Marketing in 2011

Online Marketing

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 21:30:00 +1300

Having your website online is the easy part. The difficult part is getting traffic to the website. Without traffic, your website is as good as non-existent. It is therefore important to come up with an online marketing strategy that will get traffic to your website. To do this, you should consider using a professional online marketing firm. Plato Design Agency can provide search engine optimisation services including pay per click (PPC) management, email marketing, on-page and off-page optimisation and other services all measured through statistics and reported on a monthly basis.

To get the traffic you require, your website should be optimised well for search engines. It should contain content with the right keyword density, proper H1 tags should be used, meta tags and title tags should be incorporated and the images should contain alt tags. Apart from this, the content should be regularly updated since search engines like fresh content. At Plato Design we monitor and benchmark your website against your competitors to ensure you are getting the most out of your investment, we constantly work with our clients to improve there search engine rankings.

Apart from optimising your website, you can also implement a Google Adwords campaign. This is a pay per click (PPC) optimisation strategy that will increase traffic to your website easily. However, it comes at a cost. For a campaign to be successful you need to do keyword research to find the most profitable keywords that come at an affordable cost per click. This saves you money and also increases your sales due to high click through and conversion rates, our team can help you every step of the way with this service.

Another way of getting prospective customers or communicating with existing clients is to initiate an email marketing campaign. Email marketing is cost effective and efficient because you can communicate with clients or prospects anytime you want. Plato Design offers a full email marketing service which you can check out through our sister website www.platomail.co.nz

Plato Design Agency has a team of professional website Developers and online marketing consultants that will help you in your email and online marketing efforts. The team is also experienced in search engine optimisation and uses customised software to track your websites progress.

For a free consultation on how to get the most out of your website and online marketing investment contact us today.

The importance of branding

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:30:00 +1300

Professional branding creates a coherent company image which customers come to know and trust. Brand consistency creates customer loyalty, assures you of repeat business and increases your profits. For a brand to have stability and to endure in a competitive market, it has to be well planned. It must be developed through a clear vision of your company and its aims.Brands project an idea, a value and a personality. The importance of branding is that it speaks volumes about your business. Developing brand consistency is not easy to achieve, which is why business people entrust this service to branding professionals like our team at Plato Design. We are a full service design agency, experienced in all aspects of brand development and maintenance.

Branding requires a tremendous amount of planning, development and analysis to produce a quality brand that has stability and endurance in a competitive market. It relates to the products and services you provide, any packaging, logo, images and any advertising and marketing which is done in the name of your brand.

Once a brand is established within a market, the process of planning and development begins all over again. Branding has to speak to the needs and emotions of your potential clients and as such, it needs to be a dynamic thing which changes with the times. As there are so many aspects to branding,it is crucial to enlist a full service design agency, Plato Design has a team of ten with experts across both, online branding and traditional brand channels.

The importance of branding is more than a label on a product. It is what helps a company establish prominence and power within markets. The more well known a brand becomes, the more sales that a brand generates, which of course results in higher profits for your business. And what builds brand excellence is the businesses character and consistency. You are in charge of that but our Christchurch Design agency (Plato Design) are the professionals you need to translate your excellent products and services into a consistent and memorable brand.

Associated with a company's character and consistency is its reputation in providing quality products and services. This is actually what helps build a solid customer base and it’s the customer base that gives a brand its power and prominence within a market. Without customers a brand won't be successful, much less survive. Communicating a company’s mission and objectives is a major part of a brand strategy which a business needs to get right in order to position itself in the market and gain a profitable edge over its competitors.

A branding strategy such as that which Plato Design can develop in partnership with you is what helps your company build a powerful business brand. And it’s the consumer’s ability to recognize and believe that a company delivers quality that makes a brand powerful. An effective branding strategy will cause the consumer to choose one brand over the other because the former is recognized and trusted more than the latter.

The primary objective of a branding strategy is to build and establish consumer trust. Brand trust is built the same way people build trust for one another, by being sincere and honest, doing the right thing, appearing to be unselfish, being predictable, as well as offering something tangible for others' needs and wants whenever possible. The two primary ways that a company accomplishes this is by providing excellent service along with a high quality product.

If you know you have an excellent business idea then you need a full service design agency such as Plato Design to help you translate your company ethos and ideals into a cohesive offline and online branding strategy contact us today.

Our portfolio speaks for itself click here to view our latest work

The Basics of Effective Web Design

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:30:00 +1300

Creating and maintaining a powerful online presence is mandatory for any thriving business or organization today. Beyond offering a website, however, businesses are finding it increasingly important to focus on retaining every unique visitor that finds their site to make the most of every advertising dollar, especially as regular Web users become more desensitised to marketing efforts. To ensure that each client's website makes a lasting impressing, Plato Design Agency's in-house website designers and Web specialists focus on the following Web design principles:

Highly Effective Navigation. Internet users are seeking information first and foremost, and how quickly and efficiently they can get it is paramount. However, many people mistakenly believe that presenting information alone is enough to satisfy their visitors. Studies show that Web users not only seek information, but they seek it in a very specific manner. For example, readers often seek primary company information to tell them if they have arrived in the right place in the upper left-hand corner of the page, which is why logos often appear there. Near the logo, running just beneath it or across the center of the page, is where navigation bars and buttons generally appear, as users seek this information next in most cases. Understanding these principles and how the eye travels around the page is one of the many ways our Website designers develop sites that retain visitors.

Consistent Branding. At Plato Design We ensure consistency across all your marketing material, newsletters, Corporate Profiles, through to all your online channels including your website, and email marketing templates. A professional design agency like ours in Christchurch can ensure that colors and styles remain more precise across different browsers and marketing programs. This is a crucial component of consistent branding, which includes making sure that the public recognizes your unique logo and marketing approach every time. In turn, a more consistent branding plan develops higher public trust.

Accessible Sharing Tools. Word of mouth has long been a business survival staple, and online word of mouth translates to easy sharing tools placed where visitors are most likely to take advantage of them. Our Web design specialists at Plato Design work to make client websites ready for visitor-initiated marketing, one of the most cost effective advertising methods available.

Innovative Design and Follow-Up. Putting professional design and Web business skills together, our team not only focuses visitors' attention on the most pertinent details of a page, but also keeps them coming back again. E-mail newsletter marketing services, prominent sign-up pages and contact pages, and other interactive communication offerings allow users to make contact with clients for a variety of purposes, greatly increasing the odds of a return visit.

While the above information outlines some of the most basic Web design principles, our team also specialises in search engine optimization every step of the way. The process of attracting visitors is integrated into every step, making retention and follow-up all the more effective.

Of course there are several other factors to consider to ensure you get the most out of your investment online, Our team offers a one hour free consultation contact us today

Website Design Tips

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:00:00 +1300

Investing in a website for your business is a big decision and an investment. Our team takes a different approach to designing websites, we first evaluate your market and provide accurate reporting, taking out all the guess work to ensure your website performs from day one.

Below is a list of tips and things to avoid when choosing a web design company to work with you.

Avoid generic templates - as a full service agency we have an in-house design team to ensure your website is fully customised and is consistent with your branding. Our point of difference is in our process, we don't rush people out the door, we explain each step of the process, and ensure absolute satisfaction before your Website is signed off.

Clear Navigation - Make sure your menu structure and links are at prominent places. Preferably right on top - that's usually where people first look. Try to link to as many pages of your site, ensure all information is accessible from all parts of your website. Try to also use the footer for your important links. We provide full ongoing reporting to our web clients to ensure each part of your website is working effectively, we also offer a one hour consultation for anyone who is thinking about getting a website done for their business.

Browser Compatibility - Ensure your website is fully tested and compatible in all the major browsers. On completion of your website we provide a full checklist signed which guarantees your site has been tested, optimised, and built with best web practices.

The Right Fit - Our team prides itself on being Christchurch's most referred web company. Before jumping in head first, drop in, we guarantee to answer all of your questions and concerns, we will introduce our whole team so you can feel comfortable that your website is being managed on site and that you have multiple contacts at your disposal, we look forward to seeing you,

Interested in full Website reporting and Search Engine Optimisation

Colour Theory

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:00:00 +1300

Colour theory

One of the most important aspects of your design is the colour choices. While personally you may have a favourite or a pre conceived idea as to the best choice, it is a good idea to keep in mind that colours have a sub-conscious effect on the user/viewer of your designs.

The basic principles or colour theory revolve around your old primary school friend, the colour wheel (you see, that art class was important!) the basic idea is that the wheel has several levels, the first being the primary colours, which are red, blue and yellow.

These 3 are called primary colours because they cannot be made up by mixing any other colours together, it is colour at its base level.

These are followed by your secondary colours, which are orange, green and purple. These are the colours that occur when two touching primary colours mix, i.e. red and yellow is orange, yellow and blue is green, blue and red is purple.

You may see the pattern that is going to occur here, the next layer, your tertiary colours, are made by mixing the touching primary and secondary colours together, and here you start getting more into shades than new colours, for instance starting at the top (with in this case red) and going clockwise red, dark orange, orange, light orange, yellow, light green, green, dark green, aqua, blue, dark purple, purple, violet, red.

Another facet of the colour wheel is the use of complimentary and analogous colours, these are important in choosing what colours go with what, put simply:

-Complimentary colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel, and as such they form maximum contrast and go well together for impact or readability, for instance, blue/orange, red/green, purple/yellow.

- Analogous colours are colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel, they have very little contrast, but looks nice together, for instance green and dark green.

The reason I’m going through all this is because an understanding of the colour wheel and its principles helps to understand what you want to achieve in your designs.

The emotions that colours evoke in people vary from person to person and culture to culture, what means happiness to one person may symbolise mourning to another, but as a generally accepted idea they go as such:

Reds.

Reds symbolise energy, fire and power, they are used by many fast food places as they make people feel think of being hungry. They also symbolise passion which is both a good and bad trait as it can also symbolise anger and aggression... passion walks a fine line between romance and rage.

Oranges.

Oranges symbolise happiness and playful childlike excitement, they can make your business look friendly and approachable, but depending on your business, these traits may not be the most beneficial factor in your clients decision making.

Yellows.

Yellows symbolise happiness and intelligence, they evoke feelings of optimism and openness and can make your company appear very approachable and friendly.

They downside is they are very hard to use well, readability can be a big issue, and the wrong shade of yellow can look sickly.

Greens.

Green is the colour of nature and growth, its good if you have an environmental aspect to your company image, it also symbolises safety and healing, which is why you will often find greens in hospitals or medical centres.

Green is right on the line of being a warm or cool colour, go to the yellow side of the colour wheel and its warm, go to the blue side and its cool, which means it has to be used carefully or it could change the whole look of your design.

Blues.

Blues evoke feelings of peacefulness and calm, but also show dependability, expertise and strength, which is why you will often find blues on companies that need clients trust, for instance, banks, finance companies etc.

Used poorly blue can evoke feelings of depression, inapproachability and coldness.

Purples.

Purple is the colour of royalty, sophistication and luxury, but also symbolises femininity, creativity and spirituality.

Blacks.

Black is good to give an impression of professionalism and a technical or sophisticated look, it can look very shiny and clean, but should be used carefully as it also is the colour of death and can look very cold and gloomy or soulless.

Whites.

White is pure and honest, it looks approachable and clean and gives the impression of a clean or empty canvas to the viewer.

The sterility comes at a cost; it can look cold and bare, and if not used properly can look unfinished or lazy.

I hope that gives you some idea about the importance of colour choice, its not just about what looks nice, although that is an important part, its also about thinking about the purpose of the design, the target market, how it will be used and what message you are trying to communicate.

Logo Design Process

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 21:00:00 +1300

One of the areas there was a lot of work in for me this week was branding and logo design, which got me thinking some of you might find it interesting to see an example of the processes we go through before you receive your shiny new designs.

One of the first things we do is to set up a meeting between and account manager and yourself, this is discuss what you want, how much it will cost etc. It is also an opportunity for us to understand you and your business, who your target market is, who are your competitors, how do you want to be perceived, and any design ideas you may have yourself (we do listen to those!)

After this the designer (in this case me) goes through the information and forms an idea of who you want to be, i personally think very visually, so i’ve usually already got a pretty good idea at this early stage of fonts, colours, style etc, although i do also need to take into account how the logo will be used, a great logo can become very average very quickly when its applied badly to a business card or website due to a lack of forethought from the designer.

I then start to research ideas, getting inspiration from a variety of online sources and sketching out rough ideas as they come to me, these don’t have to be detailed, the idea is more in my head than on the page, they’re really there just to guide me during the next steps.

Once i have a few solid options down i scan in the pages and open them in Adobe Illustrator. I then lay out your company name and start trawling through the many fonts we have on file, looking for styles and shapes that project the company image you want the public to see, this is an important part of the process, and can be quite time consuming as there is quite an art to understanding what the general public will feel when they see a shape or style of lettering. I then adjust the letter spacing, font sizes and colours as well as any other tweaks to the letter and word shape i think will make it stronger.

I won’t go into the technical details, but i then digitally recreate the options i had put onto paper earlier and arrange then with the relevant fonts, adjusting scale and positioning until i find an option that is both pleasing to the eye in terms of balance and composition, but is also going to have proportions that are easily useable over a range of media.

Ill play around with colour options, and much like with the fonts there’s a lot of thought that needs to go into this as colour psychology has a major influence on public perception. A lot of the time we will have a bit of guidance here from you already, you may have existing company colours to match to, or simply a preference or idea in your head, so we start with those and try to stick as close to them as possible, but sometimes there is no pre-conceived ideas here, or we feel there could be a better option available and we will put together some options showing these as well.

We’ll then tidy everything up, lay up the best options, and before you know it you’ll have them sitting in front of you ready for your appraisal!

So that’s basically my logo process, sometimes the ideas come easy, sometimes they don’t, and most of the time the client is happy with the options presented with only minimal tweaking, which is great as it means we’ve gotten onto the same page at that early meeting stage, and we’re doing our job right!

Marketing in 2011

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 21:00:00 +1300

Now is the best time to consider your marketing plan for 2011, We work with all budgets across varying industries to ensure you are on track and ready for a fantastic year ahead.

At Plato Design we take a three staged approach in planning your marketing and advertising. We start with the planning stage, working closely with you to discuss your budget, your business plan over the next 12 months and your previous activity's to ensure we understand exactly what you are trying to achieve. Stage 2 includes creating a calendar for the coming year with suggested marketing activities and an advertising placement plan if necessary. Your marketing calendar will have in detail all associated costs deadlines and seasonal campaigns pre planned so you can concentrate on your strengths in business. From here we we test and measure your results throughout the year with monthly meetings at no extra charge to you. Our team at Plato Design has a proven track record in creating and implementing successful marketing campaigns including advertisng campaigns, direct mail campaigns, and online marketing campaigns.

We want the best for our clients we only ever act in your best interests, If you would like a free one hour consultation on how to plan a successful 2011 marketing strategy we would love to hear from you.

How do Search Engines Rank Websites

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 21:00:00 +1300

One small tip before we explain how Search Engines rank your Website you should always put people first when writing Web Content, customers first SEO second.

How Search Engines rank your Website

Keyword Usage - If you had two websites about surfboards. They are very similar in all regards except website 1 uses the keyword on several occasions and Website 2 hardly uses it at all, website 1 will rank better in the search engines. For SEO keyword wieghting of around 3-4% on the page is the desired.
Domain Age - domain age directly affects how well you rank in the search engines, especially google. Once again if you had two websites that were identical but one was 5 years old and the other was just 6 months old the chances are website 1 will rank better. Your website domain age is something to consider if you were thinking of changing your website URL.
Website Size -Once again using the comparisons above if you have two websites that ae identical in every way except website 1 has an extra 20 pages of relative content, website 1 will rank a lot better in the search engines.
Link Popularity - Link building is a very important part to seo, the quantity and quality of inbound links directly effects how well your website ranks in the search engines

Of course there are several other factors that can help your SEO. We will continue with tips and tricks in ur next blog post.