Design

4 Reasons Your Website Doesn’t Work

Posted in: Advertising, Blog, Creative, Design, Marketing, Web Design by Paul McEwan on November 7, 2011 | No Comments

“How do I get leads from my website?”

I am asked this all the time. I must sound like a nutty-internet-social-media zealot when I answer  those who have been successfully doing the old school sales thing for years and years without a real online presence. So sometimes my consultation is met with a glazed expression, silence at the other end of the phone or an email response about Mary Poppins; It doesn’t get very far and my creativity is superseded with the client’s own more excellent ideas. There are many reasons a website doesn’t work that are obvious from terrible design to poor content. That list is long. Here is a short basic list of how to hire someone to make a website that doesn’t work.

1. Place little value on creative marketing ideas involving the gain of website leads. Do not take any professional consultation seriously.
   Every business is different and every solution is different. Without an audit the quick answer to “Why isn’t my website working?” is always the same: Do the basics. Want to push past your competitors? Then for the love of all things don’t be just like them.
2. Spend as little as possible on the website marketing budget because it’s supposed to just get found in Google anyway.
   A nice looking store on the corner of a busy city street doesn’t always get the business it deserves if the sign isn’t clear, it looks closed, has no access and no parking. Whether it’s viral marketing or traditional marketing, at least have a plan. If the plan isn’t followed we’ll then know why the site didn’t work.
3. Have the website automated so you never have to touch it. Your phone number on the homepage should work.
   This is taking the view that the internet is not entirely real and a website is just a cost of doing business. Imagine walking into an open house where the agent is a cardboard cut out with a pasted on grin and a motorized arm waving  back and forth. The feature sheets are there with a “please take one” sign and we follow a roped off path through the home. Yea, it would work I guess.
4. Have the site created so it will be all things to all people. Avoid focusing on a target group of search terms.
   Specializing in Vancouver Real Estate is like a lawyer announcing they specializing in legal stuff. Come on. Have some balls and choose a market, geographic, demographic or caged monkeys. Choose it.

This internets stuff is a tough sell for some. Those who don’t like being on line, don’t have time for it or simply don’t care. They have been successfully doing the same thing for years. If they are in sales then it is probably a front loaded business which is to say, they have to jump through hoops, have meetings, drive people around, gathering documents and hold hands to get the sale closed. It’s a lot of free personal time with their clients before they close the deal and see any monetary gain. It’s no wonder the internet seems to contain little or no value to them. I understand this.

Just remember, online marketing is the most scalable choice for the small business. It’s measurable and most eyeballs start their search online for almost everything. Even if it’s something a prospect needs to see and touch in person before a final decision, the search will start online. Social media is getting easier for people to use – we are just at the beginning of what the internet might eventually be, and already is: A real space thick with engagement, communication and networking places.

Do you have a question or something to add? Please do so below or contact me today

Protected: Social Media and SEO Package

Posted in: Blog, Clients, Company News, Creative, Design, Marketing, Technology by Paul McEwan on May 29, 2011 | No Comments

Social Media Links added to myRealPage’s Dynamic Contact Weblet

Posted in: Blog, Design, myRealPage, Real Estate, Technology by Paul McEwan on January 7, 2011 | No Comments

A new feature was added to myRealPage today that enables an average user to add their social media links with icons in their contact information. You can read about it on their website at Adding support for Social Media links to the websites.

How does it work?

There are two basic steps.

1. Add your links in the Site Settings of your website staging area and publish.
2. Add the Contact Info Weblet into a page of your website (Manage Content) making sure the Hide Social Media remains unchecked and publish

What does this mean to you?

This is basic administration. You don’t have to ask a designer to this for you and you don’t have to know any advanced administration to add links to your social media sites and profiles. This is basic and offers no styling from a basic administration level so you may still want help to swap out the icons or place them a certain way on your website.

What does this mean to us?

We now offer this new item under basic administration; yes, we can do this for you. We have been adding social media links to websites for a long time without using the Contact Info Weblet. Now that we can do this from the Contact Info Weblet means your information will be dynamic from the site settings. If you ever delete and change a Twitter account all you need to do is update the Site Settings in your myRealPage website and publish to make the change on all pages.

On a side note, many myRealPage designers have made the mistake of not using the dynamic weblets. Some websites get re-designed to a point of complete dependence on the designer that made those changes. For instance, when the Contact Info Weblet is not used then a simple phone number change or update to the photo is a call to your designer at a greater expense than a simple basic administration update to the Site Settings. Keep that in mind. Our designs try to maintain all the owner editing abilities that came with the off-the-shelf myRealPage product. From my point of view, being able to edit myRealPage easily and on your own is a huge selling feature.

Image courtesy of myRealPage

How we plan advertising.

Posted in: Advertising, Blog, Creative, Design, Real Estate by Paul McEwan on November 19, 2010 | No Comments

I think REALTORS® have some of the worst. advertising. ever. Just listed! Just Sold! Don’t do it!  One reason I got involved offering services to real estate was to help rid the lower mainland of some of the crap. I literally thought to myself, ‘well there must be no one offering decent real estate advertising’ and ‘I can do that’. I set out to save us all from another IJS [I Just Sold].

I have since discovered the market is thick with creative graphic and design talent and the blame for the poor advertising is the REALTOR® themselves. They simply fall into a rut of doing what the last person did or because they got 3 calls from 20,000 mailed pieces means it must be working or they just don’t know anything about it and are busy doing real estate to think about it much. They send their next listing to their graphics person to create another mail piece.

TribalYell Integrated Branding will not take on new clients who want Just Listed and Just Sold marketing pieces. And unless you have some authentic engagement going on, we will not set up social media to auto populate this crap either. We will not add to the mess you’re all in. We won’t do it – no way.

There is another way. These questions need to be asked at the start of every advertising piece.

• What are you giving?
• What do you want in return?
• What problem do you need a solution to?
• What problem do they need a solution to?
• How will it be communicated?

Notice the last question was not “How will it be written?” or “How will it be said?”. This is because communication takes place in every image, line, shape colour and yes: word. Let the creative take your communication miles and start standing out. If you do this, wear your boots because you will be standing with the crap around your ankles.

Online marketing, social media, display ads or mail out pieces all need to be good. Does this sound complicated? Then hand it over to us to look after. Let’s plan something for the entire upcoming year.

More logo, less fashion.

Posted in: Blog, Design by Paul McEwan on September 15, 2010 | No Comments

When we create logos for clients, we offer it up with as little glitz, shine, shimmer or reflection effects as possible. When clients love the design in its plain-Jane mode, then they love the design – period. There are no surprises when they see it reproduced on something that can’t contain all the fashionable effects like embroidery on hats and jackets or a vinyl graphic on a car window. Our logo illustration will even refrain from using gradients when ever we can.

When we display our work in our logo portfolio, it’s with this in mind. Reflections, gel-coatings and other effects that trend today are removed. We don’t display the logo in a business card or a website either. We want you to see our logo work, not wow you with technique and layout possibilities.  This might not make us the best sales people to ourselves when it comes to selling logo design but it sure feels right. And when someone tells us they like our logo work, we know it’s our logo work they are seeing.

Take a look at our growing list of past and present logos in our portfolio.

Featured by myRealPage

Posted in: Design, Real Estate, Technology, Templates, Web Design by Paul McEwan on May 25, 2010 | 1 Comment

When we toot our own horn it’s a week sound indeed. When someone else does it we can hear it for miles and we really appreciate the thought of someone doing so. myRealPage has done just that. Three times in fact. It about time we toot their horn. That is coming in a big way. myRealPage asks for no designer fees or designer sign up to build on their system. Take look at our featured websites on the myRealPage blog. Thanks myRealPage, always glad to help your clients get branded online.

• Ben Chimes website
• Alan M website
• Robert Britch website

The World’s Best Working Graphic Artist Talks About Clients

Posted in: Blog, Design by Paul McEwan on March 7, 2010 | No Comments

Michael Bierut (his wiki here) is arguably one of the worlds best graphic artists with some of his award winning work on display in galleries around the world. He has mastered the ability to tell a story through visual presentation for any given reason. A visual story that is told without the viewer of his work knowing their subconscious is receiving it.

When a story enters through the subconscious it is locked in place. What’s you’re brand saying?

Michael Bierut is humble about his abilities, as you will see in this video of himself discussing clients and it’s nice to see he is still a true working graphic artist.

Free Marketing!

Posted in: Blog, Design, Marketing by Paul McEwan on December 4, 2009 | No Comments

Everything you need to market your business online is available to you for FREE!

• Websites
• Templates
• Email
• Eflyers
• Social Media
• Blogging
• and Courses for doing all the above

…and what have we missed?

This was great for a moment while competitors were still catching up online and you got a head start using these tools. Everyone is catching on now and they’re all using them. Eventually the playing field is leveled and differentiation is not as simple as being the only one there.

Now how do you stand out?

Content? They actually have to start to read what you’re saying.

Visual

A visual brand is the only thing that is going to give you any differentiation without anyone clicking, reading or listing to anything. It lasts a lifetime and builds on itself the more you use it. There is only one way to create a visual brand: The right way.

Doing something temporary will be hard to shrug off later when you grow out of it or you know you need to change. A template visual brand is not your own – someone else is using it and watering it down.

For a visual brand to work it must be:

• Authentic to who you are
• Unique to you (helps relay your message)
• Performs in a variety of platforms without change (Yes, even print)

Again, a visual brand can last a lifetime and is not something to go pick off a rack for $1.49 but if you want to get a free logo try this.