As a designer, I’ve struggled a lot with balancing the requests of the client with my own personal ideas about how a project should be executed. And I’m sure many other designers can relate when I say: Nothing is more painful than having to back down when you …
A few weeks ago we launched a website for RNC Chairman candidate Ken Blackwell. The website was built using Wordpress (the PHP CMS/blogging framework), and the layout is set up much like a blog. We integrated a lot of the social networking tools including ning, twitter, and the new facebook connect app.
Feel free to check out the new website here: www.kenblackwell.com
What is one of the best ways to keep Top of Mind Awareness with your customers? Keep in touch! With an email newsletter you can market your services to clients and prospects in a low cost way. Here are five tips to ensure the success of your email newsletter.
1. Give them a reason to open the email with a good subject
The first thing that you do when you look at an article is read the headline. Same thing goes for an email; you read the subject. Make it attention grabbing and give it a hook to entice the reader.
2. Write original content that provides solutions to a target audience.
Write to a specific group. When you address problems people can relate to, they feel like you’re writing directly to them. (Which you are!) Solid, original content is important. No matter what your area of expertise, write about what people want to know about. Write about the solutions to their key issues. Be a resource. Give them a reason to hire you.
3. Don’t use big words!
We are often tempted impress people with large words. Write as if you were speaking directly to your ideal client and do it in a conversational tone.
4. Get them to look forward to receiving your message.
Post often, but don’t overdo it. I think the golden spot is between once a week to once a month. I set up a calendar with article subjects and dates. Have a reserve of articles written and ready to go so that if an emergency comes up, you won’t miss your deadline. Readers get used to your schedule and notice when an issue is missing.
5. Invite readers to provide feedback, questions, and topic suggestions.
The goal of all this is to get people to like and trust you. Leave it open for feedback, questions, or topics to talk about. Inviting feedback opens up a one-way communication into a two-way conversation. People appreciate the opportunity to give you their opinion or ask a question.
…3 Powerful Tools to Find Your Target Audience
If you build it, they will come…or so you thought. So you have a new website, but no visitors? What do you do?
Useless.
A friend of mine, Jorge over at Reach Local, likes to use this analogy: “It’s like a gas station in a desert. You can build the best website ever, but if there are no people coming to it, it’s useless.”
Well, here are three tools you can use to increase your web traffic.
As a designer, I’ve struggled a lot with balancing the requests of the client with my own personal ideas about how a project should be executed. And I’m sure many other designers can relate when I say: Nothing is more painful than having to back down when you know you’re right. Sometimes we come across those clients who won’t budge, won’t reason, and won’t compromise no matter what we say. And it really makes us appreciate those perfect clients. So, for the benefit of both client and designer, I’m going to outline what it is that makes the ideal client.
Unlike the old sales adage, in the world of design, the clients are almost never right. And the best of them come to the first meeting already knowing that. Sure, they’ll always be the most knowledgeable person about the product, company, or individual they’re representing. But when it comes down to it, they’re coming to us for our expertise. Because we do know best. We know how to captivate the targeted userbase. We know that the font doesn’t need to be bolder. And we know that making the logo any larger will change the tone of the entire site from tasteful to downright obnoxious.
That’s why the best clients listen to their designers and respond with positive concern for the outcome of the final product, instead of demanding “The paragraph font must be larger! That’s final!” However, this doesn’t mean we designers should have carte blanche over our clients’ requests. But instead, we should listen to them when they say, “The font should be bigger,” and then find out the reasoning behind it. It may just be that the typeface is hard for them to read, or maybe there is not enough contrast. Get them to describe the problem instead of letting them just offer the solution.
Remember, our goal as designers, isn’t to just make things look pretty. Our goal is to help our clients succeed. Because when they look good, we look good.
Advice to clients: Trust us. We’re here for you. Your designer is your problem-solver, so describe how you think the design falls short instead of only offering your ideas for improvement. After all, that’s what you’re paying a professional to do!
Advice to designers: Develop that trust with your client. Walk them through your process, and show them how they’ll be involved. And also, be prepared to compromise. Because even though our clients aren’t always right, neither are we.
My favorite clients are the ones who know exactly what kind of message they want to deliver. The ones that come to the opening meeting and tell me, “Here’s what I want to say.” The most crucial part of any website is its content. Without good information to deliver to users, most websites are DOA. Unfortunately, with some clients, it’s impossible to stress the importance of generating quality content. As a result, the site’s design and bounce rate both suffer tremendously. The biggest question is, “If you don’t have anything to say, why did you want a website in the first place?”
It’s imperative to remember that users aren’t coming to websites to look at a nice-looking layout. They’re coming for information. And if there’s no information to be had, that visitor is gone. Probably forever.
Advice to clients: Figure out what it is you want your site to do for you. Decide what words you’d like to say. And we can put those words to good use. We need to know your message before we can show your message.
Advice to designers: Encourage your clients to create more content than is needed. Help them understand why it’s so important to their success. If you have to, show them examples of well populated sites with rich, meaningful content.
The very best clients (and designers!) understand that concept above all else. When I design a site, I’m doing it for the users. I think about the most effective ways to display information, how to direct users from one page to another, and how to attract them back to the site in the future. It’s my greatest concern. So when my clients don’t share the same philosophy, it’s a big let down. :(
The perfect client is willing to compromise when their designers suggest, “I think it’d be better for the user if…”, and they never let ego get in the way of creating an effective user experience. Meanwhile, the best designers need to keep their egos in check, too. Remember, it’s the client’s site. Not yours.
The thing to remember is this: The Client-Designer relationship needs to be a cohesive unit. Effective design comes from teamwork, collaboration, and shared ideals. So, all you clients and designers out there, remember to listen, challenge, and work together. Because in the end, you both need each other.
Side Note: Thanks go out to all the perfect clients we’ve had. You know who you are.
Gatorworks was recently selected to design the artwork for an upcoming event at The Howlin’ Wolf featuring New Orleans rap artist Juvenile along with Partners N Crime, MyNameIsJohnMichael, and a surprise special guest.
We enjoyed working with Juvenile on this project, and we hope to work on future projects with him. We hope to see you guys at the show on Oct. 24th!
Event poster designed by Gatorworks for upcoming musical event.
We’ve been partnering with search engine marketing firm, ReachLocal, for about 2 years now, and I’m very satisfied with the results we’ve been providing our clients. Sometimes it can take a little while to fully explain how the service works if the interested parties are not familiar with search engine advertising. However, I have been able to break down the service into essentially 7 steps below:
So, in a nutshell, that’s it! Of course, if you give me a call I can explain each one of those steps in further detail. Let me know if I can help!
I know sometimes we all think that what we do isn’t really important, or we wonder if it’s even “all worth it” in the end. We think: What else could be accomplished in the time that we spend picking fonts or finding a successful color palette? How many trees planted? How many houses rebuilt? How many children in Darfur saved? What am I doing? Does it make any sense?
Although I try to tell myself that what I do is tremendously important, I have quite a few weak moments where I feel I should pack up and join the Peace Corps.
Being the mother of a two year old boy, I have learned a lot about communicating on two separate levels, his and mine. Fulfilling the role as a “font of infinite knowledge” to my child can be fun, but it can also be an overwhelming task.
Two year old boys are constantly in the mix of things, yearning for new and exciting ways to be entertained and involved. Like with my child, the constant demand from the audience (i.e.client) to be involved with content ideas, type choices, color etc. has made the effort of a designers craft that much greater.
Like Sagmeister said,
“The audience is much more interested in design now because almost everybody is a designer themselves. This technology driven change has not lead to the predicted job losses but onto a desire for more sophisticated work from professionals.”
I know there are going to be clients that are less than easy to work with. Ones that ask you to “make it look like this (example of someone else’s work).” There is nothing more frustrating than being restricted of your creative rights. I know that if all you do is make compromises, things get less interesting, but, I want you to know there is nothing wrong with conceding, swallowing your pride and taking half damage. Keep your self-respect and commit to your responsibility of designing, but don’t be above learning about your audience.
Remember that creating experiences, even less than satisfactory ones, can’t stifle your passion to create and create effectively. Not every job can be perfect, but it’s the ones that bring “the good” back to your desires to create that make working all the more appealing.
Working on a small budget within an even smaller time frame, dealing with unreasonable demands, and being constantly pressured to tailor to a client’s needs while trying to maintain effective and inspiring ways of communicating can be daunting, but remember to use what you know to play your part and look forward to the next project.
This YouTube video is from the Castner and Walensky show on Rush Radio the other day. The hosts of the show are interviewing Louisiana U.S. Senate candidate John Kennedy on his upcoming race against Mary Landrieu, and the topic of discussion is domestic oil drilling. Before they begin the discussion, they immediately mention the campaign website at www.johnkennedy.com. Go ahead and listen to the first 30 seconds!
Gatorworks’ online advertising partner ReachLocal just received some additional funding! Read the article on TechCrunch here: Search Engine Marketing Firm ReachLocal Takes $55.2 Million. We are very excited to be doing business with such a successful company and market leader in online search!
Company Background:
WCIT 2006 is considered by many as the world’s premiere Information Technology forum. The biennial World Congress drew over 2,000 business, government, and academic leaders from 80 countries. The delegates participated in the World Congress to ensure the positive impact of IT proliferation on the global community.
Business Problem:
The logistics team for WCIT needed to manage approximately 200 volunteers. The volunteers from all over the world needed to somehow submit their availability schedules for the week of the conference as well as many other pertinent materials. Then, the logistics team would need to schedule the volunteers to specific tasks and communicate with them on a consistent basis in the days leading up to the conference.
The Gatorworks Solution:
The GW web programmers developed an online secure system that allowed each volunteer to logon and submit their work availability for the week of the conference. In addition, the system allowed the volunteers to submit other materials such as the languages they speak or their contact information during their stay in Austin, TX. The WCIT logistics team had the opportunity to login to a secure universal control panel where they could retrieve all the data and print unique reports. Mass emails to the volunteers could be distributed from the panel as well.
Lucas Daniels President, Global CEC Director, Creative & Logistics Planning for WCIT 2006 had this to say about his experience with Gatorworks:
“The system performed flawlessly enabling us to manage multiple schedules for a large group of volunteers whose valuable work was crucial to having WCIT run smoothly. Gatorworks created this important tool in record time and they were straight forward and easy to work with.”
