Have a Call to Action

This is EXTREMELY important. One marketer that I’ve worked with for a long time loves to refer to people as “dumb sheep” and his point in doing so is to make sure to remind everyone that there must be some sort of a command given (better known as a “Call to Action”…it just sounds better). Using the metaphor “dumb sheep” gives the impression that people generally wish to be told what to do and this concept is entirely correct. In every major advertisement on TV, Radio, Internet or even Newspapers there is a command given to let the customer know what to do. It has been proven over and over again that giving this Call to Action causes customers to actually do what they are being asked to, rather than just ignore the ad.

Brand the Email

As with any form of advertising you want to make sure that your company logo and tag line are present somewhere in the Email. Not only does this let the customer know where the Email is coming from (and not to Spam it) but it also creates Brand Recognition. Brand Recognition is the single most powerful tool you have in Advertising. The sooner a customer recognizes your logo, the better. This is the reason that major corporations keep advertising when in reality most customers don’t see a reason. Sooner or later a customer will become displeased with whatever product they are using and look to switch, and when they do, the brand recognition will come into play. For example, we have all seen the Geico, Allstate and Nationwide commercials. Those brands are at the forefront of our minds whenever we think about Auto Insurance. Why? They are constantly playing on Television, Billboards etc. Those logos, jingles and characters will always be in the forefront of our minds as long as the companies continue to advertise. As soon as someone decides to switch or consider a new Insurance Policy who will they call? The major corporations that have been advertising. These advertisements are not considered to be the same type as a Infomercial where the viewer is expected to immediately purchase the product. These forms of advertising are simply there to create a rapport with the customer over a long period of time.

Always include an Unsubscribe Link

This is also EXTREMELY important. Having an unsubscribe link will keep you from getting blacklisted, spammed, etc. It will keep your list fresh and with “warm or hot” leads and cut out the “cold” ones. Overall it is much better to have fewer “warm” leads than several hundred thousand “cold” ones. The “warm or hot” leads will actually purchase a product from you where a “cold” lead won’t even open the email.

Keep the Emailing to a minimum

I don’t know about you, but I cannot stand companies that send me multiple emails several times a week. I will immediately click the “Spam” button if the company begins to overwhelm my Inbox with too many emails and will no longer read them. The same concept holds true for sending out emails. A monthly or even a weekly Newsletter can be extremely informative and helpful, whereas a daily one can be overwhelming. Keeping the content down to just the most important points will help immensely. Users do not want to read through pages and pages of information. Instead, stick to bullet points and try to keep the information to a small paragraph with a “Read More” link if there is more which allows the user to decide which areas they would like to read more of.

K.I.S.S. Method

As with most things, keeping it simple is the best way. Most of us forget that the audience we are emailing to does not have the full knowledge or range of computer skills that we do so sometimes the flashy artwork is lost on that user. Try to stick to pretty simple layouts with just a couple of images and make sure to have a “Read More” link so that way you can add in the extra flashy stuff into the website.

Myth #1: I have to advertise constantly on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.

This is not true at all. In fact, the lack of advertising is why Social Media works. Now that is not to say that large corporations with profiles on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter are not going to advertise consistently about job openings, mergers, updates, etc. but for the average person trying to run their own business (a one man shop) this is not the best idea. Social Media is exactly about that, social. Users tend to make friends with people that they are interested in following because they have a common interest. Usually most “Facebook stalking” occurs when a user puts up photos of themselves, has conversations with their friends about random topics, etc. The primary rule to stick to when the company is just starting up is 80/20. Meaning 80% personal 20% business. You don’t want to advertise to the point that your friends block you because it gets irritating to them, but you do want to alert friends that you are in business and would be interested in potential leads. Best rule of thumb is to be informative without being irritating.

Myth #2: Social Media is Free

Yes, Social Media is free, but the amount of time spent using Social Media to help increase business can be amazing. I know several companies that spend obscene amounts of time to the point that they have individuals working for the company that their sole position is to work on the company’s Social Media Profiles. To translate this a little better: time=money. Every hour that is spent drumming up new business on Social Media sites is time that could be spent on other things for the business. Not to say that this isn’t time well spent, but just watch how much time is spent on these sites. It is very easy to get sucked into promoting the business and lose track of other projects that need to be completed!

Myth #3: Anyone can do it

It is amazing the sheer amounts of people that claim to be Social Media Guru’s, and quite honestly how many of them have an outstanding background or proof to show for it? However, there is a lot of aspects of Social Media that the average person can do themselves. Personally, when someone asks me to run their Social Media campaign I usually tell them no. Why? The reason is simple. If the Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account is set up under that user’s personal information, those accounts are about that person and not the business that they are running. Since the rule of thumb is 80/20 (in this case), it would be practically impossible for me to blog about their personal life, explain photos taken about them or even say what they had for lunch (since most of the clients I work with are all around the country). However, if they need help with the business aspect of the Social Media Advertising, I usually help the client and stay on call with them whenever they need me, but I encourage clients to try different things since some ideas work and others do not depending upon the company, the product, etc.

For larger, more established companies it is practically impossible to have Social Media completely under control in-house. There is just too large of an area to cover and too many updates to keep up with. In these cases its best to outsource to a company that keeps in contact with the company for updates.

Myth #4: You will make a HUGE profit in a short amount of time

Now in some cases this is true, but the majority of cases it takes some time to build up the network before a noticeable difference in sales occurs. For most people in Social Media the individual needs to have some sort of a reputation before they are willing to do business with that person. This is why references on LinkedIn or other sites are so important. It shows that the person has credentials and has others willing to vouch for them, their work ethics and standards.

Quite honestly if a company is looking to make a HUGE difference in traffic or profits in a short amount of time, I always recommend starting out with some PPC ads and starting up the Social Media at the same time. Usually by the time that the company wants to stop running ad campaigns, the Social Media has kicked in and there is some revenue building that way.

Myth #5: Create something great and they will come

This is definitely not true. It is all about getting the traffic to your website (which is why we use Social Media, SEO, Ad Campaigns, etc). The more you advertise this product, the more people will come. That does not mean that they will necessarily purchase it however. It takes an average person at least 4-5 (and most are around 6-7) times of visiting a site before they will purchase something. This means that the site has to have “stickiness” or better way to explain it, a reason for that person to stay on the site and come back over and over. This is where a blog or updates to the website (that can then be Tweeted or updated on Facebook) can come into play. If the website is not updated consistently, the SEO rankings go down, there is really nothing to advertise on Social Media sites and you lose any and all traffic to the site. Here I’m going to steal Google’s phrase of “Content is King”, because it really is.

Apparently, according to recent studies people are more apt to divulge information about themselves to websites that are more “cheesy” looking than those that are more “professional” looking. Wonder why? Well I did too until I began to think about it.

A professional site is well laid out, clean cut and overall has a very specific functionality to it whereas a “cheesy” site does not hold the same sort of rigid structure. When an individual divulged personal information about themselves they like to feel secure that the information is not only received from a reliable source but someone who will not in turn use that information against the person. The radio gave the example of a spouse revealing on a website that they were cheating on their significant other. Apparently the spouse would only reveal the truth on a site that looked more “cheesy” due to the intimidation factor. The user was more inclined to reveal personal information only when they felt safe with a site that looked familiar and unassuming. With a site that looked too well put together immediately the user feels judged and does not wish to reveal the truth.

This is just one more example of how a site needs to be designed with the user in mind. Granted this is not usually the norm, but it is something to take into consideration when designing a site for the first time.

1. Do not design a site without the functionality of the site in mind:

This to me is one of the biggest mistakes a designer can make. If a site is clearly designed without the true purpose in mind, every user suffers. Suddenly it is extremely difficult to navigate the site and areas are not clearly marked. Users tend to get frustrated and leave the site as quickly as they came.

2. Design a site for speed:

The last statistic that I read stated that the average user leaves a site if the site does not load within 3-5 seconds. It’s absolutely amazing how far we’ve come in the past few years. As a child I remember using dial-up internet where the average page took at least 10 seconds to load and we were happy with that. Now everything is instantaneous and our users demand that of all of our websites.

3. Have multiple ways to access a page:

It does seem exceptionally repetitive, but having more than one way to access areas of your site actually makes the site much easier to navigate for users. I have heard the rule of 3. Where there should be 3 different ways to access all pages. I’m not 100% sure if that is correct or not, but I have designed sites with 3 ways and most with 2. It just seems to me that 3 is a little over repetitive.

4. Design a page with advertisements not a page for advertisements:

There is a big difference there. All of us enjoy making a few extra dollars on the side, however, having a page specifically for ads does not make a good site design. I know of several companies that have made entire pages filled with advertisements in hopes of raising more money quickly  for themselves. Unfortunately, in this case, more is not better. It is fine to have a few ads on a site, but don’t make the ads so obnoxious that they overwhelm the user.

5. Design for all screen sizes and Browsers:

This is a HUGE problem that I have run into countless times.  The designer forgets that not everyone has a 1680 x 1050 screen and suddenly that amazing design turns into a squished page at 1024 x 768.  Also, every browser displays things a bit differently, but you can cut down those issues by using CSS and checking cross browser compatibility.  The more practice the better!

6. Keep the content on each page to a minimum:

People tend to get bored with constantly scrolling all the way through 30 pages of content on one website page. Simply add in a navigation with the pages listed so that way the user can get directly to the information that they need without having to search through several pages to find it.

7. Use simple colors and make sure text is easy to read:

Most users like an easy to read, more simple site. It makes it much easier to navigate and get the information that they need from the site. Bright colors can be used to attract attention to certain areas of the site, but an entire site designed in blaring colors tends to be overwhelming.

8. Make sure to test all links:

Dead links mean that the site is not user friendly and users will not want to keep coming back to the site. Periodically go through the site to make sure everything is working correctly and fix any dead or broken links.

http://www.iconfinder.net

http://365icon.com/

For example, in the field of website design / development a good programmer understands not only the basic PHP, ASP, .NET but also has a basic understanding of Flash, CSS, JavaScript, etc. It helps that individual to have a wider understanding of projects and how things should work rather than just being a grunt force. Make sense?

Basically to succeed in this economy a wider knowledge base is needed. If a company is offered either a team of web developers including a graphic designer, programmer, Flash / Animator and a layout person or just one single webmaster, which do you think they are going to prefer? What’s even better is that the webmaster doesn’t even need to have a college degree. Experience in this particular case is much more enticing since the individual will have the skill set to deal with real world issues.

So what is the best way to equip yourself with the necessary knowledge to get a position like this? Basically lots of patience. There are thousands of tutorials on the internet posted daily on each of these topics. Even if you don’t want to become a master at any one skill, take a few tutorials just to brush up on the basics. It shows your company that you are worth your salary. Not to mention, if you aren’t being paid enough, it looks even better on your resume. The really great thing about tutorials is that even if you get stuck there are tons of users in the forums to help you figure out the issues and get you going again. Its an entirely free education and all you need is time! Honestly the world is at your fingertips!

To learn a few of the basics of Illustrator, take a look at this site. If you have a basic knowledge of Photoshop, you should be fine with these tutorials. They can get a little tricky if you’ve never used some of the effects in Photoshop, but once you get the hang of things its all pretty simplistic. http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/tutorials/

Of course there are several effects that cannot be reached without using both Photoshop and Illustrator, but here are a few of my favorite tutorials that give some of the neat effects seen on various ads today. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/05/illustrator-tutorials-best-of/
And for those of you who already know the basics, here’s some advanced tutorials to learn more of the difficult techniques. http://www.khulsey.com/student.html

Personally, I prefer to use both Photoshop and Illustrator when designing a site. Illustrator allows for a much closer color match as well as several techniques that you just can’t quite get with Photoshop alone. For logos, character creation and vector art, Illustrator is definitely the way to go.

Firefox is a wonderful browser due to its add ons. There are so many unique tools to check websites with that I’m not sure how I survived without it before! Here’s a few extra add ons that help in any situation, guaranteed!
http://mashable.com/2007/08/27/30-firefox-add-ons-for-web-developers-designers/

In some cases its almost easier to start out with a pre-made CSS template and build from there, so here’s a couple of links for just that. Personally, I wouldn’t suggest using the template as a whole, but as a foundation for the site.
http://maxdesign.com.au/presentation/page_layouts/
http://cssremix.com/

For any CSS that I program I also use the site http://www.w3schools.com. They have so many great tutorials and examples that it makes building off of their ideas a lot easier.

Also, just for web designers heres some code snippets that are really helpful:
http://tutorialblog.org/25-code-snippets-for-web-designers-part1/

Markus Frind, the founder of PlentyOfFish.com has come up with the idea that a easy to use, fast to load and uncluttered site is much more appealing to users today than a “pretty” site. He’s not alone in his idea. Some of the most hit sites today are not created by design teams and perfected to the point that it’s sickening. After browsing through some of the most hit sites on the web, such as CraigsList, Google, MySpace, FaceBook etc. you’ll find that simplicity is key more so than perfection.

Robert has hit on a major point in his blog (http://scobleizer.com/2006/03/04/the-role-of-anti-marketing-design/) when he states that “we’re sick of committee-driven marketing. We don’t believe it. If we ever did.” The overall user is sick of the long loading websites created by corporate America. They feel lied to and cheated and are much more likely to trust a simplistic, easy to use website than one that’s absolutely perfect. So in my honest opinion, stick with the Roman Method; strong, simple, plain which basically means stick with a color scheme and make sure usability on your site is at its prime.

For ideas on how to optimize your site:
http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/5-ways-to-optimize-your-design.html

Put your Best Foot Forward: 19 Gorgeous Website Footers
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/put-your-best-foot-forward

Some inspiring logo art:
http://faveup.com/

Minimalistic Website Designs for those simple days:
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/minimalistic-web-design/

Feel free to post comments or questions, and as always check out our site for additional ideas and information

Usually, the client picks out a site due to the color scheme used and the cleanliness of the overall site design. I have several clients who’s favorite color is red, orange or even green but too much of any of those colors and suddenly they no longer like the look of the site. So what makes a up good balance without overwhelming the user but not to the point of boredom? There’s several theories, but I’ve helped to narrow it down a bit to a few of my favorites.

Just for the fun of it, here’s a site listing some colors & their meanings as well as the psychological reaction they give: http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

The easiest way to design a site by color is to use either a pre-existing logo or color scheme and add accent colors. For example, if you were going to sponge paint a wall, you start out with a base coat (we’ll use forest green for this example) and two accent colors. Either start with a base color (forest green) and have two varying shades for the accent colors (lighter shades of green) or start with the base (forest green) and pick two corresponding accent colors (yellow and blue). Even a base (forest green) with one accent color (yellow) and a different shade of the base (light green) can be just enough to give the website a look of it’s own without having too much color that overwhelms the user.

The use of a base color with two different shades of the base is called a Monochromatic Color Scheme. This is used to give depth and an overall clean feel and is especially useful with greens and blues. A Complimentary Color Scheme is used by selecting colors directly opposite on a color wheel. Usually this is used to give both a warm and a cool feel at the same time to balance each other. A third type of scheme is called a Triple Color Scheme. This is one of the most used color schemes of the three. By choosing three colors equally spaced around the color wheel it give the harmonious feel and allows for a larger range of colors.

Depending upon the main colors of the client’s logo or color scheme accent colors can be extremely difficult to pick. This is where a color wheel becomes very handy. Programs such as Photoshop come with a built in color wheel, but there are several websites that provide a good color wheel free of charge. This is one of my personal favorites since the color is automatically shown in a larger box along with the actual number with both web-safe and web-smart numbers. http://ficml.org/jemimap/style/color/wheel.html

Last but not least, feel free to play! Sometimes I think that children have the best overall concept for colors since they are always playing with finger paint, watercolors, or even sidewalk chalk. It can take a couple of hours to come up with just the right color scheme that will mesh with everything perfectly and don’t worry if it does take that long. Time is always a necessity to get the right look and feel. And always remember, colors are there not to overwhelm the user, but to accent the main color and attract the user’s attention to a specific area of the site.