The Create Design Studio Newsletter | November 2009

Developing your brand is about creating a relationship with your customers based on their perception of your organisation. Start not with what you sell but those who will buy it and find the appealing values that your organisation shares with them to give your organisation a personality they can relate to.

Successful branding helps to make sales easier because trust has been created between customer and organisation. Creating this kind of successful brand doesn’t happen overnight but it can be supported by making your organisation accessible to customers on the web.

A blog is a type of online diary, often used by businesses to publish articles about issues and events relevant to their industry that will be of interest to their customers and their peers. It can be hosted separately from your main website or the free blogging software can be installed on your web-server to integrate your website and your blog. Some smaller companies or freelance workers only have a blog as the software is versatile and can be used in a similar way to a traditional website with pages for services, products and contact information. You can update your blog as often as you like and as soon as you hit the ‘Publish’ button your articles are live on the web and can be indexed by search engines.

Blog-posts can be effectively promoted through the use of the social networking site Twitter where users write their current status in messages of 140 characters or less. These messages can contain hyperlinks that direct readers to your blog post, your website or to any other online resource you want to promote.

Your Twitter status can also be linked so it updates your Facebook status and your status on the Ecademy business networking site, meaning you only have to write updates once and all the people who ‘follow’ you will be informed. If you are trying to spread the word out about a new product or service it is obvious that linking your updates this way could provide an effective and low-cost way to promote them online.

These websites can also prove useful in other ways. By posting questions to those in your network others can respond quickly with personal recommendations and links to information resources. Additionally, social networking can enable you to keep in touch with friends and business contacts you may not often be able to meet up with in-person due to geography or lack of time.

Social networking has received coverage in the mainstream media and on the BBC news website an article by Claire Prentice  explains how small firms are harnessing social networking for their marketing. As many small firms cannot afford to spend large sums on advertising they have turned to the social networking websites to reach a global audience with a minimal cost. Promoting special offers, new services and even to fill cancelled appointments at the last minute, updates on Twitter or Facebook build trust between customers and your organisation because they know the information comes from the source.

Social networking sites invite your customers to enter into dialogue with your company and the feedback you receive can be used to improve your services. However, your organisation also becomes open to criticism. Approach criticism as a chance to improve your service and potentially win back a customers and even this aspect of social networking for business use can have a positive outcome.

Are you a newcomer to social networking online? Here’s some tips on how to begin:

Online social networking site http://twitter.com, uses short messages to help you stay in touch with other twitter users and http://www.facebook.com is a full social networking site that allows you to upload photos, update your status and instant message other friends online at the same time as you.

Business networking sites include http://www.ecademy.com which is a large site with users from all over the world with clubs and regional networking groups you can join. You may also like to look at http://www.linkedin.com for opportunities to network with other professionals.

If you’d like to start your own blog visit: http://wordpress.com or https://www.blogger.com. Try reading a few blogs to see the breadth of writing that exists on the web. You can search Google for blogs or you can visit a blog search engines like http://technorati.com which has a list of 100 top blogs to browse. Also try http://mashable.com for blogs about the world of social media online and a series of articles on ‘How to’ that should help you if you are struggling to use any of the sites mentioned in this article.

Create Design Studio have a dedicated service for those of you who would like to start your own blog but don’t know where to begin. Setting up blogs on your existing website, designing the pages, showing you how to login and write articles as well as using Google Analytics to see how well your blog is doing. Call Create Design Studio’s Managing Director David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 if you would like to discuss having your own blog. To see an integrated blog visit: www.createdesignstudio.co.uk/blog.

If you decide to take the plunge why not look up Charlotte Lamb, Creative Director at Create Design Studio, on Twitter by searching for @charlotte_lamb to read Charlotte’s Tweets on Graphic design.

We are active networkers at Create Design Studio and 80% of our new business comes from our networking both on and off line. We have developed a rich seam of contacts that continually turn up opportunities for us.

David Woodroofe can be found most Friday mornings at BRX Hart, and on Wednesday mornings at Alton 4 Business.

Charlotte Lamb is a member of Andover MBG who meet the third Tuesday of each month at 7.30am, and writes for the MBG blog. Charlotte can also be found on Twitter.

Some of the Peer Group Learning seminars from Business Link we attend are really useful ways to pick up information and informally network with other business-people.

We have set up our own Facebook page this week (search for Create Design Studio) so expect updates from us on there soon.

Lately we have been advising on and designing e-commerce websites. It appears that shopping on the web is now firmly established and more companies are finding their website is an effective way not just to provide information on their products but to sell them.

Handles 4 Homes Website

Handles 4 Homes is a company that specialises in all kinds of door furniture and sell successfully over the internet using their full e-commerce website. We designed their site so that they can update it themselves when they receive new products or want to add special offers and promotions, so it’s a flexible tool for them to promote and sell their products.

If you want to sell using your website first consider your products and how best to organise them in product categories so customers can find what they are looking for. The menu system you put in place is vital to help customers find exactly what they want. Once they have found the product they want to buy you need to consider a system to allow payment. Also remember that you have to deliver their purchase and detail on your website how much delivery costs, this is vital information for your customers.

Selling online could help your business to reach new customers, if you already have a website it could do more than just provide information and contact details. Updating your products, adding promotions and special offers all help to keep customers coming back for more. Because your website is available all day and night to anyone in any part of the world, and increasingly on mobile devices, there is great potential for driving sales through your website.

Create Design Studio can help you to build an online shop and advise on all aspects of selling online, from processing payments to marketing using email newsletters. Call Create Design Studio and talk to David or Charlotte on 01962 737989.

Low tech and low cost does not necessarily mean low effectiveness when you are marketing your company. Postcards can be a good way to build your brand by combining image and text to present your company to potential customers and convey information about your services, location and contact details.

The postcard below was designed for a new company specialising in massage. The photo shows happy and healthy people and sets the tone for the information on the card in a positive way. The text and images together help to convey that massage can bring health benefits to anyone and this builds upon the company’s philosophy.

Well... Postcard

Even as a budget-concious start-up you can have geat photography on your marketing materials by using a photo library, the image cost less than £40 for a large version used on a pull-up banner and was used on all the marketing pieces produced. Once bought you can use the image on your website too.

You might hand out cards at events, leave them in dispensers, do a letterbox drop or post them out to contacts. By leaving a small blank space on each card you can also label or code them in batches to see what distribution method produces the best sales results.

Tonicity Group Publicity Postcard

A postcard also give you the opportunity to receive information back from your customers. Add boxes for customers to complete and you can find out how effective your marketing activities are as well as keep in touch with those who return the completed cards.

Create Design Studio have lots of online and offline marketing ideas, for businesses of all sizes. Call Create Design Studio and speak to David or Charlotte on 01962 737989.

Our latest website for Venta UK: a local company who specialise in sales of safety lighting and equipment for all types of vehicle, but especially for the emergency services. This showcase of the wide range of products available from the company needed to be flexible enough to allow them to include detailed product information and photographs as well as information on their bespoke services.

Venta UK Website

The website needed to reflect the professional nature of the company and subtle enough to allow their product photos to take centre stage. Helping customers to find what they are searching for easily was addressed in their comprehensive system of menus.

To visit the Venta UK website please click here.

Create Design Studio are specialists in all aspects of new media marketing for small to medium sized businesses. If you would like to talk about your website please call us on 01962 737989 and speak to David or Charlotte.

When we were asked to produce a logo, website and stationery for the new Tonicity Clinic in London we jumped at the chance to create a complete set of branded elements.

Tonicity provide health and beauty treatments for women. They wanted their branding to reflect their customers age range and style and to be welcoming in tone.

Along with the website Tonicity needed business-cards and headed paper to allow them to begin spreading the word about the clinic.

Leaflets and flyers were also produced for them to use at exhibitions and conferences.

 To visit the Tonicity Group website please click here.

4 August 2009 – Create Design Studio, specialists in Graphic, Print and Web Design, share secrets for improving online sales through websites.

According to IMRG Cap Gemini’s recent report, the recession has started to hit online sales growth and the exponential increases previously experienced by the e-tail market have begun to slow. Whilst this is not severe, marketers’ and business owners should be aware that there are ways they can improve the effectiveness of their websites.

“A website is a marketing tool that is available all day, every day to any potential customer”
David Woodroofe, Managing Director of Create Design Studio.

Create Design Studio offer Ten Top Tips to improve online performance:

1. Good Search Engine Optimisation
   It is important that web users can easily find your website via search engines such as Google.There is a 20/80% split between the number of users that click on paid for listings, such as Google’s sponsored links and those that click on the natural or free listings.
2. Usability
   If visitors cannot find what they want quickly, they will go elsewhere.Simple menus with easy to understand page titles aid navigation for visitors. They will expect a ‘Home’ and a ‘Contact us’ page to help them find their way around.If you have many pages set up you can use a site map page and show all the pages grouped under relevant headings. Include text links at the bottom of your pages to help search engines and visitors to find major pages.Get an outsider to test your site.  Can they find a specific service, or product in the site?  Can they find out how to buy it and how do they think the navigation could be improved?How do your competitor’s websites compare?  If they have a navigation system you find particularly easy to use then copy it on your own site.
3. Good Calls to Action
   Once you have told your visitor all about your great product/service, tell them what to do next. Conditional statements can help visitors to move to the next stage of purchasing. If they need more information tell them where it can be found: by signing up to your newsletter or by telephoning your office to speak to an advisor. They may want to see more examples of your product: inform them they can email you to receive a brochure.They could want to buy or place an order, so tell them how to use your shopping cart system so they can make purchases online, or inform them how to download a form they can print out and fax back to you.
4. Information / Content
   There is no substitute for relevant information on your website. Relevant to: your product, your service, your industry sector, your customer and their demographic and their needs.
5. Visible Contact Details
   Place your phone number, fax number, email and any other way to make contact (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Ecademy) in a prominent place on your website to cater for how visitors feel most comfortable making contact.Place this information on the header of the website to ensure it will be seen first when a page downloads. Place the information on every page because as search engines find your website people may be sent to the page that suits their search the best, not necessarily the home page or the contact page. Making it easy to find contact information increases the chances of visitors using it.
6. Testimonials
   Showing how you have helped other customers provides authenticity for your services. Collect testimonials from every customer and ask them for their feedback on how your business performed. Display positive comments on every page of your site and refresh them as you get new comments, updated comments show visitors the business is ‘alive’ and show search engines that the content on the site is up-to-date, helping your ranking.
7. Special Offers & Freebies
   Use these to encourage your website visitors to part with their contacts details or subscribe to your newsletter.These can include free “How to Guides”, ‘Top Tips’, “White Papers”, widgets and gizmos that will be valued enough by your site users to make them part with their contact details so you can start to sell and market to them.
8. Google Analytics
   Is a free tool from Google that will record information about how visitors use your website. It records amongst other things:
   1. Visitor numbers, broken down into new and returning visitors
   2. Country of origin
   3. The search terms used by your visitors to find your site
   4. The URL of other websites that refer visitors to your site
   5. It will list your pages by popularity
   6. List the top landing and exit pagesThis information will help you refine your site’s keywords. You can find out which pages are the most successful on your site by seeing the ones visited most often.  Finding out where your visitors come from can help you target your marketing activities online with more precision.
9. Use of Images
   Create the right impression for your business online
   Poor quality images can be worse than no images in that they create a poor first impression for visitors viewing the site. Good photographs do not necessarily have to be expensive. There are many image libraries online where quality images cost a few pounds. Used carefully they can create a professional image for your website, illustrate the kind of people you work with or the job you do and bring your text to life.A professional photographer can cost more but will provide you with bespoke images of you, your products or services and your staff that can be used to show your site visitors an authentic image of your business. Knowing who they will be talking to or what your premises look like from the website could be a great investment if your site visitors often have to travel to your premises to access your services or buy your products.
10. Make it easy to buy from you, tell your visitors how
    Give clear instructions on how to order, who to call, where the form is located and how to send it: online, email or fax. Tell them how they can pay you, get a PayPal account to make it safe and easy, offer the option of payment by phone for those less accustomed to online shopping.If you sell services make it easy for visitors to book an appointment by having email, text message, Facebook and Twitter accounts for them to use.Give feedback quickly on purchases and appointments, people appreciate knowing their orders have been received. Always let customers know you have their payment or their request for an appointment. Set up an automated system to make it easier.

For people thinking about starting a new online business, Creative Design Studio is putting together a special package of logo, business card, letterhead and website. They can also put people in touch with other business experts who can smooth the path of starting up.

For more information visit: createdesignstudio.co.uk or keep up to date with them on Twitter: Charlotte_Lamb

-ENDS-

Create Design Studio – UK Press Office Abby Singleton
Mobile: 07739-461-061   Office:   01252-715-168   Email: abigail@singletonpr.com

The three simplest methods are to save your logo as either a JPEG, GIF or PNG file. GIF and PNG files can be saved without a background colour, but a GIF file is limited to only 256 colours, so logos with gradients or soft shadows may appear with bands rather than smooth gradients or shadows.

JPEG files do not have such a low limit on the number of colours they can contain, hence why they are the format of choice for photographs, but JPEGs cannot be saved with a transparent background.

Recent versions of PowerPoint, 2000 and newer, have a picture editing tool to allow you to set a single colour in an image to be transparent, so you can use this tool to remove the background colour of your logo. However it does not always produce satisfactory results with complex logos and you should also be aware that if the selected colour appears as part of your logo’s design it will be made transparent along with the background.

A little used format is WMF (Windows Meta File), unlike JPEG, GIF and PNG which are raster files (i.e. the files contain information about individual pixels), WMF is a vector file (stores information about objects e.g. circles, squares etc). When it comes to logos the WMF file three big advantages over the other formats:

1. Logos imported into PowerPoint as WMF can be resized without any loss in quality.
2. They have transparent backgrounds.
3. WMF files tend to be smaller than JPEG and PNG files.

Saving your logo as a Windows Meta File (WMF)

You cannot convert a JPEG, GIF or PNG into a WMF file, so you will need to go back to the original source file of your logo, provided that it was created in a package such as Adobe Illustrator or Freehand, you or your designer should be able to resave your logo as a Windows Meta File.

When saving your logo as a Windows Meta File, make sure you use the option to “save text as curves”, this will avoid any problems with non-standard system fonts that were used as part of your logo’s design.

Give it ago, having your logo in PowerPoint as a Windows Meta File (WMF) makes it much easier to use and gives you more flexibility when designing your presentations.

Posted by Charlotte Lamb, Designer at Create Design Studio

I have been attending MBG networking meetings for about 18 months, they are really friendly and a good introduction to business networking. The next meeting is on Tues June 16th from 7.30am-9am.

Usually there is a guest speaker and June is no different, MBG will be hearing from Peter Czapp from The WOW Company presenting his tips on beating the recession.

If you would like to join us take a look at the group website where you can contact the membership secretary, or drop me a message using our contact page and come as a guest.

The group has it’s own blog here.

Gordon Bull

Posted by David Woodroofe, Managing Director

On Friday 12th June 2009 at The Barcelo Basingstoke Country Hotel, on the A30 just west of Hook, Gordon Bull will be sharing his secrets to selling to bigger businesses.

Gordon is regarded as a pioneer in learning and development and has held a number of senior roles, including Vice President Training for American Express and Director of Global Learning Management for Vodafone. These provided an invaluable insight into how smaller businesses can provide core skills, products and services for large corporates.

His presentation forms part of the business breakfast networking group, BRX Hart’s, 5th anniversary celebrations.

Create Design Studio have been members of BRX (Business Referral Exchange) for almost 5 years and saw Gordon speaker some 3 years ago at one of their weekly breakfast meetings. During that presentation he gave us very practical advice on how to approach big businesses, from sending in our promotional material to how bigger businesses view smaller local suppliers.

It was all really useful stuff.

For more information either download the PDF invite or give me a call on 01962 737989 or drop me an email at david@createdesignstudio.co.uk to book your place, numbers are limited.