Archive for the ‘important info’ Category
From the weird to the wonderful- Logo design is well worth it
When you think of a famous corporate trademark or logo, what’s the first one that springs to mind?
Whether you thought of the famous black tick that Nike boasts or the “Golden Arches” from McDonalds, that little graphic has worked its wonders because it has left a permanent message in you mind.
A logo is the most impressive element in enhancing the customers of a company as it brings an immediate recognition and symbolisation towards your business; creates a sense of professionalism and can assist in promotion. Tips to designing a logo:
- Learn what a logo represents: How can a logo represent your business and how can your business benefit from a logo design?
- A logo must be describable- You need to be able to describe your logo because if you can’t, then how do you expect your customers to explain your business to others.
- A logo must be memorable- Just like the logos which pop into your head, you want your logo to leave an impression in your customers memory.
- A logo must be scalable- Your logo should be small and clear enough for company uniforms, hats and headers on newsletters/documents, and simple enough to be able to clearly stand out on billboards, office fronts and even motor vehicle stickers.
- Learn from others successes and mistakes- Not only learn from them, but also ensure that your logo is distinguishable anc completely unique. A large amount of logos appear all too similiar these days so stand out from the crowd.
- Establish your logo design process by hiring a graphic designer- If designing isn’t really your forte, employ a graphic designer who is specialised in logo design and company branding.
- A logo must be effective without colour- Note that different colours can create different effects and moods towards your design and company:
Blue- Confidence/calmness/security/dignity/honesty
Black & Grey- Seriousness/Formality/Elegance/Authority/Distinction
Brown- Earth/nature
Yellow & Orange- Optimism
Green- Nature/health/peace/freshness
Red- Passion/courage/strength
Pink- Innocence/ softness/warmth
Purple- Spirituality/mystery/luxury
For more information on how to design a company logo or trademark, or if you are interested in a professional grahic designer to create your logo, please contact Clue Design. info@cluedesign.com.au
Check out the cool site logo Design Love for more inspirational logo ideas. www.logodesignlove.com
Help your clients to “get the message”
We continue our series of tips to help you write effective website content. Here are three ways to help people who visit your website “get the message” as quickly as possible.
Tip No. 10- Break up long sections of text
When people use your website, they want to find things quickly. Don’t expect them to read every line word for word.
If you use long blocks of text, there is a good chance that what you are saying will not register with many people.
These techniques help them find information quickly
- Bullet point lists, like this one
- Short sentences, with an average length of about 20 words.
- Short paragraphs, about 40 words or less. One-sentence paragraphs are OK.
- Bolding of important words or phrases, in moderation
- Subheadings
The easier it is for your audience to spot the key points, the more effective your website.
Tip No. 11- One main topic per page
Following on from the tip above, another way to make web content easier to understand is to focus on one main topic or idea per page.
There are additional benefits in doing this
- It becomes easier to create a logical, customer-friendly site structure.
- Search engines can more easily identify what the page is about.
Think of your website as a series of topics through which people move. People move from one idea to the next and different people will take different paths.
Better to have short pages and link them, than to try covering a range of subjects on one long page.
Tip No. 12- Make the important stuff obvious
Do you want your readers to see important information first? Of course. Then forget what you were taught at school about writing essays with an introduction first and a conclusion at the end.
Writing for the web is different to writing an essay. Tell people what you want them to know quickly, before they get bored and go elsewhere.
For example
- Write a headline that actually says what the page is about.
- Include the main point in the first sentence.
- Make special offers or calls to action stand out.
- The golden rule is that the more important it is, the more prominent it should be.
Clue Design provides professional advice about planning and writing effective website content. contact us to find out how we can help you. info@cluedesign.com.au
Clue’s Community
We here at Clue Design believe in giving the community a chance.
Whether it be students who are currently studying IT, design or programming at Tafe, high school or university and wish to get a little more real-life experience; or undergraduates studying PR and marketing, Clue Design are committed to providing the community with opportunities.
Clue Designs Internship/Work Experience Program
Clue Design are currently networking with International universities and allowing international students to come and work within the company for IT experience and practice.
Already Clue Design has employed over five international students and numerous Australian students from around Western Australia who have undergone their practical training for 8 weeks within the company.
Each student has benefitted from working in a real-life corporate environment by learning various projects such as: assisting in designing websites, attending professional client meetings, learning how to utilise products such as Mintox Adaptive Content Management System and e-Mail Campaigner, updating the company news page, assisting in developing Clue News, amongst other tasks.
For more information on Clue Designs internship or work experience program, please contact the helpful staff at Clue Design today. info@cluedesign.com.au
Advertising at its sweetest
Icecream makers Haagen-Dazs promoted its newest luxury icecream by inviting people to bed.
The icecream makers filled a Tokyo musuem with luxury beds retailing at over $2,500 and invited people to lie back, eat their new product while viewing a classical music concert.
The lucky guests were allowed to indulge in as much ice cream as they wished. Now that is a great way of promoting a product. Jealous? Just a bit. http://pzrservices.typepad.com/advertisingisgoodforyou/
Weird Logo “Branding”
Some people prefer ear-piercing, others prefer wearing accessories, but for the crazy few out there, their enjoyment comes from logo tattooing.
If you would like to advertise your corporate image in an “out there” way, why not try a cloud logo. A company called Flogos, (short for floating cloud logos) can create a cloud shaped just like your company logo.
Sweet fashion is another form of weird advertsing getting around. Check out this Louis Vuitton lollypop. Rooftop advertising like this Target rooftop logo is also popular now with Google Earth present. For more weird advertising click here: http://pzrservices.typepad.com/advertisingisgoodforyou/
Mintox- Generating Sales for Clients
We have been receiving really postive feedback from clients using Mintox which is great to hear especially after loads hard work & many years in development its good to know that what we have designed and build a system that works! – www.mintox.com
Bernard Shapland
Range Equipment
(www.rangeequipment.com.au)
“With the downturn in the economy we were looking for new lead generation tools, and our old site just wasn’t working. Since dealing with the guys at Clue and upgrading our website to use Mintox we have seen sales enquiries jump from zero a month up to several a week and building, we are talking wheel loaders big ticket items via our website! The website basically paid for itself in the first week. Tell anyone that wants to contact me to give me call.”
Dot Cousins
Aspen Parks
www.aspenparks.com.au
“Our goals were to completely re-vamp the look and feel of our website and to ensure that our web search engine results improved. The success of the web site has been beyond our expectations. We receive complements daily from people who visit our site. We could not have asked for a better design.
We now have a first-rate, easy to navigate website and are consistently ranked high during web searches. The Mintox CMS makes it easy to update and we do regularly, best of all the site has increased accommodation bookings in all off our properties.”
Just some of the benefits:
- Mintox – Increase Sales
- Mintox – Decrease Time to Market
- Mintox – Reduced Business Cost
- Mintox – Produces Leads
Ultimately Mintox is the tool that drives the success of these sites, the real power behind it is the people that are using it, the more they use it, the more they understand it, the more benefits they gain.
Mintox v3.6 is due for release in mid April and it brings a load of new features, performance improvements and new components especially designed to increase and manage sales. For a preview of the latest version call Clue Design on +61 8 9368 0777 or contact sales@cluedesign.com.au | www.mintox.com
Three tips to better website content
We continue our series of tips about web writing. This time we bring you three techniques professionals use to create an engaging style that customers like.
Tip No 7 – Write as if only one person reads your site
- Using the web is a personal experience. Your website might reach thousands of people, but each of them interacts with it as an individual. This means you are really writing for an audience of one.
- Think of the words on your website as a substitute for talking to someone face to face or over the telephone. It’s like having a one-sided conversation with a person you cannot see.
- This tip can also help you overcome “writer’s block”. If you are trying to write and your mind goes blank, imagine that you are talking to someone. Write down what you would say. It’s a great way to get started, although of course you will need to tidy it up later.
Tip No 8 – use “you”, “us” and “we”
- Following on from the tip above, you will connect better with your reader if you use “you”, “us” and “we” instead of a formal, corporate style.If you were explaining your services to a potential customer, you would say what “we” could do for “you”. Because your website replaces that conversation, it should use those words too.
As another example, compare these two statements - 1) This company welcomes enquiries from interested job seekers.
- 2) If you would like to work for us, please send us your details.
Notice how the second version is much friendlier.
Tip No 9 – Write in the active voice
- As you might remember from primary school, when you use a “subject – verb – object” sentence structure you are writing in the active voice. The subject performs the action (the verb) on the object.
- The active voice creates sentences that are shorter, snappier and livelier.
- The alternative, the passive voice, generally results in sentences that are more cumbersome.
Although there are uses for the passive voice, the active voice is usually preferable
Consider these examples - Your order will be shipped by us within 24 hours. (passive voice)
- We will ship your order within 24 hours. (active voice)
- Our products are only installed by qualified technicians. (passive voice)
- Only qualified technicians install our products. (active voice)
Master the art of the active voice and see your web content become stronger and more direct.
Clue Design provides professional advice about planning and writing effective website content. Contact us now to find out how we can help you. info@cluedesign.com.au
Cool websites sure to waste tons of time!
Bored? Got some time to waste? Click on these links and view our selection of some of the latest and coolest websites.
Your Playground
This site is seriously fun and will definitely waste a lot of time. Become a designer for a day and create your dream playground, colour it, name it and build it up!
http://yourplayground.org/
Save The Words
If you are someone who loves words, learning new words or creating words, then this site is just for you! Add your word and describe its meaning and then spread the word!
www.savethewords.org
Snowdin
This is one of those fun interactive sites and if you grab a pair of 3D glasses from somewhere, it makes it even cooler. Play games, visit certain areas of a town called Snowdin and have fun!
http://www.snowdin.com
Hotel 626
This is a game that you can only play at night from 6pm unitl 6am- or when it allows you to play. It is creepy and well worth the wait. You can go to different levels and view and listen to scary ghostly images and sounds.
www.hotel626.com
Fitting in time with tech
Forward these statistics on to shock the people who believe technology takes up family and personal lives.
According to the Discovery Channel Magazine, interviews undertaken amongst 4780 people proved that due to the availability of email, mobile phones and technology, the average family now fits in 43 hours of activity out of 24.
- 14 per cent of people spend 6 HOURS with family and friends- 4.5 hours with family; 1.5 hours with friends.
- 47 per cent of people spend 20.3 HOURS on essentials- 7.1 sleeping; 1.2 hours commuting; 6.4 hours working;
- 2.7 hours at school; 2.9 hours chores, errands, cooking, cleaning.
- 18 per cent of people spend 7.9 HOURS with technology such as instant messaging, landline phone, mobile phone, SMS, MP3 Player, online/console games, PDA, online journals/blogs, listening to music, e-mailing, going to movies.
- 20 per cent of people spend 8.7 HOURS with media- 3.6 hours on the internet; 2.5 hours on TV; 1.3 hours listening to radio; 0.7 hours reading the newspaper; 0.6 hours reading magazines.
Lead Generation- Pro-active versus Reactive
Clue’s Client Training Consulting Management Company specialises in sales training, marketing and business development. Managing Director at TCMC, Nick Florido fills us in on the secrets to lead and sales generation.
If you listen to the news reports flying around the globe, we are in difficult times and many people are concerned, however I want to talk to you about some individuals and organisations who are not so concerned and are even looking forward to the year ahead.
Many years ago I was fortunate enough to work with an old sales dog by the name of Big Jim who was a very successful sales person. The highlight of his success was that he never experienced the highs and lows of economic fluctuation regardless of what the economy was doing.
He taught me his secret relating to sales generation: ‘It doesn’t matter what you do to generate your leads, JUST DO SOMETHING’. The day you stop working on generating leads is the day you may as well shut up shop.
His philosophy was simply, pickup the phone, ring your old customers, visit existing customers and call on new businesses or prospects- Just…do…something. The sales you’re making now was from the lead generation (pro-active activity) you did two to three months ago and the lead generation you’re doing now will become the business you enjoy in the next two or three months.
If you take a “reactive” position to lead generation, then you have left your sales results in the lap of the gods and then you are on what I call a ‘hope plan’, I hope someone rings, I hope they ask for me, I hope they haven’t been to the opposition.
Here’s an exercise that will help you to develop a pro-active game plan.
- Make a list of 100 of your customers and prospects. Try and split it into 50 existing customers and 50 new prospects.
- In the next month visit (not phone) everyone of the list, don’t be selective, start at the top of the list and work down.
- Just go out and visit them, don’t specifically try and sell them anything, just call out to see them and see how they are going, if they are new clients, drop off a brochure on your products etc.
- If you will ritually do this over the next month, I guarantee you will not feel the effects of a down turn or recession in your industry.
- But here’s the real key to this exercise, why just do it next month, why not do it every month and have a bumper sales year.
So take control of your lead generation and implement a pro-active lead program. Until we meet again…have many profitable sales.
