Your Website is Your Best Employee

Imagine an employee who performs multiple roles for you — PR, branding, lead generation and customer communications to name a few. Now imagine this employee works 24 hours a day and never calls in sick. With a well-planned and properly designed website, that’s exactly what you get… a round-the-clock virtual employee to further your company’s growth.

You deserve the kind of website that makes customers say “wow” and “thank you” at the same time. The “wow” part comes from an attractive web design that enhances your company’s brand. The “thank you” part comes from quality content and ease of navigation.

But let’s not forget other important factors in a good internet presence. A fast loading website (24 seconds or less on a 56K connection) is gaining significance in the online world. Many think that to have an attractive website, you have to have one that takes a long time to load. This is not true. Web designers who really know their trade can build an online presence for you that is fast and appealing to the eye.

>> What is the load time of your website?

Also take note that most sites are moving away from the graphic heavy design and towards sites that contain text menus and no flash or animated gifs. This will ensure that your site can be crawled easily by search engines and will be better on the eyes of those who are visually challenged. This may seem like small potatoes to your current clients, but what about your current clients in 10 years? And don’t forget about new clients that may choose you over your competitors for the sole reason that your site was easy to use!

Internet marketing companies such as Intra-Focus, Inc. give you these things and more through their web development and design services. Not only do they have many years of experience, but they also continue to follow trends and learn about new technologies and internet guidelines. As an added bonus, you can use Intra-Site which helps you to manage incoming web traffic, customer communication and lead generation!

The Ideal Website Design Process

Before Intra-Focus designs a single element of a website, they actively get to know you and your organization. They do this through a combination of conference calls, survey questionnaires, and in-person meetings. What is your company all about? Who is your audience? What sets you apart from the competition?

Any good design company wants to hear you describe these things in your own words. Armed with this information, they can design a website that will enhance your company’s brand and help you achieve your objectives, while still presenting your site with today’s internet standards in mind.

If your web design company hasn’t been focusing on the items mentioned in this article, then there is a good chance that you are using someone who is behind the times. Approach them with your concerns. If they don’t seem troubled or cannot fix the problems, it is time to create an internet marketing relationship elsewhere.

Have questions or need a quote on a website build? Contact Intra-Focus today and ask about their corporate web design and internet branding services.

How to Make Your Website Stand Out

How to Make Your Website Stand Out
Published in the AMA Bulletin
by John Wilkinson, JH&A Advertising

Today the Internet hosts over 92,000,000 websites. How can you make yours stand out while displaying your products or services in the most compelling light? Here are some tips from an industry expert that will help you build a better site that effectively communicates your message.

Robert Cowes is an expert at creating websites that spotlight products and drive success. He most recently worked at S1 Corporation as the Web Technologies Product Manager and is co-founder of the consulting firm, Intra-Focus Marketing Solutions.

According to Cowes, a successful site considers six critical elements: audience, objective, layout, navigation, content and imagery. It is important for web-based marketers to understand who will be using the site and for what purpose. “People surf the web to research, learn and purchase products. Content addressing these three topics is crucial,” said Cowes.

When a potential customer or client visits a site, they should be greeted by an intuitive “master plan” or site map. A >site map helps visitors quickly and easily navigate to the information they are looking for.

Well thought-out navigation helps create a positive experience for the visitor. Highly visible headers and simple icons should smoothly guide the visitor from page to page. In addition, rotating content not only gives marketers a chance to share more information, it keeps visitors interested and informed. Finally, relevant imagery reinforces your company’s
brand positioning and messaging. “An analogy is a store front,” Cowes explains. “As with retail, your window dressing helps customers decide whether they will enter or pass you by.” Encourage browsers to stop with interesting graphics that complement your brand, enhance your image and provide valuable information not readily available elsewhere.

So you’ve made some website improvements, but how can you know if they work? Consider a call to action. Requesting a response makes recording site traffic easier. For example, a toll-free number and an e-form are useful tools. Ask your visitors, “How did you hear about us?” or “Do you have any comments?”

Eventually, there should be a correlation between the number of page views your web site receives and the number of inquiry forms submitted.

By carefully considering your audience and objective, you can create content, imagery, a layout and a navigation system tailored to their needs while also improving product awareness. Next month there will be over 96,000,000 websites. Are you achieving your fair share of visits?

About Intra-Focus

Intra-Focus is a full-service marketing company that integrates art and technology to deliver traditional and Internet marketing solutions. Leveraging marketing expertise and trend setting creativity, Intra-Focus helps its clients build brand strategy and market presence that generate qualified demand and quantifiable results. Intra-Focus provides innovative marketing solutions to businesses ranging in size from start-up to Fortune 500.

For more information on Intra-Focus’s marketing services, please contact: Robert Cowes Products & Services Principal
512.930.5558
rcowes[at]intra-focus.com.

The Truth About SEO

Your site and the new generation of organic search technology.

By Robert Cowes (Products & Services Principal) & Clay Delk (Marketing Communications Writer) at Intra-Focus, Inc.

Unlike any other advertising medium, a successful internet presence can make or break businesses in almost any field. As internet presence, marketing and sales become a more integral part of business success, the degree of web presence and the process of “search marketing” have become more valuable than ever. Search engine optimization is still very much an emerging art, but its importance has grown exponentially over the last decade.

Early incarnations of search engines and search marketing were much different than today’s standard. To place high in rankings, business owners simply needed to place a handful of metatags or descriptors into their web page headers. Today’s search engines utilize a much more advanced combination of factors–or algorithm–to determine the best web pages. While metatags are still important, these new algorithms also take into account factors like specific copy and word choice, links from outside sites, submissions to online directories and regular content updates.

These elements combine in what is now called an organic search engine because the final results tend to be pages that are not only directly related, but have also grown to become highly regarded authorities on the subject. The search engine companies regularly reconfigure their algorithms every 3 to 6 months making this combination of factors even more difficult to decipher. Since each is a publicly traded company, they are continually working to maintain an edge over each other and over businesses trying to make the most of their sites.

In addition, regularly changing the algorithms helps ensure that the company’s own pay-per-click services remain useful and effective. These services will place a sponsor’s link at the top or along the side of the website for specific searches. These services work well for quick, dependable placement, but can also become very expensive.

All of these factors have combined to make search engine optimization a very complex and time-consuming element of a successful web presence. Some of the top companies offering SEO services charge anywhere from $5,000 – $10,000 for set up and another $300 to $5,000 a month to maintain the website. A recent survey of industry professionals found that over half (64%) of all businesses that outsource search marketing fail to implement the SEO companies’ recommendations. The major reasons for this failure stem from a lack of human resources and budgetary allocations required to optimize and maintain a successful web presence.

Fortunately, Intra-Focus now offers organic search marketing services with a proactive approach to website maintenance, linking campaigns and regular content updates. This new service is different from our previous treatment campaigns because we can now actively work to maintain and improve your web presence on a monthly basis–not only improving your original search ranking, but continuing to grow your web presence organically.

About Intra-Focus, Inc.
Intra-Focus, Inc. is a full-service marketing company that integrates art and technology to deliver traditional and Internet marketing solutions. Leveraging marketing expertise and trend setting creativity, Intra-Focus helps its clients build brand strategy and market presence that generate qualified demand and quantifiable results. Intra-Focus provides innovative marketing solutions to businesses ranging in size from start-up to Fortune 500.

Rebranding Doesn’t Have to be Reinvention

With the internet taking over modern-day media and becoming so important to the livelihood of businesses, many companies have found that they need to rebrand their presence in the marketplace. While this task may seem daunting, Intra-Focus, Inc. has created a companywide rebranding process that eases companies through the transition.

Intra-Focus, Inc., a full-service marketing company that integrates art and technology with marketing expertise and trend setting creativity, has been helping its clients build brand strategy and market presence that generate qualified demand and quantifiable results. Since 2001, Intra-Focus has helped 143 clients realize their internet solutions. The success of its internet solutions product has seen an influx in the amount of customers who wish to completely rebrand their online and offline presence.

“Intra-Focus has created a new way of thinking in marketing,” said Robert Cowes, Products and Services Principal. “A few years ago, we would help a company with a specific marketing need. Now, we are helping our clients with all of their marketing needs and giving them a fresh look to attract new customers and to retain loyal clients.”

Typically, the Intra-Focus rebranding process starts with the logo design—either creating a completely new design or tweaking the existing design. Once the logo has been approved, the rebranding branches off to multiple people on multiple production teams. Stationery (business cards, envelopes, thank-you cards, etc.) with the new logo incorporated is created. New brochures or sales slicks are produced using updated content and pictures from Intra-Focus’ large photo library. Also included in a typical rebranding package is full SEO and usability treatment of the website. Next in the production timeline is the design of the website, which is shaped by the look and feel of the brochure to ensure that the branding bridges between print and internet marketing.

Once the web design has been approved and built, Intra-Focus creates automatic e-mail campaigns that respond to a client when internet users fill out online forms. These e-marketing components also contain the key branding elements.

Clients who have used the award-winning rebranding product at Intra-Focus have been so pleased with the results that they have continued the relationship with additional e-mail campaigns and direct mail pieces.

Results are key in this process and Intra-Focus has proven that they understand how to get outstanding results from something as seemingly effortless as a company makeover.