For those of you who don’t know, WordPress is a site that you can host your blog with, but more importantly, you can build any website on the WordPress format.  It’s a free package of software, templates, and plug-ins that you can install on your web server.  Instead of a static HTML/CSS site, you have a database-driven site that can be updated and changes through an easy to use interface.  You can add pages, graphics, and sections with ease.

Why Should You Use WordPress?

• You can manage your own website and make changes easily.
• You can add blog posts to your site.
• WordPress sites and SEO friendly and easily optomized.
• A custom content management system like this would have cost your 50K a few years ago, so it’s almost stupid not to just have it for free.
• As the most popular CMS, new plug-in features are always being developed.  Photo galleries, contact forms, ecommerce, social networking, and almost anything you can think of exists or will be developed.
• WordPress gets updated and improved.
• It’s easy to get a site up quick.  You can literally have a site up in an hour.  If you need a temporary site, it’s a good choice.
• A designer how knows HTML, CSS, and even a bit of PHP can build a totally customized site in WordPress.

What’s wrong with WordPress?

There are a few limitations and weird glitches, but since WordPress gets updated, I don’t even want to bring them up.  It’s not perfect, but I don’t really see a reason not to use it.

Here’s my problem…

My website is not in WordPress.  I know HTML and can update my own site.  Even for me, I want to advantage of integrating my blog with my site.  I’m going to re-create my site on the Worpdress platform.

Yes. For some companies, they just need a basic site.  If they can communicate their business and don’t really have the budget for a designer, maybe that’s fine for them.  Some companies just need something up and it doesn’t have to be great.  There are cheap and easy solutions out there and I think that is great for business.

On the other hand, NO, most people shouldn’t or can’t just put up a site that will do anything for their business.

The truth is that I use templates and WordPress when it makes sense for my clients already.  I can save them time and money and get them all the bell and whistles that a content management system can offer.  I’m not afraid of being replaced by software and templates, but I can exploit those resources for my clients.  I can design fasters and more efficiently if I embrace the technology that is out there.

Also, there is a lot more to designing a site than the production aspect of it.  I look at the real goals for my clients.  I design the architecture and content to accomplish those goals.  I design a feel that strengthens the client’s brand and communicates their message. I don’t just make it look nice, but yes I also make my sites look nice.

I would say that even if you can build your own site, have a designer look it over and let you know how it can be better.  I’m excited about new technologies and embrace a new era of web design.

If I call you and are blown off, I get pissed.  My clients react the same way.  I had a client call me recently about coordinating a meeting, but I was busy.  I emailed him the next day.  He sent me an email asking if I got his voicemail.  In other words, people want to be called back.

I have a contact form on my website on every page and I try to respond in a timely fashion when I get an email.  I frequently hear “wow, you’re the only company that has called me back.”  It weird that that’s my advantage over my competition.

I think with email, text messaging, and voicemail we all are too comfortable avoiding actual conversation.  As a designer and web developer, I am always on deadline or in meetings, but you can’t avoid people.  That’s called blowing people off.  Full disclosure:  I hate talking to people.  I have to force myself to do it because it’s part of my job.

The reasoning:  ”I know they just want to ask about their project and it’s not done yet.”

The reality:

• You don’t know why they are calling.
• You still have to talk to the client.
• If you can’t meet deadline there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
• You are trying to avoid an unpleasant conversation…by pissing off the other person.

Returning calls is good business, common courtesy, and just a basic rule of human interaction.  This is just a little reminder.

I have a call I need to return right now by the way.

Just “making the logo bigger” because the client says so may destroy the quality of the marketing when the client’s concerns could have been met without wrecking the design.  Here’s some things to keep in mind:

• Some “solutions” just don’t fit.  It’s better so avoid those “square peg, round hole” situations take take time/money and give you poor results.
• Clients don’t know everything that could be done.  We’ve been in business since 1998, perhaps we’ve done some professional layouts before?
• There may be a good reason for an element the the client is unaware of.
• Designers are experts at what they do, so let us find the best way to move forward.
• Designers can try a bunch of solutions without having to present each one and wrack up hours of billable time presenting solutions that don’t work.
• Would you tell your doctor, mechanic, or plumber how to fix a problem, or would you tell them what the problem is?
• We just want the project to run smoothly and give you the best product we can.

I respect client’s input and always remember who really owns the project.  That’s why I want to know what needs to be fixed, not just how you think I should fix it…Not that we don’t nail everything on the first shot.

Contact us if you have any questions.

Don’t blame the design firm!

The old logo was clever.  The “11″ in the negative space represents the fact that there were really 11 schools and not ten.  Of course that had to change now that the Big Ten is 12 schools.  I’m sure that Pentagram, the design firm, presented an update of  the logo incorporating a hidden 12, but the committee didn’t want to to the same old thing.

The new logo screams COMPROMISED DESIGN.  It’s boring and complicated at the same time.  Why dose the ‘G’ look like a zero and the “I” look like a one?  That reads as “B10 Ten” and makes no sense.  I think the reason this went bad was that the firm was told to tack on the word “ten.”   I’ll bet the committee figured that nobody would get the logo without the word “ten.”

Here’s the actual logo the the Big Ten.  If you go to the design firm’s website, they show this version, and not the version with the additional ten.  It’s super sleek, hip, simplified, and sill maintains that college feel through typography.

Isn’t this a ton cooler than the logo at the top that was originally presented to the world?  This simple logo makes sense.  By just saying “Big” (depending how you look at it) the logo de-emphasizes the number of teams.  That’s a good idea since there are 12 schools and not 10.  I wonder what the response would have been to this logo if everyone saw this instead of the compromised design.

This approach is kinda like the new Mountain Dew bottles that just say “MTD Dew” or Gatoraid logo that now I think is just a “G.”  You could argue that this isn’t the approach for the Big Ten, but clearly, this is the direction the committee agreed to at one point.  Not everyone would be happy with the “mountain dew” approach, but now no one is happy.  Some president who didn’t have time to go the first marketing meeting got scared and freaked out on the new logo direction.

Here’s Pentegram’s website…That’s where I got these images.

If a design firm is not allowed to carry a design through, but made to compromise the design, it falls apart.

“I know we said we wanted to go with this new logo, but my wife didn’t like it.  You have to just add the word “ten” at the bottom. Then the logo will be all things to all people.”

I’ve heard people blame the design firm.  They did it.  They should have refused to compromise.  Get a grip.  It’s not Pentagram’s logo, it’s the Big Ten’s logo.  I’m sure Pentagram tried to fight this.  In the end you can’t blow off your clients.  Would you go back to a barber who gives you a crew cut when you only wanted a trim?  Design is a business.

I hope that in the end, they use the “B10″ (or “BIG”) version of the logo.  I suspect that is what will happen.  It would be a shame to scrap the whole thing.

Now don’t get me started on the division names….Leaders and Ledgends?

What is wrong with the old site

Sure in 2005, this was the state of the art in web design, but now it’s totally dated.  Notice how it looks so small on the page.  Back in 2005 designers were focused on a set standard size of 800 X 600 to fit laptops.  The content scrolled in boxes if needed.  Today, monitors are larger and the trend of limiting the length of a web page is over.  The site looks plopped into the middle of the page and way too small.

On the homepage, there is very little text (originally there was no text).  Search engines have little content here to index.  Back in 2005, Flash sites were big.  I didn’t build the site as just one animation as some did, but this old site relies way too much on Flash.  Again, search engines will not be able to index a site properly is it’s just built in Flash.  It may look fancy, but you won’t get too much traffic if your site is Flash.

One of the most important sections is the portfolio section.  On the old site, that’s a nifty Flash animation that slides the samples through as you click around.  If that wasn’t bad enough for search engine optimization (SEO), the detail of each project were contained in pop-up windows.  Not only is that annoying to clients, they may have pop-ups blocked, and search engines won’t want to follow those links and index the site.

• In general, the site provides no call to action.  It doesn’t make the visitor want contact us unless they are really wowed by the portfolio.
• The site had a bad structure for SEO purposes.  Pop-ups and Flash animation is killing our SEO.
• The site looked small.
• The site was built in tables which is a totally outdated way of building a website.  Today, designer use cascading style sheets (CSS) which give us greater control and options.
• The old site is way too beige.

How is the new site better?

It’s new…New is better in a website.  Old websites are outdated, not classics.  This is a fresh new look that our existing customers will notice right away.  We brought in the blue, but kept the site consistent with our marketing.  We have the same colors, images, and logo as the old site…except less beige.

This homepage has actual content on it.  We built the site for SEO.  There are keywords as titles, links, heading, and text.  We’ll keep tweaking this to keep it up to date, but this structure is better for updating purposes.

This page is meant to speak directly to our customer’s needs.  If you’re looking for a designer, you have a project you need designed.  We tried to as simply as possible, say that we have the capability and skill you are looking for.

The call to action here it to contact us.  The phone number is huge and up top.  The contact for is an easy way to contact us as well.  Some visitors will prefer to email right from the website.  We tried to provide  as many options for contact us as we could.

The portfolio section is fixed.  We built it in straight HTML and CSS.  It’s not as slick as the old section, but it will function much better.  It’s easy to navigate for the visitors and the search engine robots.  Due to the fact that we’re redoing the whole site, we used more recent works in our portfolio.

It’s good to rehab your marketing just so that you take a fresh look at what you are doing.  The old site was working fine in some respects and it wasn’t urgent to “fix” it.  Sometimes, you have to say “If it’s not broke, break it.”

Now I can move on to work that I actually get paid for.

OK, I only sent this to 787 people and 54 folks did open it.  I’m not thrilled with this low response rate.  My marketing goal is to get one new, good client, so I need to get back to work on this.

It would be odd to tell a law firm that I can get clients for them…If I can’t get my own clients.  Obviously, if I’m talking to a new client, I can point out they they responded to my marketing.

What to do next?

The first thing I am going to do is build my mailing list.  I didn’t let the relatively small sample size stop me from sending out the initial blast.  My experience is that you should always be marketing and not waiting for ideal situations.

I could follow up the four people that clicked on the site with a phone call.  Would that feel creepy if they figured out that visiting my site initiated a phone call.

The most important thing I’m going to do is to keep at it.  Prospects don’t usually respond to the first piece of marketing that they see.  I usually see a big response after I send out round number 3.  The key here is to not annoy my list with spam.

I’ll post updates to my law marketing email blast.

Why an email blast?

Honestly, I have almost an identical campaign ready to go as a direct mail campaign.  It costs hundreds to send it out.  I spend days stuffing envelopes or having my designer stuff envelopes.  I end up generating a lot of trash.  Let’s face it, sometimes our graphic design is the art of making junk mail.

On the other hand, my email campaign will cost me pennies to send out, was easy to create with HTML/CSS, and creates no trash.  Also, an email campaign is trackable…I’ll see who opened it and who clicked on the links. The receiver is a click away from contacting me or visiting my website.  With printed materials, the receiver will need to type a URL to learn more.  Email marketing makes it easy for the potential client.

What’s wrong with email?

Email marketing isn’t perfect.  You can be viewed as a “spammer” for sending marketing that is not asked for.  Many potential clients will block the message, have spam filters, and are behind a firewall.

My approach is to accept this limitations and move on.

• Make it easy for the customers to unsubscibe from your emails.  They don’t want spam and you want a clean database.
• I don’t send our too many emails and harass potential business.  I look at campaign as a matter of timing…If the client need something right now, they will call.
• Have a large enough database that you can deal with the blocked and bounced emails.  If you are getting only a small percent of responders, just send out a larger database of potential clients.

Here’s how I did it.

I decided to target the legal industry.  I’ve worked for more than a few firms, but I don’t have a ton of work.  If you look at my email, you will see brochures and envelopes for the same clients.  I also have the same brochure up there twice (inside and outside).  I did have to stretch the samples, but with good layout, I think it feels like I’ve done a ton of legal marketing.

I built a database of lawyers in Chicago.  It would be better is I had more email addresses, but I feel that I have an OK start.  My database is managed online and I can easily add to it as I go.

I set up the HTML file as pretty solid, basic layout.  Email browsers and sites like Yahoo! and gmail don’t do a great job of displaying complicated HTML.  I sized the file to 600 pixles so that it will fit into the gmail window.

However, you don’t have to know HTML to send out fancy emails.  Services like Constant Contact and Campaign Manager have professional templates that you can build your campaigns from.  I’ve set up lots of customized templates for clients on Constant Contact.

Speaking of Constant Contact, the next step was to upload my layout and database to a service that can send out bulk email Blasts.  I use Quebert.net just because they are cheap, but it’s not quite as user-friendly as a site like Constant Contact.  Anyway, I scheduled the blast to go out in an hour or so, and that’s it.

What now?

Well, we’ll see…Perhaps the phone will ring.  Perhaps I will get some emails.  Perhaps nothing (my database isn’t that big). I’ll be able to view reports instantly to monitor the results of the email.

I will have to follow-up in some way.  I will send other emails in the future.  I may call the recipients.  I may send the direct mail piece out at well.

Whatever happens, I will post it to this blog.  I’m always suggesting clients do this, so I’m taking my own advice.  I’m excited to do this simple process that I’m supposed to be an expert in.

I have to take my own advise as well.  For instance, I hate contact forms on a website.  Contact forms just make me feel like someone is collecting email addresses, avoiding giving me their real email address, afraid to use a telephone, and giving me no idea when I will get an answer (if ever).  Now, I advise my clients to use contact form despite my personal point of view.

I know that not everyone has my feelings about contact forms.  Some people prefer them.  Your question or problem is in the official que, you don’t have to leave your browser program to send a message, it’s right there, and easy to use.

Almost every site I design I put in a contact form or present the idea as an option.  I also make sure client’s list contact information so potential business isn’t just forced to partake in the contact form.

That’s one weird (fun) part of my job…I take myself out of the equation.