cre8 Blog

Hi readers,

We have found this article to explain how and why it is so important to have good brand.
If you have questions about this article, please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Enjoy: Cre8 Team
Excerption: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=DA_Evran

In this article you will learn how to maximise the impact of your brand over time to ensure that it remains modern and up to date, and why investing in good brand design will continue to underpin the vision of your business and your marketing strategy into the foreseeable future.
Your brand is the internal vision that your customer has of your company, product or service and it is the role of your logo to impart this vision into that mind and to maintain its presence there. In order to achieve this, history has taught us that there are some basic rules that must be adhered to and we will summarise these in the following paragraphs.
*Uniqueness: What is unique about your business? How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors? It is essential that your brand should express this.
*Simplicity: Simplicity is important and we will restate it here. For your brand to be memorable it must be simple and a test of this is after viewing it for only ten seconds it should be possible for to redraft it.
*Benefits: Your brand should incorporate the essence of your business. You should consider what it is about your business you wish to convey and focus on this. If your business is sportswear, then you need to form the impression that by using your sportswear your customer will be more likely to achieve success.
*Reproducibility: There are several practical issues to consider when designing your brand. It is important that it can be reproduced in different media (the Web, business cards, letter heads, posters etc.) and should maintain the essence of its message in both monochrome and colour. Talking to a branding professional who understands how to produce your logo in the correct formats can save you and your business great deal of time and money. It also ensures brand consistently across all media.
*Longevity: If you’re serious about your business and its success for the long term – keep away from current trends and styles that will go out of fashion quickly. Your logo should be able to last for over a decade and still do its job. It should be both unique and timeless.
*Redesign: Logo redesign can be counter-productive to your business and should be avoided. If you really need to carry out any redesigns, ensure that they are gradual and subtle or you risk losing any business or customer loyalty that has already been established. The need to redesign your logo can be avoided by getting some professional help (see below).

So…Does good brand design really matter?
If you are truly serious about being in business and ensuring that your business stands out in today’s fast moving and fast changing world then getting your brand identity right from the outset will not only save you time and money but will ensure that it will last for over a decade. Hiring a branding professional will ensure that you have a well-designed brand that will elevate your business status, solidify customer loyalty, and set the stage for all your future marketing activities so that your brand becomes the familiar and trusted face of your business.

Hello readers,

This article discuss’s steps that you have to respect if you want your website to work effectively. As you know to have a good website can create endless leads for your business.
If you have questions, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to discuss about it.

Enjoy: Cre8 Team
Excerption: http://www.stratus.net/web-development-services-to-make-your-website-work/

In this regard, it is worthwhile to opt for professional web development services which focus on constructing websites along with web promotion for small businesses which are both effectual as well as reasonably priced.
A majority of the business proprietors face problems galore as their website is not search engine compatible as a result of which they have to witness numerous problems when it comes to establishing their repute within the foremost search engines. This leads to a shaky situation wherein a website is unable to actually lead to any new business for you, which is its primary function.
This can be a major issue for you as you would definitely wish that your website would be capable of working for your business. It is thus imperative to adhere to certain straightforward procedures which would be able to transform even the most dysfunctional site into a website which is capable of working effectively and promoting your business ideologies.

There are certain steps which are necessitated within this situation:

* If you avail optimum utilization of professional web development services, it would assist you in establishing as well as endorsing fitting keywords.
* It is essential to work in synchronization with the clients to seek keywords which their probable patrons would make use of. The subsequent process necessitates instituting links from esteemed sites to the clients’ sites by means of these keywords. This is one significant step which is a must for the purpose of enhancing search engine rankings, thereby ensuring that your website is effectual for the purpose of promoting your business.
* To enable the utmost utilization of professional web development services, it is imperative to devise as well as put into practice an apt Social Network Marketing arrangement.
* In this day and age, it is no longer adequate merely to possess a marvelous website. To be a reputed site and in order to establish your integrity, it is imperative to be both in attendance and pertinent within the social network sphere. This necessitates a process wherein preliminary structures for the websites are instituted, and this is accompanied with a comprehensible, easy to understand arrangement that ensures that the people keep returning and this in turn augments search engine importance.
* With the suitable assistance of specialized web development services, you would be able to generate content, headlines as well as offers which guarantee that website visitors would be converted to probable leads.
* Last but not the least, it is the responsibility of a professional web development service to see to it that the clients are assisted in the process of construction of persuasive headlines, content that reverberates and offers which are simply mind-boggling and additionally they are both a clear value as well as vital.

Hi readers,

Would you like to know precisely what a great brand can do for you ? This article explains the origins of  good brands, its affects and how designers can influence clients’ brands.
If you need more information please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to help you.

Enjoy: Cre8 Team
Excerption: http://designinformer.com/whats-brand/

Brand is an important part of any business. So why do some of us claim we brand businesses, when we fall so short on its definition and limit ourselves at logo design? There are many factors that affect a brand and these factors can contribute to a unique and long-lasting brand. We often overlook the real meaning of brand and we need to understand it to fully comprehend the field.
The word ‘brand’ is as improperly used as the word ‘weight’ (which actually means the vertical force exerted by a mass as a result of gravity – the proper word for the definition we have in our minds of ‘weight’ is mass). Dictionaries define brand as a noun (that is, a person place thing or action), but in our conversations it is commonplace to use brand as a verb (that is, an action). To ‘brand’ something is generally thought of as putting your letterhead on it (including your identity/logo).
I really like the way that Brian Hoff defines brand in his interview with Ludicry:
“A brand is what the emotional response your company receives. The emotion behind what someone feels, sees, tastes, etc. when they come across your brand. A memorable logo is just the beginning – yet an extremely important beginning – that sets the overall tone for your new or existing brand.”

Branding is a strategy that we need to help our clients with – much like copy writing and usability. While the logo is an important first impression for your project, it can’t stop there. The brand needs to be reflected in the content, style and feel of the website, and extend to every part of the business.

Brand Includes:
* Brand Name (the name of the product or service)
* Brand Positioning (the business’ niche)
* Brand Management (the application of marketing techniques)
* Brand Equity (the marketing effects or outcomes)
* Awareness
* Image
* Value
* Brand Definition (the distinguishing name and/or symbol, including the logo and colours)

Brand Affects
* Customer service
* Aesthetics of the website/logo/business card/letterhead/clothing
* The sights (building and furnishings), sounds (music that is played), and tastes (what is served, etc.)
* Content including titles
Branding is a strategy that we need to help our clients with – much like copy writing and usability. While the logo is an important first impression for your project, it can’t stop there. The brand needs to be reflected in the content, style and feel of the website, and extend to every part of the business.

What Are Some Factors That Affect Brand?
Businesses can also affect their brand positively and negatively by simply watching their actions and ensuring that they reflect the business they want to receive, and are socially sustainable and responsible for their actions. But we (both as consumers and designers) can affect brand in positive and negative ways. While we can positively affect brand by providing good and bad reviews as consumers, we can create a negative brand image by creating branding elements (such as the logo and colours) that don’t reflect the business well.

How Designers Can (Positively) Influence Clients’ Brands
So you’ve been signed onto a client to do their branding. You say to yourself – I was signed onto this project to do branding. My only real deliverables are a logo, letterhead and (maybe, if you’re in a good mood) a business card. While this is true – your only tangible deliverables will be those things, you certainly can’t ignore the rest of the process. Make sure you teach your clients what branding is (something more than a first impression), and that your tangible deliverables, reflect the brand name, positioning, and management.
Here are some questions you can ask your clients that are important in creating identity pieces (such as a client’s logo, business card, letterhead, etc):
* What words would you use to describe your company?
* What words would you like your clients to describe your company?
* How is your business different that your competitors?
* What do you strive to provide to your customers better than the next guy?
Closure
Branding without analyzing all of the impressions a business makes on it’s clients is like usability testing without analyzing the final data and making changes. While we may be asked to create identity pieces, we need to ensure they reflect the company properly so that it creates an effective brand.

It’s your turn now.
What do you think? What is branding to you… enjoy !!!

Hello readers,

This article is about is about some technique that you have to use if you want your prospects read your website. Indeed, there are some sentences that you have to avoid if you don’t want that your prospects leave.
If you would like more information,contact us. We will be happy to discuss about it.

Enjoy: Cre8 Team
Excerption: What Does Your Website Content Say About You?

As much time as business website owners put into finding a good web designer, it’s amazing how little time gets spent in actually creating the website content – also known as the sales copy. This is the content that will help the customer make a decision whether to take action – or leave.
It’s one of the most important keys of any successful website, and yet it’s often ignored or patched together at the last minute and rushed off to the web designer to add to the site. Unfortunately, this can leave a lasting impression on that company’s target audience.
Look over your website’s front page copy – as this is where most of your visitors will ultimately end up. See if any of the following mistakes appear in your site. You may be surprised at what you learn!
Welcome to XYZ Company Website – This was the most common headline for sites established back in the mid 90′s, when just having a website showed that you were “ahead of the technology curve”. These days, customers can use the web to comparison shop and do research – much of this research is aimed at which company to do business with.
That said, your very first headline should be one that draws them in and perks up their interest in what you have to offer. A good example is the headline of this article. You were curious enough to click and find out what your website content says about you. Having “Welcome to Our Company” on your front page signifies that your company is “behind the times” and gives the visitor no information to go on about why they should buy from you.
My, I and We – It’s great that you want to tell customers what your company does. Unfortunately, they don’t really care. They want to know what you can do for them, instead. Rather than focusing on what you can do for them, tailor your website content to emphasize the benefits to the reader.
You can do this as simply as writing sentences that start with things such as “You will learn…”, or “You will find that…” and then ending them with a benefit to the customer, such as “how to improve your marriage in less than a week”, or “you have a brighter, whiter smile”.
Your readers will almost automatically imagine themselves better off as a result of your product or service – and this kind of “written visualization” will help them see that your offer is the logical choice to get the desired result.
Lack of a Compelling Headline – This ties into point #1 – but a compelling, action-oriented headline gives your customer the impulse to read further. That doesn’t mean you should take your headline to the extreme and dress it up with bright red text, heaps of exclamation marks and CAPITAL LETTERS. Those are major copywriting “turn-offs” for a professional business and they show that you’re unenthusiastic or bored with the product.
You know your product is the best – so why not share that enthusiasm with your reader? What is it that you enjoy or admire about the product? What can it do for the customer? Say it up front in your headline. That’s what urges them to keep reading more.
Lots of Tech Specs – It’s great that your product is powered by an X250Q fusion engine and 220ZX turbines. Unless your end user is intimately familiar with those products and specs – they’ll simply leave…confused. And they probably won’t come back.
On the other hand, if you tell them that 1. They’ll never have to buy gasoline again and 2. They get the kind of hauling and drive power they need to move those heavy loads – NOW you’ve got their attention! When you write your website content, after everything you believe is a benefit to the consumer, ask yourself, “So what?” Eventually it will boil down to the core reason why the customer needs it – and that’s the gold you’re looking for!
When you keep these copywriting suggestions in mind, you not only help make your website content stronger and more compelling for your reader, but you also instantly improve your product or service’s credibility in their eyes. Give these tips a try and watch your conversions go up! All the best!

Hello readers,

As you know, the colour of your website and of your logo is important. But which colours have you to chose? This article explains the significance of each colour and can help you to make your choice.
If you have questions, contact us. We will be happy to help you.

Enjoy: Cre8 Team
Excerption: http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/graphicdesignarticles/logographicdesign/logos-designingcolorizing.html

As you seek to design your logo, the preeminent question would be – are the colours you picked for it, the right one? And of course, the right colour of your logo will be able to set the mood and tone of the site. Mind you, some users and browsers are also very particular about logos. They are finicky at best and may just easily leave your web site after just a glance at your logo. Yes, it could make or unmake your web site’s ultimate success.

Here’s something that might help you in choosing the right colour of logo for your web site:

• Orange – a warm colour that connotes of tropical, luxury, passion and exotic things. The colour itself expresses enthusiasm, vibrant and expansive. Your logo may just captivate the right kind of attention once you use colour orange.

• Yellow – a colour that exudes intellect, faith, goodness and friendship. Yellow also vibrates optimism, happiness, idealism, and imagination. Unless your company does convey bright, cheery feelings that you are inclined to reflect in your logo, yellow could really work well as background colour.

• Blue – the most popular colour that convey peace and tranquillity, loyalty and fidelity, har-mony, trust and confidence. For those who are keen on using the 216 colour palette, blue is abundant in all shades. They can be excellent dominant colour for web site logos which con-vey the lighthearted and positive mood.

• Purple – a rich colour that exudes mystery, royalty and spirituality. For the unconventional, creative and prides themselves of being unique, your logo may work well with lavender in it. It also conveys justice and truth.

• Gray – connotes neutrality, stability and wisdom…

• White – it is the colour of cleanliness and purity, youth, simplicity, innocence, friendship and peace. White has become a very popular background colour in web sites, owing to the best readability it offers onscreen.

• Green – conveys neutrality, growth, money, humility and wisdom. It is a kind, generous colour and often a logical choice for financial sites and those that represent fertility, healing and ecology in many cultures.

• Black – as always have been considered a mournful, heavy and depressing colour. Although, it also connotes an air of detached elegance and sophistication and mystery.

• Red – considered as the hottest of all colours, it represents all things intense and passionate. It connotes danger, heat and fire, speed and zest, blood and excitement, competition and aggression. As such red can really be an annoying, disquieting or exciting colour depending on the intensity of its used in your logo.

So, all you need to do is go about and find the right colour that’s suitable and quite appealing enough. Do you already have your choice?

Hi readers,

This article is about things that you don’t have to do if you want to have many visits on your website and that this one is successful.
If you would like more information about this article, do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to discuss it with you.

Enjoy: Cre8 Team
Excerption: http://www.webconfs.com/top-10-seo-mistakes-article-24.php

1/Targetting the wrong keywords
This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can’t think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.

2/Ignoring the Title tag
Leaving the <title> tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your <title> tag shows in the search results as your page title.

3/A Flash website without a html alternative
Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don’t like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can’t read Flash content and therefore can’t index it.

4/JavaScript Menus
Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can’t do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.

5/Lack of consistency and maintenance
Our friend Rob from Blackwood Productions often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6/Concentrating too much on meta tags
A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don’t except to rank well only because of this.

7/Using only Images for Headings
Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items. If you are afraid that your h1 h2, etc. tags look horrible, try modifying them in a stylesheet.

8/Ignoring URLs
Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

9/Backlink spamming
It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks. Here are some more information on The Importance of Backlinks

10/Lack of keywords in the content
Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them..

Hello readers,

You don’t know why your prospects don’t find you in search engines?  This article is for you. It offers advice on how to have better search engine content and to increase the number of visits on your website.
If you have questions about this article, contact us and we will be happy to discuss it with you.

Enjoy: Cre8 Team
Excerption: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2038/four-steps-to-seo-friendly-content

You have a great website. It has beautiful images, a compelling theme and intuitive navigation, all designed to take eager visitors to complete descriptions of your proprietary products and services. The only problem is your website shows up somewhere after page 10 on search engine results. Since most referrals to sites come directly from search engines, search-engine-friendly content is imperative.

Here are five tips to make sure search engines love you and your prospects can find you.

1. Clearly identify your SEO goals. SEO isn’t about ranking first on every area and page on your website. Rather, the goal should be to incorporate search-engine-friendly content that performs well on the most important “money phrases.” These are areas that you’ve identified that typically lead to additional action by visitors and prospects (or, make you the most money!).

2. Choose Important Keywords. Using your “money phrases,” identify and analyze a list of possible keywords that users may search to find your information. The word “keyword” is a bit misleading because this list should not be individual words. Try to develop very specific phrases that relate to your topics. For example, if you sell doors, your keyword shouldn’t be “doors,” that’s too vague. A better keyword phrase would be “aluminum exterior house doors” or “solid core wood doors.” search-engine-friendly content will flow simply from expanding on each of these phrases.

3. Organize your content. After you’ve identified the appropriate keywords you want to use throughout your site, group similar keyword topics into silos. Using the doors example above, silos may be interior doors, exterior doors and garage doors with the specific types of each category being grouped together. This also simplifies your website’s architecture if it isn’t already in place.

4. Write for the audience, not the search engines. The actual content writing itself becomes an art of balancing the technical needs to make the search engine spiders happy and the clear, concise, benefit-focused information needs of your audience. When in doubt, err on the side of your audience. Search engines may love you but if your content isn’t attractive to your visitors and they choose to leave your site, all your work is for nothing. Write page copy with enough specific keyword density to be search-engine-friendly but not so dense that it becomes meaningless. After your first draft of copy for each section is written, use one of the many density tools available to evaluate each of your pages. A good rule is 3-5% saturation on each page.

5. Expand the reach of your keywords. After you’re satisfied with your content and your keywords are loaded into title tags, meta descriptions, H1 tags, etc. Focus on driving inbound links from reputable sources. For example, make sure your search-engine-friendly content is included in all of your PR activity and encourage media outlets to link to you. Strive for inbound links direct from industry resources or organizations. The more links to your site, the more important you’ll look to search engine spiders.

Keep in mind that your results won’t be instant, they’ll improve over time. Search-engine-friendly content is just the start, watch for additional tricks and tips to SEO improvement in our future blog entries.

Hello readers,

We found this article which will help explain what are the elements to have a perfect E-mail marketing campaigne. Creating a good e-mail is not complicated when you know how to do it. !!!
If you have questions about this article, please contact us and we will be happy to answer.

Enjoy: The Cre8 Team
Excerption: http://www.emailresults.com/article.asp?ContentID=38

I often talk with marketers who complain that they tried email and “It didn’t work.” The email medium might not be the problem. Consider these three factors.

A solid emailing rests on three “legs”: offer, list and creative. If you’ve been involved in traditional direct mail marketing (the postal variety), these three elements should ring a bell, as they apply in both media.

1. Offer

Basically, your offer means, what are you going to give them and what are they going to give you?

In the most basic kind of offer, you are going to give them a product and they are going to give you money. You can make an offer more compelling by giving the customer a better deal, “Save €43.00,” for example, or “Buy one, get one free.”

An offer doesn’t have to involve the exchange of money. You might offer a free gift in exchange for marketing data; perhaps the user can download a free software program in exchange for providing personal information or filling out a survey form. Or you might offer a free newsletter. In this case, the user might not have to give anything in return; it’s enough for them to let you into their inbox every week or every month.

The offer is critical to the success of your email effort. You need to be crystal-clear about what your offer is, and you need to be crystal-clear in communicating it to your recipient.

2. List

You might have a great offer, but if you send it to the wrong list it will flop. On the Internet, list buying is trickier than in the world of direct mail, where you can examine a standard-format rate card, look over demographic data, or get help from an experienced list broker or consultant. The email list business has few standards, and it can be hard to be sure who you are dealing with.

Stay away from the spammers — the bulk emailers who will sell you an email list on CD-ROM or offer to send your ad out to a half-million people for €500. Spamming will cause you nothing but trouble.

Find a reliable opt-in email list owner or broker. Make sure you’re dealing with a legitimate company with a good track record. Talk with them directly on the phone. Find out how each list was compiled. Make sure recipients were added to the list only with their explicit permission.

Find out all you can about the audience. Does the list owner have demographic information or survey data from list recipients? If you’re buying advertising in an email newsletter (e-zine), what is the topic and target audience of the newsletter? Make sure that the list’s recipients are the right market for your offer.

Finding email lists can be quite a challenge. One good place to start is our directory, a Web directory of opt-in email lists.

3. Creative

In advertising, “creative” refers to the concept, copy and design of an advertising piece. Most email advertising is sent out in plain text, so you can’t do much with design. But good strategy and copywriting can make a big difference.

Focus your copy around your offer. In email, we recommend copy that’s brief, straightforward and to-the-point. Make it interesting, compelling and personal. But no hyperbole, no hard-sell.

Make the offer clear. Include a call to action — in other words, tell them what you want them to do and ask them to do it. Make it easy for people to respond. Most email promotional messages will direct the user to a Web page, where they can find out more details, fill out a form or send in an order.

Give special attention to your subject line. Avoid subject lines that scream out “This is an ad!” Make it something simple, unassuming and short, while implying a benefit — maybe something like, “Discount tickets?” or “New opera recording.” Avoid deceptive “gotcha” subject lines that trick the recipient into opening the email.

Give careful attention to these three elements of an emailing. If your effort falls short in any one of these three areas — offer, list or creative — you can expect a poor response.