On behalf of Linkshape, I’d like to thank Chris and wish him only the very best in his new endeavors.

Today, we return and you’ll have the pleasure of being introduced to a new online business article series. You may recall back in June, when we announced our new online business platform, LinkshapeBiz which integrates several key Internet technologies:

• Content management
• eCommerce
• Customer Relationship Management
• Email Marketing
• Analytics
• Search Engine Optimization
• Web Applications

Integrated Internet technologies

Image by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/lusi

If you’re not already excited about the possibilities of managing virtually all of your online business efforts from a single, central interface – well, consider yourself lucky. The rest of us, who rely on Internet marketing technologies to promote and run our businesses have spent years struggling to keep these various, separate tools in-synch and effective in our efforts.

Then again, some of you may not even know what content management is or at least may not understand the importance it plays in online business. Unless you work in the Internet advertising industry, chances are you fit the bill here and if so, I’m writing directly to you.

Online business

We’ll get to content management in another article. To kick things off, I’m going to start slow and focus on the topic of online business in general, because it’s still quite common for small businesses to be stuck in the outdated mindset of “To be on the Web, we just need a website.”

Before we go on, let’s preface this further discussion by saying there are plenty of small businesses that do better than “just fine” without a website or any other type of online business efforts. There are also plenty of businesses that really don’t see the need to do anything other than keep up a simple website that has their contact information on it somewhere. Some of these are also successful companies.

That’s probably not you, reader, because you’re here learning about how Internet technologies can help your company be more successful. Am I right?

Electronic business and e-business

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The concept of an online business is less revolutionary than it is evolutionary. Some of you may be familiar with the terms “electronic business” or “e-business” that became popular in the late 90s. Informational sites such as WikiPedia consider these terms synonymous with “online business”, the general idea being that an e-business uses information technologies to support business functions.

Personally, I consider online business to be the next small iteration of electronic business, if a small line can be drawn. Thinking back to the 90s, if your company was making the switch from traditional, paper-based book-keeping to an accounting software – perhaps Quickbooks on the accountant’s desktop computer – it could be said that your company was becoming an e-business. That carried bragging rights.

Online software

The small line for me is the proliferation of online software. For example, there’s now an online version of Quickbooks and eventually I believe all software will be run through an Internet connection instead of residing on your actual computer device. So yes, it’s a very small line that we don’t really need to focus on. Instead, let’s point out some reasons why companies choose to become embrace the concept of an e-business or an online business.

Advantages of online business

Image by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/srbichara

1. Reach – Thanks to Internet technologies, your business can have a global presence available to stakeholders all along the value chain, all around the clock.
2. Time and cost savings – Ditching the traditional brick-and-mortar setup allows that capital to be invested into a comparitavely larger footprint online. Significant savings can also be realized thanks to a reduced workforce and equipment requirements.
3. Potential competitive advantage – Being on the cutting edge often gives a significant advantage over the competition, across all functional business areas.
4. Improved customer service management – Tied closely to the first advantage, even if traditional customer service cannot be completely replaced, it can usually be enhanced by Internet technology, resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction.

The main disadvantage of going online business

I’m not going into as much detail as other articles out there on the topic, but I do want to quickly address the main disadvantage of moving towards an effective online business model: Mainly, a lack of resources to successfully implement the transition to online business. The emphasis should be placed on “successful” and “effective”. I feel I need to make that distinction because as a fellow small business owner, I can understand the desire (and need, for some) to focus completely on cost savings. However, I don’t think any savings-minded small business owner wants to spend a single penny on a something that isn’t going to improve their business.

Unfortunately, the bane of all small businesses is limited resources, and most small businesses don’t have the luxury of an in-house Internet marketing team who can steer the company in the direction towards the right technologies and strategies. This brings me to my plug.

Online business consulting

This lack of resources creates the demand for online business consulting services, such as Linkshape. We like to think of ourselves as an outsourced, on-demand Internet marketing team for our clients. So when an amazing technology comes around, such as LinkshapeBiz, I can easily picture myself heading up the elevator to your office and saying: “Boss, you’ve got to see this. I’ve got a way to really improve our business.”

I hope you’ll join me next week as I begin to break out the many technologies integrated into LinkshapeBiz and explain how they can benefit your company. Until then, happy Linkshaping!

There’s a reason why we’re only just now talking about the actual design of a website. So much emphasis is placed on it – heck, it’s even the name of our industry and job title.

Hopefully through this series, you’ve grown to appreciate all of the background work that goes into and is built into a well-planned website. The previously developed project description, the valuable information gathered during the creative brief, and website design wireframes all lead to a website design that stands the greatest chance of success.

Website design mock-ups: What are they?

This topic, along with our previous one on website design wireframes, is within the context of custom website design projects.  If you’ve ever worked with graphic designers or other website designers, you’ve probably already heard the term “mock-up”; but for those who haven’t:

In website design, a mock-up is a graphical depiction of a webpage design and layout

If we go back to our metaphor of building a sailing ship – we as the ship builders would have an artist sculpt a model of the ship before it were actually fabricated. However, since we’re talking about website design, it would be appropriate to think of a website design mock-up as a life-size model of that ship. The only difference between the model and the actual ship is that the ship itself is fully fabricated and functional. The same is true with website design mock-ups. They look just like the real thing, but it’s just a static representation.

The importance of mock-up review and approval

A website design is more like a mosaic than a painting. The "bigger picture" is made up complex arrangement of interdependent files, much like Robert Silver's photomosaic of the Mona Lisa.

Some people might wonder why we don’t just go ahead and build out the actual website without presenting a mock-up. Why spend the time reviewing something that doesn’t have clickable buttons and such? That’s understandable.

If you were to look at that life-size model of a ship, if you didn’t know any better, you’d think it were a fully-functional ship. However, once you got on board and started taking a look around, you’d see that it was an empty facade. The same is true for people who don’t really understand what they’re looking at when viewing a live webpage.

Without going into any boring, techie details: A majority of modern webpages are a mosaic of different files.  Some of those files are images, some are scripts that perform actions, some are files that tell your browser how a particular line of text should look, some perform complex animation or application-like functionality, and so on.  The glue that holds all these files together is the webpage programming language file – typically, one of several flavors of HTML. All that stuff is the moving, working parts that separate our actual ship from the life size model.

Now, let’s say you’re looking at the actual ship floating in the water, ready to set sail at your command. After a moment, you think to yourself, “You know, I’d really like it to be a little wider.” Imagine what affect that change would have on all the working parts, just under the ship’s facade.

At Linkshape, we do our very best to absolutely NAIL the design of a website right off the bat. However, we also want to accommodate any requests you might make after the design has been presented. If you say “I’d really like it to be a little wider”, it just makes a whole lot more sense for everyone to make those types of design changes to the mock-ups, before all those moving parts have been fabricated. You see?

Looking back & looking ahead

For now, this concludes our series on the Art of Linkshaping. To recap:

• In the Introduction, we talked about the approval process and learned why everyone hates change orders
• We identified the dimensions of the Project Description: Services, Pages & Features, and the Platform & Technologies
• We learned of the importance the Creative Breif plays in website design and Internet marketing
• We took a time-out to identify the differences between completely Custom Designs and Customized Pre-Built Designs
• We learned the value of Wireframing for content and layout organization
• Today, we learned the importance of reviewing Mock-ups before the website is actually built out

We’ll revisit the topic of Linkshaping from an ongoing marketing and online business perspective in the very near future. For now, we hope you’ve enjoyed this series and look forward to seeing you here again next week.

To wrap things up we will now discuss actually distributing the newsletter to all of those eager subscribers and tracking the results of all your planning and execution.  First, let’s point out a few things.

3 Keys to Distributing an Email Marketing Campaign

• Email Marketing Platform
• Campaign Delivery Setup
• Reporting & Analytics

Choosing an Email Marketing Platform

How are you going to distribute your information-packed newsletter?  Perhaps the simplest method of distribution is through your default email program: Outlook, Gmail, AOL email, etc.  However, be mindful of some important distribution considerations.

Anti-SPAM compliance

Don't get caught in the SPAM folder. Better yet, make sure you're not spamming! Image by kveselyte

Over the past few years, SPAM and privacy have become a major issues, to the point that there are now federal Anti-SPAM laws in effect.  It is extremely important to make sure that you follow CAN-SPAM guidelines for business email marketing before you choose to send out your newsletter.  If you are planning to use your current personal email account, please be mindful that if your Emails are deemed as SPAM, the server that you are sending from will be blocked and if you are using a shared-hosting environment, everyone else on the server will be blocked as well.  This can lead to some very nasty repercussions, not the least of which is your entire online business grinding to a sudden halt.

Trust me – I have seen it done in the past, which is why we always suggest using a certified service such as Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, iContact, or one of the two platforms offered at Linkshape.

On-site Email Marketing Software

Up until a few years ago, using more powerful email marketing software was quite popular (and expensive).  You needed to purchase the software and you needed your own web server to install the software on and set it to run overnight.  Again though, the burden of preventing a total system lock-down is placed directly on your organization.

Then, more recently, along came a line of web-based email marketing services – a few of which I mentioned above.

Web-based Email Marketing Services

There’s still a cost associated with web-based email marketing services, but those costs are much more manageable than on-site software.  With Constant Contact, for example, you will pay a monthly fee that’s based on the number of contacts in your email list.  Linkshape’s email marketing platform isn’t a monthly subscription.  You pay per campaign.  Others will vary.

Using personal email can be more convenient and requires a smaller investment, what you will receive in return with email marketing-specific services is well worth every cent:

1. You will know that your campaign will be CAN-SPAM compliant.
2. Each of these services offers free newsletter templates for you to use in setting up your campaign – No need to be a designer to have a great-looking newsletter!
3. These services take care of all of the dirty work, such as handling hard and soft bounced Emails, and maintaining your subscriber list.

But the greatest benefit that you will receive is the reporting after the campaign is sent, which we will discuss at the end.

Campaign Delivery Setup

"Send immediately" may mean "send to trash" if you don't consider the importance of delivery date and time for your email marketing newsletter. Photo by Rendy

Once you have chosen how your newsletter is going to be distributed, it is time to schedule your newsletter to go out to all of your eagerly awaiting customers.  Of course, you could just click “SEND IMMEDIATELY”, but research has shown that there are actually better times during the day, during the week, and even during the month in which you will get the best results from your campaign.

Delivery Date & Time

For instance, research has shown that Mondays just aren’t a good email marketing days.  Most of us are returning from the weekend and the last thing any of use is looking forward to is sorting through a whole bunch of emails.  There is a greater chance that your info-packed newsletter is going to get caught up in the weekend pile-up, ignored, or in the trash bin.  There are exceptions, depending on your specific business.  For example, a restaurant owner and want to send out the week’s specials or coupons to spur immediate business.

The time of day is critical as well.  Newsletters sent before 9AM or after 4pm tend to get caught up in the off-business-hours clutter, similar to the weekend build-up, and ignored.

Email Marketing Reporting & Analytics

The great thing about doing an ongoing campaign is that once you have sent the first couple to your customers, you’ll be able to review and analyze the reports that are offered by most of the email marketing services we identified.  You will see trends developing that you can use to adjust future campaigns.

Let’s say you have 500 contacts in your subscriber list.  What good is it if you can’t track what your customers are really doing with your newsletter, or even if they are actually opening it?  Your email marketing platform should tell you:

• How many opens (unique and repeat) you have
• How many clicks your campaign is receiving
• What specific links are readers clicking
• How many soft or hard bounces you had and why
• When (date/time) your campaign was opened
• How many times was your campaign forwarded to someone else
• Who un-subscribed from your mailing list

All of this information is vital to the future success of your email marketing campaigns and to the success of your ongoing Internet marketing efforts.  Given what you learn from each campaign, how can you improve the next newsletter to increase traffic to your site?  Now that you know what information subscribers want to read more about, how can you improve your website to increase the likelihood of a conversion?

You won’t even be able to get specific questions for your unique business if you can’t analyze the results.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

In closing, remember:

• Select the right Email Marketing Platform for your needs
• Optimize the Campaign Delivery options
• Analyze the Reports and improve results

Until next time, feel free to leave your questions or comments below.

Since my background has been in Human Resources, my perspective is influenced by the events I participated in as part of working with and for employees. When I began my career, networking was almost exclusively done face-to-face at various events related to the specific areas my position was assigned to at the time. There were some “meet and greets” as well as “brown bag/learning luncheons”, with most of the attendees located within a 15 mile radius. As a result, if a participant didn’t fall within that area, chances were they were unable to attend that particular event without forfeiting an entire day’s worth of work productivity. There were even times during training requests that we were unable to accommodate all the interest parties, due to logistics.

Photo by Spy-Seth

Now, some 20 years later, with the advances made in communication, that challenge has been greatly decreased. Internet-enabled networking technologies such as Skype, instant messaging, social networking sites, and even mobile device advances make networking more readily available to interested participants. Travel time is reduced and accessibility increased. People can now sit in on a conference, participate in a training session, or have a personal meeting including video of the person you are conversing with in real time. That is, of course, if you’ve made sure you have your best business professional look on for those of us who are appearance conscious.

I don’t believe face to face meetings and in-person training sessions are a thing of the past. There will always be times when we have the luxury of time, the location is within a comfortable commute, and a personal touch is an important aspect of the meeting. But for the convenience of a fast-paced schedule, being able to get that training done with technology, when you have the time to commit is certainly a wonderful option that allows flexibility for individual learning and work styles.

Linkshaper Deborah Frohnerath, in her own words

You'll meet Linkshaper Deborah Frohnerath at a variety of networking events around the Tampa Bay area.

Thank you for the opportunity to share a little about myself as a recently added Linkshaper.  My name is Deborah Frohnerath and before you ask: Yes. I am related to Head Linkshaper Ricky. However, I would like to believe that my experience and not my relationship secured me this opportunity to contribute to the success of Linkshape.

A wealth of experience

My professional background has included such experience as Administrative Assistant, Dental Receptionist, and most recently as a Human Resources Specialist for a local financial institution.  I retired after almost 20 years working at Achieva Credit Union.  Not one to just sit back and relax, I endeavored to begin a new career with Linkshape when the opportunity presented itself.  You will most often see me at Chamber of Commerce events, working on administrative tasks, and as a new member of Business Network International, attending meetings and development training.  I am also enrolled as a student at St. Petersburg College, continuing towards a Business degree.  I believe we should never stop learning and developing ourselves.

On a personal note

When I’m not working, you can find me with my husband of 33 years and our three dogs walking and enjoying the outdoors or with our children and their families, enjoying time together.  While originally from Pennsylvania, both my husband and I have happily made our home here for 23 years and consider the Tampa Bay region our home.  We often have visitors come to stay and enjoy the weather that has made Florida such a wonderful place to live and work.

You should think of your email marketing newsletters as you would the parts of a book.

Think of your email newsletter as a book, but all on one page.  You will need:

• Cover – the newsletter’s header
• Table of contents – quick access bullet-points
• Preface – your intro
• Chapters – the content of the newsletter

Each of these parts serves a specific role, just as they would for a book.  Let’s look at each part:

Newsletter Header – the Cover of email marketing

The header, as with the cover of a book, is what is going to be seen right away and tell your customers the “who” and “what” about your email marketing newsletter.  This should include (but is not limited to):

• Company logo
• Company name, for those that only receive text only Emails)
• Website address
• Phone number

Other items of importance in the newsletter header would be a brief description as to why your customer is receiving the newsletter from your business, a way for your customers to forward the newsletter to a friend, and the option to “opt-out” of receiving future newsletters, so that your email marketing campaigns remain SPAM compliant.

Newsletter Bullet-points – the Table of Contents of email marketing

Bullet-points are a great way for your customers to quickly find the content in the email newsletter that is of most interest to them.  These days, most people receive an average of 40+ emails per day.  It is also estimated that the average person spends less than 10 seconds per email before deciding what to do with it: read it, trash it, or file it.  So, if your customer has to search through the entire content, chances are all of your hard work for that newsletter will end up in the can.  Respect their time and make navigating your newsletter easy.

Newsletter Intro – the Preface of email marketing

Your intro is a chance to be personable with your customer.  Most email marketing software applications: Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Business Catalyst, etc. provide you a way to integrate your customer’s name into the content, without having to enter each one by hand.  This makes your customers feel that you took the time to send this information specifically to them.  This section also gives you a chance to speak “right to the customer” as if you were calling them directly or stopping by to see them.

Newsletter Content – the Chapters of email marketing

When it comes to the content of your email marketing newsletter, just as with chapters of a book, remember to segment each section with a title.  This helps your newsletter be more readable and less of an “eye chart”.  Combined with the bullet-points I just mentioned, this will be easy to do.  Also be sure to create inbound links from your newsletter content back to your website.  Not only is this one of our primary goals of the newsletter, this will also help you track what articles your customers are finding important enough to want to read more.

Newsletter Design

Although this email newsletter design is in a foreign language, you can generally understand what you're looking at because of good design and layout.

Now let’s discuss the overall look of your email marketing newsletter.  It is critical to remember that with today’s technology, most people are also now receiving their emails on something other than their desktop or laptop computers.  These mobile devices are advancing rapidly, but it is still very difficult to read emails that are heavily laden with images and graphics.  In fact, many mobile devices always display a plain text email.  It is a good idea to keep your newsletter simple, clean, short, and to the point.  This will also reduce the time it takes to receive your newsletter.

So, until our next and final installation of this email marketing series, remember to:

• Let them know who is sending them the newsletter
• What great articles they can expect to find in your newsletter
• Create the personal touch in your intro
• Divide your content into sections
• Keep your newsletter simple and clean

Happy Linkshaping!

Today, we discuss website design wireframes, which mark a transition from the Strategy phase in the Art of Linkshaping to the Design phase.  Not all website designers or website design companies prepare wireframes before moving into the actual build of a website.  One reason for this might be what we mentioned in the first paragraph: they might be using a pre-built website design – and that’s fine, as long as you’re not under the impression you’re getting a custom website design.

Another reason might be the website designer’s or design company’s philosophy of design.  In a moment, we’re going to discuss the wireframe’s importance in the discipline of website usability, which some website designers may not pay much care to, either by choice or in ignorance.  On the other hand, the designer may simply have a production process that effectively eliminates the feedback they receive from their clients.  Perhaps it’s just faster for them just to bang out a website and then seek approval after the fact.  It’s hard to say, because that’s not our approach.

For us Linkshapers and indeed for many of our website design peers, wireframes are a necessity for creating well organized, custom website designs.

Website design wireframes as a blueprint

The website design wireframe for a recent client. Imagine peeling away the superficial website design to look at the website's skeleton.

I know that we referred to the Project Description as the blueprint for a website design project, but I think almost everyone would agree that the wireframe most closely resembles what we would conventionally call a blueprint for a website.  Although engineering blueprints are much more complex, they bear a similar visual appearance and function.  They spatially map out the arrangement of the overall structure.

Imagine, if you can, peeling back the superficial design layer of a website.  The underlying skeleton of that layout would be the wireframe.

Like a custom website design itself, there is an art to wireframing and there is variation in the particular styles of one wireframe to another.  Some of this variation is aesthetic – I mean, we are talking about designers here and for most, there’s always going to be a certain desire to provide a designer’s touch.  For example, because wireframing has its roots in actual hand-drawn diagrams, some designers give their wireframes a hand-drawn appearance.  Actually, this usually is done to remind the client that the wireframe doesn’t reflect the appearance of the website design.

Wireframes can also sometimes take the form of prototypes – functional outlines of a website flow.  These are most common in projects that include custom website development, programming, or web-based applications.  Again, the emphasis is not on the design of the application, but on the flow and functionality.

Probably the most important tip I can give you, the client, is: the wireframe is not what your website design will look like.

Website design as a content container

In good website design, the wireframe helps the website designer "frame in" sections of content. The actual appearance of these elements will be the icing on the cake.

After more than a decade in the website design industry, if you were to ask me what I think the most important skill a website designer can possess is, I’ll you: “Organizational ability.”  Following that, I’d say: “Design talent.”  That may surprise some of you.

When I talk about organization, I’m not talking about a website designer who is obsessive about keeping a well organized desk and personal space or the website designer who has their day mapped out with sophisticated spreadsheets.  What I’m referring to is the ability to take raw information, analyze it, and organize it in a way that makes sense and other people would expect to find it.  This “raw information” I refer to is website content: pages upon pages of text, graphs, images, videos, and other media that will ultimately be presented on the website.

So much emphasis is placed on the actual “design” of website design, it’s easy to forget that people choose to visit websites, first and foremost, for website content – all the stuff that is generated during the Research and Strategy phases.

Recall that I mentioned wireframes are a necessary tool for well organized websites.  In my opinion, a good website designer views the role of website design as a container for the website content.  It supports the content by framing it in, emphasizing relatively important content, and subduing the lesser.  For such designers, wireframes, along with site maps and other prototyping processes, are powerful tools that help organize content before one goes about making everything “look pretty.”

Website design as a user experience

Although some of you are only now getting around to getting a website, the art of website design has been around for quite a while now.  In that time, important developments have emerged that fundamentally shift the focus within the industry.  One such development is usability: the understanding that a website presents an experience to the website user and the quality of that experience can have a deep impact on the overall success of that website.

For example: If I wanted to perform a search, does the placement of the search box and button fall in line with my expectations as a user?  Does the wording of a button give me an understanding of what will happen if I press it?  Wireframes allow us to address fundamental usability concerns.

Usability is an incredibly complex subject and a website design artform unto itself, which could easily command an entire article discussing it solely.  So for now, understand that we view good organization as having a direct impact on good user experience.

Website design wireframes – review and approval

In the Art of Linkshaping, the wireframe is a critical component of custom website design, which is why we take care to present, review, and seek approval of your wireframe before moving onto the next important step.  Wireframing will almost always start immediately upon receiving approved website content, either from your team or from our professional copywriters.

In our experience, the approval of wireframes is quick and painless.  If there are any changes requested, it usually to add or remove blocks of last-minute content changes.

Upon approval of the wireframes, we move into the next stage in the Design phase; the final topic in this series: website design mock-ups.  Join us next week for our wrap-up.  Oh, and if you have a question or comment about this article, please leave a comment below.  See you next week!

Notice that I made a point to say “custom” website designs.  Before we can effectively talk about website design wireframing, we needed to talk about two very broad design classifications.  In writing this article about that topic, I realized that I was nearing the invisible limits I consider a good article length without actually having started to write on-topic yet.  And so I have rededicated this article to our new topic:

Custom and pre-built website designs

When it comes to the planning and executing the design of a website or Online Business, there are really two ways of going about it.  On one side, you have custom website designs and on the other, you have pre-built website designs.

1. Custom website designs

When we say “custom” website designs, we’re referring to designs that are conceptualized, designed, and built from the ground up, specifically for a particular website or Online Business.  These “one off” designs are only used for that single company, product, or service and you won’t see the same design being used by any other website.  These website designs have not be pre-built by a design company for use by several clients or resold by any template retailers.

Linkshape is proud to offer custom website designs, specially crafted by our website design artisans specifically for your unique brand.

2. Pre-built website designs

There are hundreds of high-quality pre-built website designs that can offer significant cost savings over custom website design.

In contrast to custom website designs, pre-built website designs have been built either:

1. For no single product/service/company – The pre-built design has been built to be used by several websites or Online Businesses.
2. For a single website non-exclusively – Although the website designer created the website design for a particular client, the design was created to be reused for appropriate future clients as well.

Website designers and website design companies will typically customize the pre-built design for the client’s unique brand and purposes.  This includes things like inserting the client’s logo and perhaps modifying the designs color scheme to match.  These are sometimes referred to as “customized” designs, so it’s important to be aware of the difference between “custom” and “customized”.

Linkshape also provides pre-built designs, customized to your brand.

The many meanings of website design “template”

Pre-built website designs are often referred to as “templates”, although that term is also used in elsewhere in the website design & development industry to refer to the design of a website that is built using a Content Management System or other website platform.  For such websites, the design is separated from the actual page contents, and the empty website design is referred to as a “template”.

This becomes confusing because some websites which are platform-based may have a unique template that is a completely custom design.  Thus, “template” in a general sense, may or may not refer to a pre-built website design.

Which is best, custom or pre-built website design?

Deciding between custom or pre-built website design usually comes down to the best fit, based on your chosen dimensions of quality.

There are plenty of debates on which is better, and I am personally a bit biased, but we’re going to try to stick to the facts and let you form your own opinion on the subject.  Each process has it’s own pros and cons and at Linkshape, we believe these need to be carefully weighed for each client to determine the best solution.  Thus, we provide both custom and pre-built website designs to our clients.

To determine if a website design should be custom or pre-built, we consider the following dimensions of quality:

Branding

As website design is a part of Internet marketing and marketing in general, branding is an important facet of your efforts.  Your brand includes a visual vocabulary: symbols, colors, and fonts which can all be utilized in the shaping of your custom website design.  For branding purposes, a custom website design allows a greater opportunity to present and reinforce your brand.

Cost

The process of conceptualizing, planning, and creating a custom website design is generally more complex than using a pre-built design, even if the pre-built design is customized for your purposes.  The complexity of custom website design demands a higher cost.  So from a purely cost-based perspective, using a pre-built website design will almost always be the better choice.

Time

The complexity of custom website design also demands more time than the process of customizing a pre-built design.  If you’re looking for the quickest turnaround to launch, you’ll want to consider using a pre-built design.

Flexibility

Using a pre-built template is a bit like buying and moving into a house.  You’re confined to the dimensions and layout of that design and you may find that you’re working fill that space, rather than building a space around your content and features.  If you have to make some radical customizations to that pre-built website design in order to make it work for your website or Online Business, the costs of those customizations might become an issue.

In general, if flexibility of the layout and design are what you’re focused on, you’re probably better off with a custom design.

So what’s the point?

How heavily you weigh the dimensions of quality I list above will determine what type of website design you should choose for your website or Online Business.  It’s also important to know that these dimensions are in a constant state of push and pull.  Recall that heavily customizing a pre-built design can increase the costs, but it will also have an effect on the project turnaround (time).  So take the time to discuss your website design options when the time comes.

Looking ahead, the reason why we are making the distinction between custom and pre-built website designs is that our next topic on wireframes and the following topic on mock-ups are part of custom website design.  Now you’re fully prepared for the context of our continued look into the Art of Linkshaping.  See you again next week!

Today, I’ve got my sea-legs back and I’m ready to continue our journey down the Linkshape website design and Internet marketing service process.  So far, we’ve gained a basic understanding of the approval process and the project description.  Together, these two topics lay the groundwork for the fun stuff that we get to do at Linkshape, which get kicked-off by the creative brief. In fact, the meeting we hold to conduct a creative brief is called the project “kick-off”.  It’s a jubilant sort of discussion – the project is starting and everyone is abuzz with ideas and aspirations for the journey.

The creative brief, briefly

The creative brief isn’t unique to Linkshape, or even uncommon among marketers, even those of the Internet variety.  If you’ve worked with other designers or website design companies, you may have done a formal creative brief like the one we conduct at Linkshape, or perhaps an informal one, even if it wasn’t called that or even named at all.  The format will vary by project type and purpose, but for those who haven’t directly witnessed the creative brief, here’s a brief explanation:

The creative brief is a creative exercise – a discussion in question and answer format, held by the creative team and the client – which has the purpose of orienting the creative team to the product/service/offering and serves as a compass during the project development.

Creative brief for the small business website design

Most small businesses don't have the resources to think about their business from a marketing perspective.

In the traditional definition, the brief is described as a document and contains some of the elements of the Linkshape project scope.  This is because the traditional definition is better suited to large organizations with an internal marketing department.  In those cases, the creative brief is developed internally, typically by a marketing team member and is then provided to the internal creative team or perhaps an external creative agency they keep on retainer.

Because Linkshape has chosen to work with small businesses, most of our clients don’t have the luxury of an internal marketing department – at least, not in the traditional sense.  Often times, we’re working with the administrative assistant, the business owner, or the guy who “knows the Internet”.  Sometimes, when we meet for a kick-off, it’s clear that our client has never thought about their company/product/service in a marketing-sense before.

I think one of the things that sets Linkshape apart from the stereotypical website design company is that we have somehow positioned ourselves to serve as an external, on-demand marketing department for our clients.  We empower those of you who have been assigned the “marketing” hat in your company.

Creativity, the wind in our sails

The creative brief helps us actively channel creative thoughts and ideas, the wind in the sails of creative design and marketing.

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to listen to one of our talks on Internet marketing, most recently through a venue provided by one of our clients and partners, Central Florida Technology Solutions (visit their site, when you get a chance), you’ve probably heard us talk about importance of a “purpose-driven site”.

I describe the creative brief as an exercise, because it’s not just filling out a Q/A document.  During the questions and afterwards, we’re actively generating and identifying creative marketing ideas and messages.  Continuing our sailing metaphor, these ideas and messages are the wind that propel us forward on our voyage, sustaining our travels throughout the entire project.  It’s invisible at first – elusive, the perfect metaphor for creativity.  That’s why it’s such a critical element in the Art of Linkshaping.  It can be the difference between a dead, static website and a thriving, purpose-driven online business.

These creative energies aren’t just useful in our website design projects.  They can be used, reinforced, and intertwined in other media, including other Internet marketing technologies, such as email marketing and traditional media, such as print.  If we’ve done our jobs as Linkshapers, they can help you think about your business in a new and better way and guide you to success.

A sample online business creative brief

Now that we understand what the creative brief is and why it’s such an important element in the Art of Linkshaping, I’d like to post some of the questions that frame out our kick-off meetings.  Bear in mind that there’s nothing really special about the structure or wording of these questions.  It’s the dialog that takes place between the lines where you’ll find those elusive creative forces.  Still, if you’re reading this without the luxury of actually talking with your Linkshaper, perhaps the dialog will play out internally in your mind.  If you have questions of your own or would like a bit of free feedback, please do leave a comment below.

I.     Welcome new Online Business

Thank you from all of us Linkshapers for allowing us to guide you in taking your business to the next level.  We welcome you to the exclusive community of Online Businesses.

The creative brief is an important exercise that will allow us to gain valuable insight into your company, products, and/or services (“company”).

II.     The “elevator pitch”

The “elevator pitch” is an overview of your company, which can be completed in the time span of an elevator ride (approximately 30 seconds to 2 minutes).

• What is your elevator pitch?

III.     The brand promise

The “brand” is the identity of your company, often in the form of your name, logo, slogans, or other symbols.  The “brand promise” is the reaction (words, thoughts, or feelings) that are evoked by others when they see your brand.

• What is your current brand promise?
• What is your desired brand promise?

IV.     Unique selling proposition

The “unique selling proposition” is what sets you apart from other, similar companies.  It is should be a compelling reason for a customer to choose your company versus your competition (either direct or indirect).

• What is your unique selling proposition?
• Why should customers believe your proposition?
• Who are your target customers?  (demographic, lifestyle, etc.)
• What valuable, attainable goal can be reached through this Online Business?
• What ideal action can we reasonably expect visitors to take on your online business?
• What products / services does your company offer that you wish to list on your online business?

V.     Customers

• Who are your target customers?  (demographic, lifestyle, etc.)

VI.     Primary goal / “Call to action”

• What valuable, attainable goal can be reached through this Online Business?
• What ideal action can we reasonably expect visitors to take on your online business?

VII.     Products/Services

• What products / services does your company offer that you wish to list on your online business?

VIII.     Look and tone

The “look” of an online business refers to the overall appearance of the online business’ design and layout.  The “tone” of an online business refers to the page copy.

Based on the information we’ve collected for the above topics:

• What words describe the desired look of your online business (traditional, web 2.0, artistic, clean, simple)?
• What words describe the tone of your copy (funny, sincere, professional, etc.)?

IX.     Keywords

Keywords refer to the words/phrases you know (or expect) potential visitors to use to find your online business through search engines.

• What keywords would customers use to find a company like yours?  Please select up to 5.