Today we launch the new design4brand home page, with the specific goal of increasing contacts and client contracts. We’ve applied insights and tips from our friends at Marketing Experiments to increase clarity and reduce friction. The fancy term for this is “landing page optimization.” What it means is that your website visitors know where they are when they hit your site, what they should do, and why they should do it. Why should they buy your products or services?
So, what specific changes have we made? The graphics at the top remain, but we now have a stronger and clearer value proposition. Visitors know right up front what we do and how that may benefit them, and how they can contact us to start the discussion. The flow of information follows a natural progression with a call to action.
We’ve moved the educational components of branding strategy from the home page. We thought we were so smart in placing tips and tricks right there so that clients would realize just how smart we were.  Now we know better. Now we want to connect with our clients’ issues first, then educate them later. We still have our search engine optimization words so that you’ll find us organically, but now you have clearer information as to whether our services match your needs.
We are now certified by Marketing Experiements in the area of Landing Page Optimization - which simply means that we can help you get more sales once a customer finds your website. 

Popularity: 43% [?]

I recently participated in a survey conducted by Forrester Research. The results: spending for E-Marketing and B2B social media will likely remain the same or increase over the next year. In spite of the economic downturn, interactive marketing continues to be seen as a worthwhile investment across 333 businesses that Forrester surveyed. Investment categories included blogging, social networking, email, and search optimization. Traditional marketing tools, such as display ads, should see a decrease in budgeted dollars.

A full 70% of recipients said that their spending would stay the same or increase. As you might expect, professional services, financial services and E-Marketers were the most likely to say they would continue to invest in interactive marketing tools.

How about you? Is this where you’re spending your dollars? If so, you should have an overall game plan and mapped out campaign, and a way to measure success. This is way to make your emarketing a tool for long-term growth and success, not just the “next great gimmick” to try out.

E-Marketing should be an important part of your marketing and brand strategy. Incorporate it wisely for the long-haul.

Popularity: 36% [?]

What makes someone choose your brand over another? How do your products reflect your brand identity? As your promise of what you stand for in the marketplace, your brand must be both relevant to consumers and different from your competition. When you design for your brand, you integrate marketing analysis and design instincts. What’s going to be relevant to your customers is based on where your products are in their market life cycle, and on the spoken and unspoken needs of your customers.

You may have a technology advantage over your competition, but is that what is important to your customers? Your brand design elements must show your customers that you get them. They must not only communicate the functional advantages, they must radiate the emotional cues that attract and retain your customers.

Do your brand elements engage senses other than sight? What does your brand sound like? Smell like? Taste like? What is its feel? Effective brand identity design considers multiple ways to express your brand persona and value proposition, all aimed at reinforcing customer preference.

Popularity: 45% [?]