Archive for December, 2010

December 10th, 2010

The 2010 holiday cards are here!

Happy holidays. Share the love.

The 2010 holiday cards are here! 7 cards. 7 designs. 7 chances to spread holiday cheer with friends, family, or clients. We’ve been busy elves here at Miles Design, and we’re each excited to share our finished designs and inspiration with you all. Enjoy!

Card 1 of 7 // Imagined by Brian Gray

My card was inspired by childhood memories of all the great patterns on wrapping paper. When you’re a kid, nothing is better than ripping into a perfectly wrapped present. I wanted to create a nice, wintery pattern and style it to an old-fashioned feel. The lyric I chose not only reminded me of the fun, commercial side of Christmas–but also the true reason for Christmas: the birth of Christ.
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December 10th, 2010

Designing Holiday Cheer

Christmas is just around the corner, and it’s been a busy holiday season here at Miles Design. The 2010 holiday cards are in the mail, and we’re excited to finally share them with you. We’ve been hard at work (while having fun), and here’s a peek into the process and progress over the last month or so.


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December 6th, 2010

4 Levels of Brand Engagement: Level 4–Keep Them Coming Back.

(The fourth article in a four-part series)

Now that your professional services website is attracting searchers, passing the two second test, and has valuable content, your next online engagement goal should be to encourage repeat visitors.

Think about the sites that you routinely visit. I’m guessing that seldom updated, bland, self-serving sites aren’t very high on your list. Most people only frequent sites that offer entertainment value, the opportunity to learn something new, or regular updates. Of course regular doesn’t have to be several times per day, but it helps to be consistent. Daily updates are difficult to maintain, but once a month may not be enough to encourage repeat visits. Find a pace that works best for you.

Blogs and other social media updates are often the easiest to keep up with on a regular basis, but let’s consider more than the type of content you post–let’s think about the other ways to remind visitors to return. RSS, email subscriptions, and social links are other great ways to notify your audience when your site has been updated.

Bonus: A Little Help From Your Friends.
Don’t feel like you have to do all of the work yourself. Social sharing features make it easier for your visitors to share your site with your friends as well. Consider using Like This, Share This, Send to a Friend, and ReTweet features in your next site update as well.

aiga infographic poster

So there you have it. The four levels of engagement for your professional services website.

In case you missed one of the earlier articles, they’re linked below:
Level 1 – Be found.
Level 2 – Pass the Two-Second Test.
Level 3 – Provide Strong, Compelling Content.
Level 4 – Keep Them Coming Back.

What are the best methods you have used to foster engagement on your website?

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December 3rd, 2010

4 Levels of Brand Engagement: Level 3–Provide Strong, Compelling Content.

(The third article in a four-part series)

Okay, so you’ve been successfully found, and your visitors are sticking around long enough to see what you’re all about. It’s too bad that passing the two-second test doesn’t necessarily mean your visitors are sticking around and digging deeper into your content.

A core measure of how engaging your site really is compares two key analytics: your bounce rate and the average time on your site. A bounce is any visitor who comes to your site, spends any length of time on the page, clicks on nothing, and then leaves. The lower your bounce rate, the better. In contrast, the longer your average visitor stays on your website, the better. If the average time on your website is only a few seconds, your visitors aren’t staying long enough to find anything more than contact information. If it’s a few minutes or more, you’re headed in the right direction.

So what helps some websites reduce bounces and retain visitors for longer periods of time? It all comes down to content. If your site is serving up the type of content that visitors are searching for (beyond the standard “our history” and “about us” content), you’ll begin to increase the average length of visits and reduce the likelihood of a bounce.

Types of content that encourage longer visits include anything demonstrating thought leadership, unique points of view, case studies, free downloads, white papers, and meaningful blog posts showing process, best practices, or how-to articles.

Bluelock Case Study

Unfortunately, good content alone isn’t enough. Your content has to be easy to find and friendly enough for your visitors to engage with.

How easy is it for your visitors to find your best content?

Stay tuned for Level 4–Keep Them Coming Back…

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December 1st, 2010

4 Levels of Brand Engagement: Level 2–Pass the Two-Second Test.

(The second article in a four-part series)

If you’re doing well in the search arena, congratulations. You’re definitely headed in the right direction. Moving forward, the second level of engagement requires passing the two-second test with your visitors.

In my rather un-scientific experience, if a searcher finds your website, they will give you approximately two seconds to determine if your site is legit. Their search engine of choice may have listed your site in their results, and they may have clicked on your hyperlink. Now they will have to decide if they have truly found, as U2 would say, what they were looking for.

You’ve done this before. You were probably searching for something like “cool cuff links” or “funky shoes.” And while the link you clicked on was called something like “The coolest cuff links in Indianapolis,” when you clicked on the link, it took you to a spammy-looking landing page.

cufflinks

One… Two… Window Closed.

On to the next search.

Armed with this fresh perspective, take another look at your website. If you were stumbling upon your website for the first time, how long would it take you to determine what it is about?

Stay tuned for Level 3 – Strong Compelling Content…

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