All Posts, Content & Copywriting
One of the major ideas that we push to our clients is to continue to create new content for their website. However this is sometimes tougher than it may seem on the surface. When we think of your website, we’re looking at slight changes either in strategic keywords, new pages, new products, and new posts. One of the easier things to publish would be blog posts. Though there has to be a level of consistency, it certainly does help your search rank when you publish great relevant content.
Lets first look at what would be considered relevant:
Consider how your post will be relevant to your target audience. It isn’t enough anymore just to put out content all on the wall and hope something sticks. Or hope that one of out every 10 will be seen by someone who will find it relevant while the rest are just “there”.
Post Linking. While you may have many posts on your website and blog, linking some of your keywords to other relevant posts or product pages on your main site is actually a great way to drive more traffic to other great and relevant content.
Keep an eye on your analytics. Imagine getting behind the wheel of your car, and driving blind folded. It’s just as much of a bad idea as creating new content for your website, yet not paying attention to what keywords, links, and other data is bringing people to your website. Also seeing what your bounce rate is for your pages and dissecting them to find ways of either matching the expected content or installing new widgets like videos to keep visitors on your pages for a longer time.
Blog posts should be consistent. When considering a blog for your website, understand first that it is not an easy job. You’ll need to create great content on a regular basis. So your first few posts will be a breeze because they’ll most likely be things you talk about in your sales pitches, but in the long run it will be challenging. So you may want to start with 1 or 2 posts a week and on strategic days of the week and at strategic times. For example Mondays and Tuesdays around 9-11AM are great times for business and marketing articles, while weekend late mornings are great for other posts.
Trending topics within your industry. You should already have your finger to the pulse of your industry. New developments on the horizon, software updates pending for release; these are all great topics that many professionals in your audience will be talking about. So give them something to talk about, but from your own company perspective. Everyone may be looking forward to Windows 8 mobile coming out, but what if you have some constructive points about it that no one has yet discovered.
So we’ve covered a good few things today. Do you have some additions to what we’ve discussed? Please feel free and add your comments below.
Image credit: noomhh / 123RF Stock Photo
All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Marketing
The keys to persuasive, effective marketing materials are great design and informative, persuasive content. Content is both words and supporting imagery that conveys what benefits a consumer will derive from the product/service you are offering. Think of brochures as either the initial “handshake” of your business with a client or the last impression. Your business cards and brochures are essential parts of your brand and can certainly impact the marketability of your business and attracting potential clientele. This week I’d like to highlight the key components to a stand out & effective brochure.
Content can include charts, images, diagrams, listings and other graphic elements that highlight key benefits of your business services/products. Also use of calls to action can be critical to persuasion and getting the consumer to act on your solicitation. Also know that the caliber of writing of your brochure will certainly determine the effectiveness of your message and brand. If you aren’t the greatest writer, farm it out to a business or colleague that can.
White space is an essential part of every single marketing piece, namely brochures. The lines between text and imagery are white space; which allows your readers’ eyes relax and gives them a momentary break from the content. You never want intake overload but also don’t want your content to look too sparse. White space can also be used to separate important points. For example, the brochure below is an example of too much white space & too little content.
Colors evoke feelings and emotions, and can certainly help to build a customers’ first or last impression of your business. The colors you select for your brochure design should definitely compliment or match the colors in your logo or company name. Use of vibrant colors should be done in selective areas and in moderation.
Font selection be stylistic but be easily readable and the size should be chosen based on the volume of information you are trying to convey. It should not be too large (over 14 pt.) or too small (less than 10 pt.) The font should reflect your brand style and set the tone of your organization – elegant for a bridal shop, powerful for an auto body shop. Lastly, the body copy font should differ from your headlines, but you should not exceed the use of 3 different fonts within your brochure design.
Paper selected should be reflective of the quality of your business…Yeah, I said it. Using flimsy paper or a cheap card stock may give a flimsy impression of your business. Choosing glossy or matte finish is purely subjective.
Imagery plays a critical role just like your written content. Take your time when selecting the right imagery and the placement of them. Also, do not forget to check your resolution on the images you select. The higher the resolution the better your picture will come across in print. The lower the resolution, the more blurry and unprofessional your brochure will look when printed. FYI -300 dpi or higher is best for clear, color printing.
The Design of your brochure should be simple but effective. Feel free to break away from the normal trifold and display your brand & company character. 
Among the sea of typical trifolds, how do you make your brochure stand out?
About Design Theory, All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Web Design, WordPress
Most of the web design industry may be on WordPress overload but majority of us still can’t get enough. The WordPress, “I’m Lovin’ It” faithful-following understand that it has quickly become one of the fastest growing, most popular content management systems (CMS) for blogging, if not the most popular CMS overall. It’s extremely quick to install as well as easy to navigate and master. And they are consistently evolving across all platforms with simplistic, internal update features and plugins that are only a few clicks away in the backend. Often, there are no external file downloads even necessary! One of the best parts is that it allows both web design companies and individuals alike to produce dynamic websites without extensive knowledge of web development or code writing. Unlike traditional HTML sites, WordPress is extremely cost-effective and easy to change over when you tire of the layout look. If you want a fast turnaround with minimal time invested, look to web design firms such as Design Theory to supply you with a customized, stunning website with lightning fast turnaround at a start-up budget price.
If there’s a WordPress for Dummies TM (yeah, there really is) you have to know there’s some industry staying power and it is more than just a flash in the pan or temporarily trending on Twitter. They’ve definitely invested in their place at the table of content management systems. Some skeptics may wonder, well is it really that easy? As a non-code writing web content designer, I can say yes it is. And as I’ve quickly learned, if there’s something you don’t understand, there is a TREMENDOUS amount of help and documentation online you can find on nearly every aspect of customizing your WordPress website. If you can dream it, chances are it’s already been done with WordPress and documented somewhere tangible and therefore learnable.
WordPress also has one of the widest varieties of plugins and themes to choose from giving a seemingly endless realm of design possibilities. Let’s look at some of the recently added & most popular layouts. Looking for a simple way to showcase your photos? Check out this Free Photo WordPress Theme. Have a blossoming political career or want to blog about and propel your choice candidates’ ratings? Political Blogging WordPress Website gives you sound bites right on the homepage and yes that is our current Prez Obama on the 4th slide. If those don’t titillate your visual & artistic senses, feel free to peruse these Top 100 Most Beautiful WordPress Themes highlighted by TopDesignMag.com.
While these great themes are indicative of the WP developer bug bite, WP and its growing community of contributing developers do their best not to skimp on flash or fun. How creatively, fun are widgets! A Widget? For those who don’t know, it’s an on-screen device/application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user such as a clock, calendar, image, daily weather, etc. This allows putting your own style & spin to most WordPress themes/layouts. And speaking of spin…a great example of having more WordPress amusement can be the Flash Image Carousel plugin, which circulates a variety of images/photos in a cool, circular motion versus the typical, right to left slide show. WordPress Plugins are great tools that extend the functionality of your WordPress website and currently there are 21,820 plugins available directly on WordPress’s website (as of today that is).
Another feature that we all love is the ease of Drag and Drop content editing which makes content placement a cinch with 2 clicks. Oh and the list goes on and on…With WordPress it seems that if you can conceive it someone creates it and that’s the best part of being WordPress user and fan. So if you’re already an enthusiast or are curious about becoming one, check out some of the latest WordPress innovations via WordPress TV. What, their own online TV station – what’ll they think of next? Apparel? Say it isn’t so…sorry we can’t because you can wear it loud and proud via WP Apparel. Needless to say they’ve proven that the sky’s the limit and I’ll be tuning in to find out what’s hot from these tried, true and trendy website theme makers.
Lastly, to the Big W…if you couldn’t already tell –
Aw shucks, we love you guys!
~ Content Writing Inspiration ~ 
“A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.” Frank Capra
About Design Theory, All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Web Development
Last week Design Theory allowed the outside world an inside look at our audience numbers for our weekly blog postings via Peeking Underneath the Hood at Your Blog #’s. It was great to get feedback by email and comments on the blog as to what people thought of our exposure and how that helped them to consider the importance of analytics. Most companies should know that tracking their visitors through a source like Google Analytics includes hits from search engines, pay-per-click networks, email marketing, displayed advertising and the like. Off-site analytics, like the ones I’ve demonstrated here, are to measure not just the website’s current audience but also it’s potential audience and what we at Design Theory can do to create more opportunities, exposure and buzz (aka comments) about our services. So, the analysis of our web data helps to improve the website and our blog content for Design Theory and it’s visitors.
During the last week of September
887 Page Views vs. preceding week’s 994 Page Views
As opposed to last week, this week we see a significant increase in readership directly from www.jpdesigntheory.com. Additionally, the top referring website is still Google but there seems to be a little less traffic via Google UK than the week preceding and Google.com jumped 46 more than last week as well. Last week there were very few unique readers on Monday & Tuesday (how readers are tagged via a persistent cookie that stores and returns a unique id value so that Client V is always the same Client V whenever he/she comes back to the website) but this week, there are definitely more than its predecessor (361 vs. 221). That’s great because that tells us we are reaching new people and therefore more potential clientele. As far as the blogs go, Daphne & I are still neck & neck, which once again confirms that our blogs and tags are working well for us. Lastly, as ironic as it is, our top view location moved from Ulaanbaatar, New Mexico last week to Meriden, CT this week. I can’t explain that one at all! But at least it reflects the diversity of our readers and confirms that Design Theory has a worldwide presence.
During the first week of October
717 Page Views
What I also notice right off the bat is that Tuesdays readership fell drastically and I know exactly why. I was on vacation and didn’t blog. Yes that’s right, I did it…I took a vacation and I’m not sorry about it. And although I’m not happy the numbers dipped, it did provide us with some solid intel. It shows that I have a reading audience and there is value in the content I create weekly for the blog. So Daphne metaphorically DUNKED on me HARD but that’s ok. Despite having different titles and talents, we have the same goal. And that ultimate goal is increasing the ROI that those talents provide via the blogs and the work we do for our clients.
As detailed in the Audience Stats, our number of visits/readers let us know that people are accessing our website and whether or not we are capturing new audiences. However, something this particular report doesn’t reflect (but should definitely be considered) is the bounce rate. The bounce rate tells us how many people come to our site and quickly left it. Now there are plenty of reasons that happens. Maybe someone had to answer their door or walk their dog…but most often it reflects that they didn’t find what they needed or became bored with the content. There’s no room for ego when looking at these numbers I must tell you. Because what it does is identify areas that we could improve on like imagery, written content and the ease of navigation throughout the website.
So once again we learn, we grow and do better. I’m encouraged by our numbers while knowing there’s ALWAYS room for improvement and I look forward to continue to write and put out great content & tidbits to our readers and clients.
~ Content Writing Inspiration ~
The beginning is easy; what happens next is much harder. ~ Anonymous
All Posts, PRESS RELEASE
Design Theory is an Orlando based design firm that provides services in web design, graphic design, content writing, and social media.
Lead by Jean Perpillant, and a team of six other creative, we are proud to play a big role in the 2012 Orlando WordCamp. We have found that WordPress to be a fantastic content management system, and offering it to our clients to manage their own sites once we’ve built them have landed us many great reviews.
By using the open sourced WordPress platform, Design Theory is able to create brilliant websites that are not only aesthetically pleasant but also functionally sound. We’ve created websites for dentists, radio talk show hosts, clothing retailers, non-profits, and many more. Integrating social media and Google analytics allows us to take our client websites to new heights in SEO and social engagement, and we look forward to sharing these insights and more at the 2012 Orlando WordCamp Conference.
With WordCamp being such a well-known conference in the web community, and Orlando quickly growing as a technology force on the East Coast, we feel it really sets the stage for a great time for learning and networking with others in our community. The scale of this event is quite large, and we anticipate the take-a-ways that all the attendees will have from it will be exponential.
For more information, please visit the official website of the 2012 Orlando WordCamp website. Be sure to reserve your tickets today, as space is sure to fill up quickly.
About Design Theory, All Posts, Content & Copywriting, Social Media
Jean Perpillant, owner, head honcho and web designer extraordinaire of Design Theory and I recently had a conversation about the importance of Social Media and in particular, blogging. Oftentimes one of the hardest parts of our (and in particular my) job is getting clients to believe that professional blogging is a worthwhile cause and can be a great contributor to your business’s success. See a previous blog I wrote on that subject at http://bit.ly/WaawSu. So as we were talking about our own numbers and the ROI therefrom, I suggested lifting the hood on our analytic statistics to prove just how vital this is to the exposure and growth of your business and that business’s profitability. He loved the idea of using our own transparency to prove the validity of our belief to outside clients that there is a tangible benefit To Blog or Not to Blog. No dirty overalls or Goop needed, here we go…
The early part of September hits on our weekly blogs – 572 Page Views
As you can see, we have 3 main contribution sources for our readership this particular week-those who come through our blog being indexed on Google, visits to our blog through visiting www.jpdesigntheory.com directly and others through various alternative search engines. As you can see, the top referring websites that contribute to our audience statistics are Google & LinkedIn with majority this weeks of readership coming from our blogs being indexed on Google. Ah yes, the power of Google.
At Design Theory, we know that our readership is vital to getting our name out there not only in the World Wide Blogosphere but also to the masses as a whole. We’re not a huge corporation with various satellite offices (YET!) but we know that having a world wide presence is the key to meeting our company goals as well as attaining clientele outside our hubs geographic region in Orlando, Florida. What you can also see from the Audience Stats, is that Tuesday happens to be our highest number of reads for this particular week. Knowing that information is important because it tells us at DT, that the early part of the week is the best time to post and also can help clue us in as to who is posting on that day & the impact that person has our readership. Monday is right behind Tuesday for readership and I happen to know that those 2 days blogs are written by Daphne Lenti, our lead Graphic Designer on Monday and me, your happy Wordsmith & Content Marketeer (love the title right!) on Tuesday. What it additionally shows Daphne & I is how important our blogging is to the exposure of our company AND that people are interested in what we have to say & that we have a well-respected level of knowledge on what we write about. It also shows that our connections on LinkedIn are working as an additional exposure source through our professional networks and the groups we are affiliated with on there.
The 3rd week of this month – 994 Page Views
What you see right off the bat is that our Page Views have dramatically increased by 442! Additionally, the 3 main contribution sources to these statistics remain the same but take note of the jump from 24 visits via LinkedIn to a whopping 148 visits in just 2 weeks! Once again Daphne & I are neck in neck until we get to a spike in readership on Thursday. Also note that the top viewing location has changed from Tijuana to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. I have no clue why but talk about a world wide presence!
So the crux of our To Blog or Not to Blog and reason for our behind the scenes look at our blogs, is to put our own “argument” to the test and to show you that we practice what we preach to our clients. Oh, and it works!
~ Content Writing Inspiration ~
This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back again.
~Oscar Wilde
One of the major ideas that we push to our clients is to continue to create new content for their website. However this is sometimes tougher than it may seem on the surface. When we think of your website, we’re looking at slight changes either in strategic keywords, new pages, new products, and new posts. One of the easier things to publish would be blog posts. Though there has to be a level of consistency, it certainly does help your search rank when you publish great relevant content.
