The role a blog plays in the success of a business hit home for me when my son was looking for a new electric guitar. He plays in a band and was ready to spend some serious money on a serious instrument. Since it’s a major investment for a seventeen-year-old, my wife and I wanted to help. Unfortunately, neither of us knows anything about guitars.
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These are critical times for manufacturers and they demand critical and highly strategic thinking. And that goes for the Web sites of all manufacturing companies, regardless of their size or product mix. Here’s why: in a recent research study by BtoB Magazine, it was revealed that 90 percent of industrial buyers go to the Internet at some point in the buying cycle. While this is not exactly a head-scratcher, the fact that more than 50 percent of buyers actually begin the purchasing process online should be a wake-up call for companies to start taking their Web sites very seriously.
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Public relations is typically what we call “earned” free publicity — press releases or article pitches, for example, which result in coverage by the media. That sort of publicity will always serve a worthy purpose. But just as Internet searches have changed how consumers and clients find potential products or businesses, paid search ads provide businesses with a new opportunity — to direct very specific messages at very specific audiences. By becoming your own editor — with a paid search ad that has a PR twist — you have access to one of the most influential and largest “publications” that exists today — Google. In the U.S. alone, Google gets 5 billion views a month. (more…)

This week, we explore the other aspect of web site design – Graphic Design – the process of generating the “look and feel” of the website, to follow our previous article on information architecture’s structural role in web design.

Effective web graphic design begins with the gathering of essential information. Before you begin designing, consider the following. What branding guidelines should you follow? Examine your current printed sales materials. Find web sites you like and determine why you like them. Determine what colors are essential – and which ones you have an aversion to (maybe mauve or margarine?). What mood should be conveyed? What images are essential? By examining these facets, you’ll be able to narrow the focus of the design, while targeting your site objectives.  (more…)