of 2014

2014-12-07T04:58:44Z

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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Web Design Company Loves Online Marketing!

2014-12-11T04:38:41Z

Does your web design company have a passion for online marketing? Do they know what brand elements will enhance and differentiate your business from competitors? Will you receive a website that conveys value proposition to visitors within seconds? Or, will your website fall short of its purpose and fail to attract more customers? These are things you’ll want to consider carefully. After all this is your business we are talking about. Just imagine trying to have a conversation about value proposition or brand equity with a team that’s never heard of the terms. That does not provide the comfort level one would expect for such a vital project as creating a business website. Hiring the right web design company is no simple task but hiring one with little marketing expertise can be a costly blunder.

Let’s face it; communicating value isn’t as easy as it sounds. And your website is a BIG communication tool. When a Marketing Director gets tasked with a full re-design of the company’s website, it’s a serious investment that requires a knowledgeable web design partner. Let’s use the following terms to illustrate a simple example

branding
value proposition
targeting
positioning
competitive advantage
integrated marketing communications

Does your web design agency have a strong grasp on these terms? A deep understanding of such marketing concepts is fundamental to the success of your new business website. Your business website is the most important online marketing tool your business can have. Some businesses overlook this fact and fall short of harnessing the true power of a well crafted website. While this tool can help your business succeed it can also cause serious damage to your brand if not built strategically.

It’s the blend of creativity, innovation and marketing expertise that will allow your business website to communicate, engage and convert like never before. After all where does your website live? It doesn’t live down the street or next to the 7-Eleven. You can’t find it inside a shopping mall and you certainly can’t walk up to it and take a seat while waiting for your morning coffee. Your website lives online and unless your web design agency has that foundation and marketing perspective you are missing out on an enormous opportunity to hit a home run with your new website.

An interior decorator can make your living room look gorgeous but they can’t build you the house of your dreams from the ground up. Our recommendation is simple; don’t entrust your most critical online marketing tool to a web design company that doesn’t love marketing.

The post Web Design Company Loves Online Marketing! appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Benefits Of Responsive Web Design!

2014-11-14T10:51:13Z

Imagine a website with responsive web design that adjusts to the device that your customers are using to view your business online. Imagine the content, the text, titles and the images actually moving so that they fit within the size of that specific screen. Whether it’s a tablet or an iPhone or an iMac or a PC desktop! You can literally see the adjustments happen as the browser size shifts from one size to another. Now I have to admit, the first time I saw this I was blown away! My immediate reaction to watching such a complex feature in action was WOW – this is awesome! What could be more incredible than this? Even today after having seen hundreds of websites with responsive design I still can’t help but smile every time I see the functionality in action; the “cool factor” is just that good every time. It’s no wonder responsive web design continues to receive so much attention – it really is state of the art and very convenient to have. But aside from aesthetics there are some very important benefits that responsive design provides that you should be aware of. So let’s dive into some of those benefits in this blog post! When it comes to responsive web design we want to give you the tools to make an informed and intelligent decision especially if you are creating a new business website.

Effortless Multi-Device Adaptation
The main benefit of responsive web design is the flexibility to adapt a website to different screens. Your website becomes easily accessible on all types of devices. Imagine your handcrafted website adjusting and optimizing (for your customer’s viewing pleasure) automaticall. Effortlessly adapting to the various screen sizes in existence – that my friends, is the true power of responsive web design. And it’s changing the web design industry and competitive landscape of business websites as we know it! Based on the size of the screen, your website will move, content will relocate, images will resize, font sizes may shift, the layout will change and even the navigation will adjust to deliver an exceptional user experience no matter what devise your customers are using to view your business!

Easy to Maintain
Creating multiple versions of your website is costly and cumbersome. Considering just a desktop, iPad and iPhone for example, means that you will need to triple your efforts when looking to make an update to your web page. With Responsive web design you’ll avoid this extra effort completely. Your website will work seamlessly on different devices and so when you need to update your website you only update one platform through your content management system. In the long run this will save you time and help avoid headaches with having to work on multiple versions of your website.

Improves your SEO
The benefit here is in the fact that you will only need to optimize content for one link. The URL structure remains constant for all devices. With Responsive design you have one URL that is easy to update and optimize your content which in turn optimizes your content for all devices. Whether it’s a Samsung phone, iPad or desktop responsive web design makes it easy for the Google crawlers to index your website pages.

Higher Conversion
If you are selling more of your goods and services online then you are converting more. If your customers are finding your business and making purchases through the use of tablets and mobile devices then your conversion is increasing. If one of your many conversion metrics happens to be sales then you’ll see an upward shift in your top line as well!

Increases Mobile Sales
It’s no secret that the mobile revolution has been in full force for quite some time now. Over $7.7 Billion in mobile sales expected for 2013 alone and that figure will continue to increase for several years to come. People are buying online and they are using their tablets and smart phones to make those purchases. To get them even more comfortable in doing so responsive design is a must.

Seamless User Experience
Imagine your incredible looking website looking less than incredible on an iPhone or iPad? Imagine parts of your website not working correctly or having certain images look stretched or content out of place. Is this sloppy looking? You betcha. Will your potential customers notice the distractions? Absolutely! Is this a credibility killer – you better believe it!

Keep Your Website Relevant For Longer
No doubt about it – having a business website that looks great on all mediums is the way to go in terms of longevity. When you use state of the art technology to build your business website it goes without saying that the final product is going to be of higher quality and remain relevant for much longer. Check out these quick stats courtesy of eMarketer that highlight the potential behind responsive web design.

B2C eCommerce is expected to hit almost $400 Billion for 2013.
Mobile Ad spending will reach $7.7 Billion this year alone.
Expect 246 Million US mobile phone users this year – that’s 78% of the nation’s population.
More than 58% of all US mobile phone users will access the internet via a mobile device, with smartphone adoption driving this. By 2017, this number will grow to 80.7%!

At Isadora Design we recommend that all our clients consider responsive web design for any new handcrafted website we build. Having your business website detect the type of device each website visitor is not only best practices but also extremely beneficial for conversion and attracting more customers.

The post Benefits Of Responsive Web Design! appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Web Design for Amity Teachers

2014-12-17T15:23:10Z

In early spring we received a call from a terrific education provider looking for handcrafted web design. The Marketing Director at Amity Teachers had been researching web design companies and after several weeks decided that Isadora Design was the ideal fit for her company. Over the next couple weeks we learned a lot about the business. After the brainstorming session took place at Isadora Design’s headquarters in Manhattan Beach, CA we knew we had a unique opportunity in our hands. Amity Corporation began as the children’s division of AEON Corporation founded in 1973. It very quickly grew as an industry leader providing high quality English education to children in Japan. In 1994, Amity began independent operations by opening its own branch schools and by creating its own curriculum. Today Amity welcomes over 23,000 students to class each week at over 80 branch schools.

The Amity schools are built with using modern and colorful design to attract young students and their families. Amity continually revises its curriculum, textbooks, and materials to ensure high standards for education are met. Native English teachers use a dynamic teaching methodology, which combines visual, audio, and kinesthetic principles to develop the students’ language skills. Teachers sing, dance and play educational activities in the classroom so that learning is fun!

With Amity Teachers we have an education provider that is truly dedicated to the success of students. They also understand that an incredible teaching staff is an enormous resource. Amity native English teachers not only help students learn the English language, but also encourage students to work hard to achieve their goals and dreams. We wanted the web design to reflect Amity’s values.

The fact that the parent corporation was all the way in Japan was no problem whatsoever. We worked together to bring to life the Amity experience with a unique website. A vibrant color palette replaced what was once dull and lacking fun. We really wanted the new website to be eye-catching and to capture the youth in all of us. The focus here is all about the children and great photography allowed us to capture that nicely. The ID Illustration Package is one of our most popular add on services and really helped bring this website to life. In fact, almost every website page has some illustration flavor of one type or another. It definitely takes a bit of time to create all this from scratch but the final product is well worth it. The recruiting locations and city landscapes were all hand made by our Sr. website designer Isabel – she is just masterful when it comes to creating original illustration work and character design.

We also helped simplify Amity’s application process by allowing teacher’s to apply online via the new submission form. Making things super easy and convenient – when it comes to contact forms and online applications is what it’s all about. The application form was simplified and made much easier and faster to complete. The data fields were made large and easy to read. The entire form takes under a minute to complete and submit.

When the design and development was completed we knew we had something special. So it was not long before the website was submitted to various places for web design awards. The recognition alone was exciting as everyone who participated was quite proud. The handcrafted web design stands alone and those looking to teach in English in Japan will have no problems remembering where to find this unique website!

The post Web Design for Amity Teachers appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Illustration for web design

2014-11-14T10:51:55Z

If you really want to grab your audience’s attention and hold them in captive amazement, you’ll need someone who understands the principles of illustration for web design not just their way around a graphics program. Great illustrators capture people’s attention by knowing how to interpret the smallest of details. They then use these details to tell a larger story – often a memorable one that lasts

For starters truly great illustrators are in demand. These artists know how to draw and are able to breathe life into the characters and doodles that make your customers take a second and third glance. They know how to research and develop a drawing and brand style, from basic hand-made sketches to creating the form, shapes and contour right up to the final polished piece of art. Some illustrators start with various sized pencils or brushes and paper to create gesture drawings. They then take those drawings to the computer and finish the illustration for web design right on the spot. Others illustrators may choose to go directly to digital format and create the illustration from scratch that way.

If you’re looking for an illustrator to create a custom piece of web design art make sure you do some homework so that you have an idea of what you’re looking for. You may find that the lines between fine art and illustration blur as many of the great illustrators often produce both. You’ll also find that web designers and illustrators have a completely different set of skills entirely – an excellent web designer does NOT make a good illustrator. So it’s always best two have the responsibilities broken out and managed by two different experts!

At Isadora Design we have always been captivated by this old and beautiful art form. We know that illustration for web design help your web design pages leap from your computer. Custom illustrations stand out and captivate your audience which makes this art form a fantastic way to engage your customers. While not every web design company offers hand-made illustrations we believe it’s a perfect way to complement our handcrafted web design products. We hope that along the way some of these memorable illustrations end up recognized as timeless art.

Author: Brice F
Co Author & Sr. Editor: Alex M

The post Illustration for web design appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.

Benefits of a Professional Web Design Company

2014-11-14T10:52:06Z

So what are the benefits of hiring a professional web design company? While it may seem obvious to many it’s not a bad idea to post a little refresher. Sometimes pointing out the obvious and explaining it in detail helps clarify things even further. For starters, most established web design companies have several years of expertise under their belt. This concentration of know-how is a huge positive as your company will benefit from this over the life of the project and for years afterwards – sometimes without even realizing it! A web design company should guide you through the technical issues and steer your business in the right direction. They are an invaluable resource that you can tap into with business questions as it pertains to your website. Offering a bit of business guidance is not uncommon. Think of how many different companies a web design company has the privilege of working with. A talented web design company can easily have dozens of active clients and have worked with hundreds of companies from various industries.You’ll want to take full advantage of that knowledge base as it will help you make the best decisions.

High quality web design cuts through all industries. Not so with many other services as a lack of industry expertise is usually a detriment when it comes to other types of services where comprehensive industry knowledge is crucial. Who better to ask about what customers want or look for in a website? Or what the right look and feel should be or all about the best user experience? There are several benefits to hiring a professional website design company. Below are the TOP 9 Benefits that come to mind.

Increase Conversion more people submitting your contact form means more qualified leads!	Boost eCommerce Sales through a convenient, smooth and seamless shopping experience	Provide Instant Credibility great design leaves a lasting impression and impacts a customer’s perception of your brand
Online Presence Dramatically improve your company’s	Improved Online Marketing (new customers, brand loyalty) = Operational Success – check out our blog on how website design impacts marketing success!	Convenience nowadays consumers want to discover, shop and even learn all about your business without ever leaving the office!
Expertise & Specialization let’s face it, web designers, illustrators, branding designers, and developers are true experts of a highly technical art form	Business Consultant work with hundreds of clients across numerous industries	Partnership lot’s of questions answered and often invaluable insight.

Wow – is it any wonder why website design continues to receive so much attention? Just look at the various different areas it impacts. Having built hundreds of websites we can speak from experience. Business is tough enough as it is – the least you can do is make sure you have an online store front that best represents your brand, engages your customers and increases conversion!

The post Benefits of a Professional Web Design Company appeared first on Journal | Isadora Design.