Archive for June, 2009

New website revamp for Lobler & Delaney

This is how the current Lobler & Delaney website looks.

We designed this website a few years back and it now needs a bit of a revamp. The team has been working on a quick and simple redesign to bring the website up to date with current standards – things change so fast in the world of technology.  We are suggesting implementing the following changes.

1. We have reused the logo, brand and colors for consistency.  This was intended as a revamp and not a full redesign.
2. The existing website is a skinny 800px wide which was normal at that time, the new website is larger at 1000px.  Providing more room for their content and information.
3. The existing website was stuck on the left hand side of the screen.  With so many different screen sizes available now (I use a laptop with a larger widescreen monitor), it is no more usual to center the page in the middle of the screen.
4. The menu position and size allows for a bit more space, we thought that you might like to add a blog for example.
5. Contact numbers/emails displayed prominently in the banner.
6. The main page will no longer have the internal scroll bars – instead the entire page will just grow if there is a lot of content.
7. New images are being used in the banner to brighten up the website, yet still retaining the same look and feel.
8. The left hand side of the page (next to the vertical line) have been earmarked for some interactive content.  Testimonials, links to blog, links to twitter, twitter updates, recent news – that kind of thing.

So what do you think?

Website Examples | 23.06.2009 17:32 | No Comments

Tip 10 – People don’t read websites

A website will not function in the same way as brochure. A brochure is tangible, can be taken away by your potential clients and read at their leisure. Your potential clients can flick through the pages, feel the quality of the paper and generally ooze a bit more time over reading about your products and services.

A website has none of these luxuries

• Websites will not leap out at potential clients
• Your visitors will not read the web pages in the same order
• Website are rarely browsed at leisure
• Hardly ever do people look at websites in groups or pairs
• Websites are flat and if your website uses a poorly designed menu structure then it is easy to accidently burry important information deep within it’s virtual pages

Your website needs to act as a tool to get people to call/purchase something and its needs to do this efficiently. Help people to do this by cutting out all the waffle and keeping this simple.  If you need a lot of pages to explain your products or services then try to provide a hierarchy and plenty of methods for people to find out *more* information – including emailing you, calling you, signing up for news letters, downloading PDFs, requesting full information by post, and extra web pages.

And never assume that people will read your pages in the same order.  If you have some really important information that people should read – include it on every page.

Everything else | 16.06.2009 22:07 | No Comments

When is it good to give away complimentary work?

If I may refer to the economic climate -  I am sure that most of you running your own businesses will agree that it’s pretty dire at the moment.  Closing a sale is much more work than it used to be.  People are a bit unsure about spending their money and are quite rightly taking extra care and consideration before parting with it.

If your business is service related then now is the time to start working extra hard!  Whilst it is not possible to always give away free products, giving away some of your time could really work for you.  Especially if you are not as busy as you were this time last year.

When I think about how much work we gave away when we first started out it makes my eyes water – however giving away free websites was an effective method of getting us “out there”.  Now that we are established we try not to give away free work as much as possible. 

However due to the economic climate – we have had a bit of a re-think. We have selected two existing clients to receive a complimentary website overhaul.  There are a number of reasons for this

1. We are a bit quiet at the moment and I cant have the team twiddling thumbs!
2. I believe that the owners of the website can provide some great referrals for us once their website are updated
3. The website owners use their websites all the time and over the past few years have pretty much outgrown the current designs. 
4. Both website were for start up businesses two years ago which now have a clear online strategy and know how they will be using their websites.
5. Most importantly I think we could now do a really marvelous job and that the new revamped websites will look great on our website portfolio.

Having a great portfolio is so important to us. Currently our website gallery pages show a range of websites that we have completed, those with smaller budgets and those with larger budgets.  We ultimately want to improve our reputation and portfolio, so giving away free upgrades to wonderful existing clients seems like a great idea.

What can you give back to your clients?

Digital Marketing | 10.06.2009 16:28 | No Comments

Tip number 9 – use original images

Where possible use original images.  Stock images are great, but you must have noticed that some just seem to appear in all the mags, brochures and websites?

Its always much more refreshing to see some original photography. If you have products to sell then using a professional photographer is a must – they will ensure that your products look a million dollars and the investment will pay for itself in no time. If you sell a service then a nice picture of yourself (with a smile!) will go a long way.

Remember that the images you use on your website are there to aid the selling process and not to confuse your visitors. 

Everything else | 10.06.2009 16:01 | No Comments

Tip number 8 – Ask the question

Calls to action.

If you want your website visitor to book, buy or register for something then ask! You could waffle on for a full page but if you do not include instructions on what you need your visitor to do next – the chances are they will just move on.

Provide plenty of opportunity through the whole website for people to get in touch and convert to a lead.

Everything else | 5.06.2009 20:08 | No Comments