New Website Launch: Hawthorn Interiors

Hawthorn Interiors - Website Launch
We are so pleased to announce a new website design for Hawthorn Interiors!

Hawthorn Interiors is a high end interior design firm located in Calgary,
Alberta.

Specializing in window & floor coverings they are known for decorating
stunning show homes for Calgary’s most prestigious builders.

Hawthorn Interiors needed a website that would reflect the gorgeous
interiors they are known for.

Minimalist in design while captivating with subtle animation, their new
website looks great on every device.

This is the third website we’ve created for Hawthorn Interiors in the
decade or so we’ve worked with them.

We are so pleased to have the opportunity to help them stay competitive and
looking great online.

Check out their new website at www.hawthorninteriors.com

7 ways to use digital & mobile marketing to get better results from your radio, print and in-store marketing:

Bottom line, you need your marketing expenditures to translate into sales.

mobile marketing guyOne of the hardest types of marketing to measure for effectiveness is the offline type- radio, print and in store advertising.

Not anymore!

Maximize the return on your marketing dollars by asking your offline audience to engage with you online.

This way you can capture their data and continue to market to them in free or low cost ways to convert them into paying customers.

It sounds more complicated than it is. Really, just a few simple tweaks to your advertising campaign will net you way bigger results.

7 Actionable Marketing Strategies you can use in your business today:

 

1. Have a QR Code on all print advertising:

Your vehicle decals, in store posters, print flyers, business cards and more.

Have this QR code point to your website, sign up form or Facebook page- depending on the market and your goals. This way you can capture prospect info via their smartphones & continue to market to them in the future.

2. Run a contest:

On radio, phone or word of mouth, ask people to sign up for your newsletter or like your page on Facebook to win.

The giveaway item doesn’t have to be expensive to work as an incentive for consumers to connect with you online. Bonus, you’re then tapped into social media, where the customer already spends their time.

3. Leverage your website design: 

Create promotion specific pages.

Use specific website URLS, like, www.yourcompanyname.com/bestcontest. Then, through Google Analytics, you can track the traffic from each promotion

4. Be smartphone smart:

Get a shortcut to your mailing list and keep it on your smartphone.

Ask people you meet in person if you can add them to your mailing list.

5. Offer a discount:

On the bottom of your receipts, invoices or quotes offer discounted services for those who are a member of the mailing list, Facebook page etc.

This gives people incentive to connect with you online.

6. Use coupon codes:

Offer a small discount in exchange for the presentation of a coupon code.

This way you can both encourage consumers to act, and track your return on investment.

7. Boost the power of social:

In store, post QR codes a way to like you or check in on Facebook.

Facebook Check-Ins act as an endorsement that shows up on the news feed of that consumer’s friends.

What are some ways that you get the most effectiveness out of your Offline marketing campaigns?

Tell us your secrets to getting more sales in the comments below:

NEW WEBSITE LAUNCH: Premiere Custom Homes

premiere-custom-homes2We are very happy to announce the launch of the new Premiere Custom Homes website!

This fresh, contemporary and hip design uses a minimal amount of text, which lets the dazzling images speak for themselves and make a powerful, lasting impression.

Plus, the responsive design means the website design is mobile friendly, and will automatically resize to accommodate each visitor’s device. So whether the website is viewed on a tablet, phone or PC it will always dazzle and look perfect!

Check out the new website at http://www.premierehomesltd.ca/

Also stay tuned this fall for video testimonials from some of Premiere Custom Homes’ satisfied customers!

 

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

A Digital Entrepreneur’s Manifesto

digital-entrepreneur-manifesto

A manifesto is a document that outlines your Intentions, Motives and Views

Being a business owner or entrepreneur, freelancer or contractor is inherently a political act.

You have the autonomy to create an economy from your 24 hour day.  You can make real your vision of the world and expand it outwards through your livelihood.

Be the change you wish to see. The world needs what you’ve got.

Now is the most potent time in history to be an entrepreneur.

Powerful reach formerly attainable only by the elite is now available for dollars or for free. The Internet frees you from the restraints of geography and time zone. Whatever reason you have to do the work you do, whatever change you seek to make, you can do it.

Now. Powerfully.

Harness the power of the internet- hire abroad, promote for free, work in your PJS, go viral, correspond with business royalty, automate tedious processes, sell your products.

 Anytime. Anyplace. Online.

No more do you need to be stifled by how it’s always been; top down, 9-5, cubicles, economic uncertainty. Don’t let that dreamer part of you die. It’s time. It’s here. It’s being done.

Working to live not living to work.

The four hour work week.

Laptops and wifi on the beach in paradise.

Say no to mediocrity in work and in life.

Harness the power of the Internet, show the world what you’ve got

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

What is a USP and Why Should You Care?

what-is-USP

 

 

 

 

 

When people ask me “what I do,” I can respond in two ways:

1. I can say “I have an online training program” and watch their eyes glaze over with boredom.

2. I can say “I help entrepreneurs make money using the Internet!” and watch their faces light up with interest and excitement.

Obviously, I choose option #2. And when you identify a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that makes your prospects sit up and take notice, you’ll generate the same positive response.

Creating your USP

The key to creating a Unique Selling Proposition (a.k.a. an Elevator Pitch) is to look at what you offer from your target audience’s point of view, and speaking to their needs. How can you BENEFIT them? How will you make THEIR lives better? What are THEY concerned about? And just as importantly: WHY are you a better choice than the competition?

Here’s an example using a fictitious dog training company. The company could say “we train dogs” and watch their potential customers yawn. Or, they can say “we help young families keep their sanity by turning problem dogs into family animals with my mobile training and exercise program” and make a positive, immediate impact.

See the difference? Your aim is to WOW people with your USP!

Where Your Opportunity Lies

A market that is not being adequately serviced existing businesses is where your opportunity lies.

To carve out a niche for, you can generally compete with other businesses on any two of these elements: Price, Quality, Delivery.

Competing on price is usually a bad idea, as you have to sell huge volumes in order to make a profit – and you’re vulnerable to getting undercut by a competitor who is willing to sell for less. What’s more, your customers won’t have any loyalty towards you, because you’re providing the cheapest price; not the best solution.

If you can find something in the delivery of your product or service that people will really value, and it isn’t being provided by your competitors, then you’ve got it made!

For example, my clients love that we don’t give them homework! We understand that they’re busy. So while our competitors find new ways to make life complicated and tedious, we pride ourselves on making the entire web design and Internet marketing process extremely EASY. Without a doubt, our ability to make our customers’ lives simple and easy is a major reason why they choose us vs. our competitors.

What’s more, although our prices are reasonable, we aren’t the cheapest – and we don’t try to be. Our customers are more than willing to pay for the value that we provide them. And delivering VALUE is what business is really all about! Can you give customers what they really want, at a price that they’re willing to pay?

Differentiation=Value

During your USP development, you need to find out what it is that you do differently – and better – than your competitors.

Remember: this has to be something that addresses a customer concern that goes beyond the obvious (or else your competitors would already be doing it!). If you’ve done any prospect or customer surveys, this information can usually be found in the answer to this question:

Why haven’t you purchased X yet?

A Simple and Powerful Formula for Creating Your USP

You don’t need to be a marketing expert to create your USP. Here’s a simple and powerful formula to get you moving forward:

“I solve TARGET MARKET’S PROBLEM with my UNIQUE SERVICE to deliver a BENEFIT.”

Or alternatively:

“I deliver BENEFIT to TARGET MARKET by SOLVING THEIR PROBLEM with my UNIQUE SERVICE.”

My company helps ____________________ (Target Market A)

Who ___________________________________(Target Market B)

By_______________________________________(Differentiation A)

To _______________________________________(Differentiation B)

OR:

I ______________________________( Differentiation B)

To ______________________________ (Target Market A)

By _______________________________(Target Market B)

With my ___________________________(differentiation A)

 

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

Dr. Kunz – Website Development – A Case Study

Here’s what we did for Dr. Kenneth Kunz.  And, what he had to say about it:

Dr. Kunz is a Medical Oncologist residing in Victoria, BC. 

Objective: Protect his credibility by creating a professional and comprehensive website. Showcase his credentials, offerings and schedule in order to facilitate booking talks.

Recommendations:

Create a search optimized website, complete with professional photography. Aggregate all information and offerings from existing pdf files, his CV, media outlets etc. Organize them in a manner that would be easy to read and search.

Results:  A website that

  • articulates the core benefits of his work, mission and vision
  • provides comprehensive information on his wide range of talks
  • publishes numerous news sources/articles that discuss his work
  • features an schedule that he could easily update
  • provides a way for site visitors to book him for a lecture

Become Our Next Success Story- Let’s Talk

3 Solutions for Adapting to Mobile Web Design

mobile web site design calgaryThese days when you’re looking to improve or overhaul your web design, factoring in how it will look to handheld device users may be a factor to consider.

Mobile devices include smart phones and all manner of tablets.

Mobile device usage on your website

According to w3 schools, mobile device usage still accounts for less than 2% of overall web traffic, however in North America and Web Savvy cities like Calgary, these numbers tend to be much higher.

Check out your Google analytics or web traffic statistics to determine what percentage of your audience is on a handheld device when they land on your site. More importantly though, how are they behaving once they get to your website? Do you have a high bounce rate from handheld device users? Are their page views dramatically less than those on laptop or desktop devices?

If your handheld device audience is clearly turned off by your existing website design, and they’re a large percentage of your website visitors, you may want to consider a mobile web design.

That being said, you have 3 different options, with three different prices to address the needs of mobile device users on your website.

Here are 3 different options of mobile web design:

A mobile friendly website: This essentially means your website isn’t offensive or broken to the user. It ensuring your website is scalable and simply displays as a smaller version of itself on devices such as android, iphone, ipad etc.

Addition of a mobile plugin: A great and cost effective option for WordPress websites is a plugin that, when configured correctly, can display a mobile specific version of the website to your visitors. Essentially appearing as a large menu to start, this provides a quick an easy way for your visitors to get to where they want to go on your website. A mobile web design plugin can be installed in a medium sized WordPress website in roughly 10 hours. So, the cost will vary depending on your web designers rates.

Creation of a specifically mobile web design: For businesses with a large stake in the market of mobile users. An option where we create a whole new web design that is geared specifically to the needs of the user. All non-essential content and navigation is stripped down, providing only the required navigation and content that a user will need.

About as expensive as a standard web design, a specifically mobile web design takes into consideration the reduced screen size, and hurried nature of today’s users.

Often, screens will be basically empty except for a link to call, get directions with Google maps or place their order online/sign up.

The mobile web design user experience

Converting casual browsers to sales is typically easier for the retail business and handheld device user, as often the user is en route to purchase the product or service and needs simply to identify what location is the closest and most appropriate for fulfilling the user’s needs.

In this case, often all that is needed is a large phone number or map.

By considering the visitor usage, the 3 different options and the user experience, you can determine the best mobile web design solution for your unique business.

Learn more about web design services.

 

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

Featured Project: Fine Line Industries Website Overhaul

“One of my greatest pleasures is replacing an embarrassing, ineffective website with a website that not only looks great but functions well and provides a tangible contribution to my client’s success.” Laurel Lindsay,

web-design-beforeIt was my pleasure to work with Darrel Sneath to redesign his incredibly outdated site (shown on the left ) and provide him with a web design that he can be proud of.

Web Design sure has come a long way since the 90’s. Beyond building an attractive online brochure, we strive to create an online asset which performs several important tasks for our clients.

Typically the most important role a website plays is as a hardworking member of the sales team, however the degree to which it does so depends on if our client wants to grow or maintain the volume of business they’re doing.

In the case of the web design we recently launched for Darrel Sneath of Fine Line Industries, his reputation for quality has his small shop at capacity almost all the time.

So, instead of sending a steady stream of qualified leads from the internet, we took a more conservative approach to Darrel’s online strategy development.

First, for brick and mortar businesses that don’t want to massively increase their sales, a new web design primarily acts as legitimizing factor. This kind of site really delivers by providing the who, what, and why of the business, as well as its products and services, in an informative and professionally presented manner.

The second job of Fine Line’s website is to act as passive part of the sales team; a place where past projects, client testimonials, and all manner of proof of expertise and performance can be found.

The third job of a web design, if resources are optimized, is to function also as a customer service tool.

With this particular web design project, we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to design and develop a site that does all three.

As such, his old web design (pictured below) was doing more harm than good to Darrel’s reputation.

Being so committed to his client’s success often creates a paradox for businesses in the image industry.

Darrel was simply too busy to take on the task of redeveloping his website, and months and years passed before he received the email from his brother Del at Carbon Steel Buildings announcing Del’s new website. (www.carbonsteelbuildings.com)

Darrel ensured he did his due diligence before deciding to work with The New Media Group, contacting several firms before he chose us.

We worked very closely with Darrel to ensure the web design accurately reflected the excellence in quality workmanship he’s known for.

The end result is a web design that is easy to read, and has a highly impactful look and feel. This site also does an incredible job of showcasing Darrel’s work. Lastly, but not least, the staff and clients of Fine Line Industries can save time and headaches emailing large design files, instead uploading them through the client login section.

Darrel got the best value from the experience knowing he was going to get a great final product. “I had high expectations and they were met”

Darrel said he would definitely recommend The New Media Group for anyone looking for help getting their web design to accurately reflect their business.

web-design-after

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Turn!

I’d love to hear your questions or challenges – Tell me in the comments below.

And, if you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Laurel LindsayLaurel Lindsay is a Calgary Internet Marking Consultant & President of The New Media Group Inc. She has over 8 years hands-on Internet Marketing experience.

Laurel is enthusiastic and passionate about helping people live better lives by leveraging the power of the internet.

 

How to Choose a Website Design Company: Don’t get ripped off!

website-design-calgaryEveryone seems to have a website these days, but what you may not be aware of is that the web design and development industry is still completely unregulated.

What that means to you, the consumer, is that there isn’t a standard set of ethics that website design companies are forced to adhere to. So, you must learn to protect yourself instead of trusting that companies are being governed.

In order to ensure you’re dealing with an ethical web design company, be sure to ask these 10 questions before you commit.

 

1. Who owns the website I am paying for?

Shockingly, a lot of web design companies will license you the website you’re paying for instead of transferring ownership to you. This means if you ever change providers, you can’t take your site with you.

Ask the company to show you specifically in your contract where the website ownership is stated.

 

2. Do I receive a backup of all the files necessary for my website to work?

Make sure you get this on cd, as it enables you to take those files to another web design firm if you would like to.

 

3. Will I receive access to my ftp and hosting control panel?

Just as important as your web design files in terms of changing providers with ease, make sure you get the following:

a) FTP login url, user name, and password

b) Hosting Control panel url, user name, and password

 

4. Who owns my domain name?

Your domain name is www. yourcompanyname.com, it’s best to register this and manage it yourself at a company like godaddy.com but if not, make sure you are shown the documentation that lists you as the “registrant” and “admin” contact.

5. Are any guarantees my website will rank on search engines?

Often times there will be additional charges for this service that aren’t included in the website design and development price. It’s much better to get a full idea of the costs before you sign up.

 

6. Is there a long term contract I will be asked to sign?

Make sure you are comfortable with committing to this company for that period of time. Also ask about their contract cancellation policy.

 

7. Are there monthly or yearly fees? What service will I be receiving for these fees?

Some companies will charge ongoing maintenance fees, which don’t get you anything if you aren’t updating your web design regularly.

 

8. Who will be responsible for creating/providing my website content?

The content of your site is the text, images, links, videos etc that will be going on your website.

This is the number one reason that website development is delayed or halted. Make sure you have the time to create or provide your own content or hire a web design company that will take care of this for you.

 

9. What is the project timeline?

Make sure the website design company’s delivery date will work for you. There are some companies that will take months to get back to you on one small detail.

 

10. Do you have any references?

Just about anyone with a laptop and some coding knowledge can design a website, but are their customers happy with the results?

Make sure to check out online reviews of the company and ask for references from their existing clients.

By asking these 10 questions, you could save yourself hundreds of dollars in redoing your website design and hours of hassle trying to recover what is rightfully yours. If the company is hesitant to answer any of these questions or gives you the runaround, pick up and move on to the next prospective firm. There are so many businesses out there that will be glad to answer these questions for you; dealing with one that won’t is simply a waste of your time and money.