Overview and Scope

This particular project was focused on creating and deploying a Blog style personal website rather than a business style website. The main objective was to create a clean and professional looking site that allowed to visitor to focus on content. There were several other objectives including the integration of a way to recommend books and music. Many people look to Pastors for guidance on books and music that will help them change and shape their lives, so this was an important aspect of the site as well. Finally, there was a goal to harness the power of Social Media and make sure that Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn connections could easily be within reach of the website content from each of those services.

This project was also a rare occasion for us, where customization was far less important than simply being able to deliver a nice looking and easy to use personal website quickly.

Social Media Integration

The integration of Social Media for this project was a no brainer. I don’t imagine that there is a Pastor on the face of the earth that isn’t at least using Facebook. As well, many Pastors are seeing the great potential that comes with using Twitter to instantly broadcast a message to thousands of people. In this particular case, Tad was also using LinkedIn to help connect with church members and ultimately, try and help them connect with other professionals. We set Tad’s personal website up so that every time he publishes a new blog post three things happen:

1. A Tweet is automatically generated announcing the new blog post and a shortened link is included in that Tweet which links people directly to the blog post.

2. A copy of the blog post, including media, gets posted to his Facebook wall.

3. A copy of the blog post, including media, gets posted to his LinkedIn profile page.

Unique Aspects of the Site

The primary unique aspect of this personal website compared to others we have done is the integration and implementation of the Amazon Associates code. Because it was so important for Tad to have a way to recommend books and music to site visitors, we recommended that he take advantage of the Amazon Associates program. Essentially, this enables him to recommend the books and music of his choice using some code snippets that Amazon created uniquely for Tad. By putting these code snippets in place, whenever a site visitor clicks on a book or a music item, they are directed to Amazon.com. If they end up purchasing that book or music at Amazon.com then Amazon pays Tad a small bit of change for referring the purchaser. It doesn’t cost the purchaser anything extra and it can help out a Pastor who is trying to help people change and improve their lives.

Pictures

The LeBlanc Agency approached us only a few days ago. Yes, you read that right, a few days ago. Ms. Julie LeBlanc, Owner of The LeBlanc Agency, was referred to us by long time client of ours. The nature of her project was simple but also quite urgent. Ms. LeBlanc made the decision some time back to discontinue her representation of State Farm Insurance and begin representing many different Insurance Companies as an Independent Agent. During our first conversation, there were several goals that were clearly communicated. First, she knew that her existing website and the content provided by State Farm would be disappearing within a few days. As well, she knew that many people would be trying to communicate with her using her State Farm email address, which would also be disappearing within a few days. Ultimately, Ms. LeBlanc knew that she needed a solution to both of these problems ASAP.

Domain Transfer

The first order of business was for us to work with Ms. LeBlanc and determine who her domain was currently registered with and what options were at our disposal. We quickly determined that State Farm was in the Domain Registration business and that they were controlling her domain. They informed us that they would not allow the domain settings to be changed while it was in their control. So, we immediately helped Ms. LeBlanc initiate and facilitate the transfer of her domain to us, StudioD.tv as the official registrar.

A Simple Business Card Style Site

Because of a newly formed business partnership, Ms. LeBlanc decided that the best course of action immediately was to engage us to provide a simple business card style website that provides clients and prospects with the most important essential information; address, telephone numbers, a link to send an email, a list of professional credentials, and most importantly, a professional headshot so that existing clients could be certain that they had arrived in the right place.

Email

Many times, email is taken for granted. In this particular case, Ms. LeBlanc had a personal email address that she could use temporarily, but ultimately wanted to ensure that she presented a professional image by having an email that represented her domain; ie, name@leblancagency.net

How we did it so fast

Once the transfer was official and the domain was back in Ms. LeBlanc’s control, we were able to have her website and email solutions in place within a few hours. So, how did we get that all done so fast? A combination of owning a hosting company and utilizing a web platform called WordPress. This combination really enables us to deliver a simple solution to people very quickly.

Pictures

Here are some screenshots of the new site for The LeBlanc Agency.

Catering is a competitive business. Catering websites are competitive, too. Haw River is a Nashville catering business that grew out of many years of catering, restaurant, and event planning experience. A lot of the ideas for the direction of Haw River Catering web development and internet marketing were evolving during the Web Presence Development process. This project was a full Web Presence Development Project and also included our Pro Logo Design Package and Pro Email Marketing Design Package. The company, owned by two brothers that grew up in Haw River, NC, is targeting the high-end of the catering market and they are focused squarely on Weddings, Corporate Events, and Private Parties. Ultimately, the owners wanted to make sure that their Website and Web Presence included all the elements necessary for visitors to make a buying decision but they also wanted to make sure that they stood out above their competition.

The primary visitor for catering websites will be female between the ages of 25 and 55. As such, it was important to convey elegance and soft colors in order to make a quick visual connection. Because the catering business revolves around food, it was important to make sure that there were plenty of pictures of irresistible food. This was a big challenge for two reasons. First, the company is brand new. While both brothers have been in the restaurant and catering business for many years, they didn’t even have a menu at the time we were engaged to begin their Web Presence Development. Second, displaying large pictures of more than 40 main dishes could potentially lead to some serious usability issues. We were able to secure quite a bit of high quality stock photography of some very attractive high-end food. We used a select number of menu items and created a visitor controlled slide show to display some of the very enticing menu items.

Another important aspect of the scope was to present the “Full Menu” in a manner that was something other than a boring, never-ending list. (If you’ve ever visited other catering websites, you know they love lists that are a mile long). As such, we decided to organize the menu graphically by food type. We chose this method because graphic organization makes processing information more intuitive for a Website visitor.

Social Media Integration

Even though the owners of Haw River Catering are very new to Social Networking Websites and Social Media, they are embracing the concept with full intentions to leverage every connecting point possible. We have given them a Web Presence Development system that will automatically generate a Tweet from their Twitter account each time they publish a new Blog Post. As well, every new Blog Post published will also be published automatically to their Facebook Business Page. One of the owners is very active on LinkedIn so we have also integrated the LinkedIn page as well. Probably the most important tools for them in the future will be the use of their Flickr and YouTube Social Networks, because, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Unique Aspects of the Site

As mentioned above in the Overview and Scope section, the project called for many pictures of appealing food. We took the approach of a visitor controlled slide show to display a selection of foods that are available. As an added touch, every page has at least two pictures displayed as well. These pictures are selected at random when the page loads which brings in a nice dynamic element not usually seen on other catering websites.

One of the most important aspects of marketing a catering business is to acquire testimonials from past customers that can be shared with new prospective customers. We decided to use the Blog section of the site to share the testimonials. Because testimonials are typically short, we decided to customize the Testimonials Archive Page to display multiple full testimonials instead of short excerpts. This helps the Testimonials section of the Blog stand out.

Pictures

Home Page with Featured Content Slider

Menu Slide Show Page

Graphically Organized Full Menu Page

Customized Testimonials Page

Overview/Scope

The BenchMark Public Adjusting Group project was a redesign project. The client had several primary objectives. A new site designed to better meet current web standards, integration with Facebook, and an easy to use Content Management System was really the focus for this project. Another aspect of the project included creating a Contact Form that uses conditional logic to enhance the user’s experience. As a Public Insurance Adjuster and a company that provides Professional Services, they needed a website that would help differentiate them from their competitors. As Insurance Adjuster Websites go, many come across in a very gimmicky manner, in our opinion, by relying too heavily on Flash video of storms and disasters.

From a Social Media perspective, this particular client only uses Facebook at this point. While we believe Social Networking platforms and Social Media can certainly benefit Small Businesses, we feel that it’s also important to consider whether your market will interact with you on a given Social Network. At this point in time, the client is focused on building a following on Facebook and thus, only Facebook integration was included.

If you take a look at just a few Insurance Insurance Adjuster websites, you’ll quickly get the feeling that you could be dealing with a shady outfit. Our design helps break that stigma and paints this firm into a far more professional light. Rather than convey a shady persona and a gimmicky look, it was very important to immediately establish a trustworthy and professional appearance. One big challenge here was that there was a lot of information that the client wanted to ensure was accessible from the Home Page. By integrating the “Tabber”, we were able to help the client present a lot of information that was logically organized and still visually pleasing.

Before

The drab textured background wasn’t really representative of the company’s color palette. As well, the photographs and pictures in the old site were quite small and it was really hard to tell what was actually in the picture.

After

A better organized and more informative representation of the company and the benefits they bring to their clients.

Overview/Scope

The Shane’s Rib Shack project was a full Web Presence Development Project. The client had a Website in place previously but they had a number of concerns. Their first concern was traffic. Unfortunately, their traffic was pretty much non-existent for a chain style BBQ Restaurant. Their second concern was the overall lack of ability to make any changes to the site itself.

The Scope of the project on our end was to provide a dynamic Content Management System that was optimized for Search Engine indexing. As well, we had to deliver a “Hub” that would enable them to push their message out to Social Networks automatically. Finally, we were charged with adhering closely to a corporate color scheme that included an extremely harsh and bright red, but our job was to remove the harsh and bright. This was not an easy task as you will see in the Before/After pictures.

The Shane’s Rib Shack franchisee we worked with on this project was fairly new to Social Media. They are leveraging Facebook and Twitter very well. By using the Blog section of the site for announcing specials and store events, our automated system ensures that their Facebook Fans and Twitter followers are always up to date on what’s happening at the store. They plan on utilizing Flickr and YouTube in the near future to gain exposure visually.

This particular location does a lot of catering and delivery of food via a local courier. We were able to build for them an online ordering system that will go live soon. We built the question driven ordering system to use conditional logic so that they can ensure maximum sales. For example, if a customer orders a particular food type, the system will recommend side items and desserts that go well with that food type. As well, there are safeguards built into the ordering system so that a customer is stopped from placing an order if there isn’t enough time for it to be prepared and delivered on schedule.

The Red color was really harsh and usability was a nightmare.

We were able to utilize a much more eye pleasing Red, usability is now very intuitive, and traffic is growing daily.