Digital Media tips for 2011

As we move into the new decade, the line between design and development gets ever more blurry. Drawing beautiful front end designs in Photoshop is no longer sufficient, today internet users require more than beauty without substance. Faster broadband has made design more abundant online but also mundane. In 2011 it is no longer enough just to provide the “wow factor” you also need to engage with visitors on new levels.

How will your website stay relevant in 2011? The supreme web designs this year will create an environment which charms and captivates the user to the point where they are actively promoting the content themselves through like buttons, tweet shares etcetera. Several elements come together to forge such an environment: harmonious colour scheme, intuitive design, easily accessible information and fast response.

Never forget the value of simplicity. Simplicity is going to become an ever more valuable part of the web design mix in 2011 as more and more new devices come into the market. Today your design must contend with the requirements of Mac/PC monitors, web enabled flat screen TVs, various smartphones and a host of new tablets coming onto the market. 

Here are some tips for commissioning websites in 2011 that work across all platforms.

1.    Move Away From Flash: There is an ongoing issue with mobile devices and compatibility with Flash. While the use of flash on websites for PC is already of questionable merit, the mobile world really does not react kindly to the use of Flash. Whereas Android mobiles and tablets can display and interact with Flash on a basic level, IOS (Apple) devices shrug indifferently and pretend it doesn’t exist. Aftermarket browsers are available to play flash on these devices, Skyfire is a good one but this is not a long term answer. Positive solutions in the form of CSS3 and HTML 5 are the way to go and there will be a lot of development in the capability of HTML 5 through 2011 however Flash will still maintain the edge for some truly extraordinary designs.

2.    More Dynamic use of Colour: For too long commercial websites have relied on a very simple spectrum of colours, largely blues and greys for their commercially traditional values. Brave designers will start to make bolder use of company colours with backgrounds or green red and yellow, to create a unique feel and to better tie the website in with the branding. Be careful with contrast though, some readers struggle with high contrast light on dark so consider your target market. The Correct use of colours can also affect the mood of visitors and reflect values of a company or product range.

3.    Think Mobile: Something else that should be factored into the usability of new websites in 2011 is the touch screen mobile interface. Gone is the mouse as the primary interface with web content. Touch Screens do not with a number of popular website elements. Things like hovering hyperlinks and drop down menus are a problem but some really cool functionality like horizontal scrolling works better on touch screen devices. Consider using liquid layouts as part of your commitment toward responsive design. In 2011, you are no longer dealing with screen resolution size. Visitors can change their viewing orientation from vertical to horizontal. Creating a mobile ready website is not simply removing the bells and whistles from your design. This can create a vacant and impersonal design. Although not impossible, distilling the magic from your original design into a pure representation of your brand is a challenge.

4.    Dimension and depth: A couple of years ago it became popular to create websites that were representing a literal workspace, this became faddy and passé very quickly however it did make an argument for creating the illusion of depth and a rich 3 dimensional browsing experience. Today we want to move the game a long a bit, no one really was that impressed by CSS coffee stains but truly creative designers are creating fascinating environments, rich in depth and charming 3d elements. Think of experience and charm as means of generating customer loyalty and encouraging visitors to spend more time on site. 

5.    QR Codes: QR or quick response codes are those square blotches you may have noticed on movie posters, adverts, magazines  and some websites in 2010. This is set to become more popular through 2011 as the smart phone craze strengthens. This is a fantastic call to action tool, simply take a photo of the code with your camera phone and hey presto like magic you are visiting the website associated with the barcode. Think of using QR codes when you comment on blogs or using them on your products to direct mobile traffic back to your site.

We hope that these ideas provide inspiration to you as you consider your web projects for the following financial year. Reckless New Media is a cutting edge web and digital agency in Chester working with progressive companies anywhere to build rich, productive and memorable websites. If you are looking to do something special with your online marketing this year, look no further than Reckless New Media.

Mobile Friendly websites

A few weeks ago, I posted a graphic that represented email clients in order of popularity. I will re post a similar graphic again from a campaign we sent last week.

This chart evidences the point I would like to make regarding the importance of ensuring that a website is designed to be mobile friendly. So much direct marketing is carried out by email today and the evidence is that much of it is being accessed by mobile email clients.  For email marketing to be successful, it is important that there are clear and compelling calls to action present. But if fulfilment of these marketing campaigns is to take place on an iPhone or an Android device then it is just as important that the destination website be mobile compatible.

It is possible to have a mobile application creates, with an RSS feed that your mobile users may access your news etc. however it is unlikely that unless you are a very big consumer brand that you are going to get many subscribers who regularly check that application and even less likely to get them to download it in the first place.

One area that is seeing rapid growth is streaming video. There are many websites that supply streaming content that I can access with my HTC. Sadly, they do not offer 100% usability. The thing is I am most likely to access this type of content from my mobile when I have a few minutes to spare and I am not at my desk or in my house.
Most of these systems do use flash and the problems with accessing rich flash content from a mobile device are well documented. No doubt we will see more websites developed to offer a better streaming experience to mobile users but I cant help but feel that some big players in this market are missing a trick.

Once again I have to say that if you are running direct email marketing campaigns, ensure that the landing page does not have flash. This will ruin the impact of the campaign on pretty much any mobile device. Another thing to be wary of is screen width. Make sure that the different elements of your homepage are able to exist next to each other without blocking important text, links or functions.

Th important point to remember is that New Media is all about giving customers choice. If customers are choosing to use mobile devices as web browsers, it would be a fool who fails to react to that basic market force.

European shoppers are ready for m-commerce

Retailers across Europe need to develop their m-commerce strategies fast as many shoppers across the region plan on using their mobile devices for m-commerce in the next year.

Just as most of us are getting used to e-commerce, a new kid rocks up and starts throwing his weight around in the digital marketplace. That is right, m-commerce is here and its getting all up in your face!

According to new figures released by Akamai, media distribution specialists, a third (30%) of consumers across Europe are using, or plan to use, their mobile devices to conduct e-commerce.

Ten percent of them are already using mobile devices to make purchases and 20% intend to start doing so within the next 12 months. I must add that I personally have completed a number of purchases from my mobile phone, from pizza to dvds.

The evidence indicates that despite there being thousands of mobile apps relating to retailers and brands, consumers in prefer to use mobile browsers to access the Internet. I have done both and although the Amazon app is adequate, a mobile friendly website is much better and usually more up to date with offers and your shopping history.

Recent research by Orange indicates that, mobile browser use was found to be highest in the U.K. (70%) although a similar percentage of French mobile users also prefer browsers (68%). The Spanish are split evenly between browsers and apps while Poland is the only country to favor apps over browsers (45% vs. 39%).

"With increasing numbers of shoppers going online with mobile devices, it is important for retailers to get their mobile e-commerce strategies right the first time and the need for security, website performance, scalability and availability has never been more important to underpin success in the online marketplace," says Akamai's international marketing vice-president, Martin Haering.

Akamai's research also indicates an increase in online spending among 30% of the 1,500 respondents while Spain emerged as the fastest growing e-commerce market in Europe, where 44% of consumers reported a willingness to spend more on-line. The highest spenders online in Europe tend to be aged between 35 and 54 years of age, each spending around $2,111 per year.

Nearly two thirds (62%) of respondents purchased clothes and footwear online, making this the largest category of spend in the survey, followed by more 'traditional' online items such as books and magazines (59%). Online travel accounted for nearly half (47%) of spend.

"E-commerce sales keep growing - despite the recession online sales grew by over 20% in 2009 - and the market is rapidly diversifying," commented Ivano Ortis, research director at IDC Retail Insights, which carried out the research.

"Basket size is increasing, as is the level of services and support that customers are expecting from e-commerce websites."

The moral of the story is, if your customers are diversifying the way they shop, are you diversifying the way you sell? If you are still holding out in going e-commerce, this is the time to address that and look at making your new site mobile friendly.

Social Media and International Trade

I have been developing a website for an international client this week. This client is a lovely Dutch lady, running a business in Spain that helps other Dutch folk settle and find work in Spain. A perfectly sensible business, Holland, a nation across the channel shares our dire weather and tens of thousands of them flee the weather to take advantage of the Iberian peninsula's endless summer. The website will be finished soon and it will go on the portfolio section of the New Reckless New Media website, due to be launched in September.

This whole process has made me think about how international the internet has made business. I think nothing of ordering something of Amazon US or buying some piece of tat from Chinese E Bay. On a larger scale, service based companies are looking to overseas markets as opportunities to sell virtual versions of their various services. We live in an age of international webinars, web based e-learning solutions and a number of social media events.

That's not to say that it is altogether easy to win international clients or to offer them a service similar to what you offer your local customers. In this case, although the client speaks perfect English, the website has to be in Dutch so simple things like the calendar function, something that we would usually have used an off the shelf application to implement needed to be hacked to represent Dutch names for months and days. Still these are not major obstacles and lessons that need to be learned if we are going to do more business with international clients. I am currently discussing doing a recruitment related website with a Lahore based company. We communicate with Skype and email but the time difference is a bit of an obstacle making our email discussions rather drawn out.

As a sales person, I intend to do all I can to increase my client base and at the moment it seems to me that there is an appetite out there for British Web Design. I am not going to suggest that I understand the reason for this for this phenomenon but it does seem that Social media has been the key to opening the door to international trade for Reckless New Media.

I am a big fan of linkedIn as a base for cultivating a powerful network of clients colleagues and prospects. I have found that a number of international leads have come from some of the groups that I belong to and naturally these leads open doors to further opportunities. Naturally I have a pretty organised approach to social media, I know why I am there and what I am looking for. That is not to say that I am mercenary in my posting as that is a major turn off. The great thing about social media is you get to communicate with people who ordinarily would have put the phone down on a cold call but are happy to engage in a discussion on how to better market their company on-line or how to generate more leads etc.

Twitter is also a favourite in our office. It is to some degree a recreational instrument in that we do have a lot of fun with it and the majority of our tweets do not have a commercial objective. They do however create a vibe or energy in the office and about our team. Outsiders who follow us, many of whom are customers and prospects get to know us better. What we watch on TV, what we like to eat and what we do on the weekend. I feel that this forges a link between us and is a form of virtual bonding, pre meeting small talk if you will.

I would really like to hear from readers what they have achieved for their business through social media. I would especially enjoy receiving any tips as to how I can help my clients grow their business through social media. As it is such a young phenomenon, there are new opportunities being presented nearly every day.

If you would like to chat with me about making social media a part of your marketing mix, I will be only too happy to hear from you. My email address is matthew@recklessnewmedia.com

Happy Socialising

What is SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is about driving more visitors to your website through organic search results. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing send out search bots into the vastness of the internet, to scan the billions of pages of content therein.

The first and most important element of SEO is to ensure that your website is build to W3C standards and as such is inviting and accommodating to the search bots. All of our websites are built to these standards so that they are the perfect basis to begin an SEO campaign.

SEO is not a mystery; there are no secrets and dark arts involved. SEO is all about getting good relevant content onto the internet and securing quality back links. This said, it is a time-consuming task and the more competitive the search terms related to your product, the more man-hours of SEO will be required to bring about results.

As effective as SEO is, it is not the quickest way to boost your visitor count. It takes 3 to 6 months of effort for an SEO campaign to start to show results and you would expect your campaign to pay for itself after one year. The good thing about SEO is that once your website has risen in the search listings, it takes a concerted effort by a competitor to remove it.

SEO is an investment in marketing your brand just as much as print or AV advertising and is most successful as part of a concerted campaign. The most attractive element of online marketing however is that fact that all visits are trackable through Google analytics so you can easily monitor the effectiveness of the campaign asses the quality of the new hits your campaign brings.

Some companies are offering SEO services at very low rates and they can indeed increase the number of visits your website gets. The difference is however the quality of those links. When one of our experienced SEO personnel takes on a project, we ensure that we deliver quality results by ensuring that all our blogging, back links and social media work is contextual and relevant. This means that the people who do visit your website are more likely to be interested in what is on your website than someone who was lead there by a low cost SEO company.

Beware too of companies that offer quick results through SEO. Using legitimate White Hat SEO techniques, there is just no way that you can move a new website rapidly up the search rankings. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably trying to sell you SEO using Black Hat tactics that are dangerous, unethical and can get your website penalized and even ignored by the major search engines.

We strongly suggest to most of our clients that they engage in an SEO campaign. Even though it can seem expensive, it really is the best way to grow an online business. Think of it like this; a website sitting on its own on the internet is like a warehouse languishing in an industrial estate with no customers. There are two ways to increase traffic to the warehouse.

1. Advertise.

There is always a case to be made for advertising. If you have a product that people want to buy and you can give them a good reason to buy it from you then advertising will bring you some results. Similarly online advertising can drive people to your site.

However, much like that warehouse, you are likely going to have to use price as a compelling reason to get people to visit. Budget pricing is a tried and tested method of increasing sales. It is however better, especially for an SME to sell your service/products for the maximum the market will bear. Slashing your prices to catch people’s attention can also mean slashing your profit margins.

Advertising too is expensive and is difficult to measure. What if there was a way to use a very similar budget to increase footfall but also enable you to keep your pricing and your margins intact?

2. Optimise

If you wanted to get thousands of people to view your store or your products, you wouldn’t ask them all to come and visit you (advertising) you would go to them. This is the equivalent of opening a high street store as the outlet for your warehouse. It costs you a regular rent on your store but you get thousands upon thousands of visitors every day seeing your brand and visiting your store. Optimising your website is just like moving your website from an industrial estate onto the high street, where all the people are and want to be.

With years of experience in optimising websites for a host of industries, Reckless New Media should be your first port of call for online marketing. As part of a comprehensive marketing strategy, SEO is an invaluable tool and its value should not be underestimated.

Stuck In a Rut

Last Sunday, while a certain football match was being played, a quaint little television show, that some of you may have heard of, Top Gear, was on BBC2 and they were testing three super saloons, the gorgeous Maserati Quatroporte, the equally scrumptious Aston Martin Rapide and the not to put too fine a point on it frankly hideous Porsche Panemera. This undoubtedly impressive car has to be one of the ugliest and unresolved pieces of industrial design I have seen, possibly in my life. (thats not true, see Ssangyong Rodius ) Not far from where I live there is a used car dealership that has a Mansori modified example that they have been trying to dupe some style-less millionaire into parting with 165 000 of their hard earned Great British Pounds for. (Rather unsuccessfully as it has been sat there for nearly two months now.)

What gets me about the Porsche is where do they think their design language is going? They have a basic profile and a "family look" that have been around for sometime now and are firmly established in the sports cope market. Say what you want about the Porsche 911, Cayman and Boxter and I frequently do. Their design although admittedly long in the tooth is comfortable, easy on the eyes and to some, a real design classic. Where they are struggling is to incorporate their design language onto other body shapes. The accomplished but equally unattractive Cayenne is another example. Porsche have been unable to make an executive sedan or a large piece of agricultural machinery look like the diminutive 911. That isn't really so surprising, in fact I would like to be generous here and say that if they did manage to pull it off there should be some kind of Nobel Prize for auto styling and they should get it.

Porsche's closest competitor BMW, mercifully does not feel the need to make all of its cars look like the 7 series. For that matter no car designers do it; because its stupid! While all premium car makers have a distinct "family look" and an established design language which allows them to take elements of the design and introduce them across the entire range. This is sadly not something that Porsche GMBH have been able to do so they keep trying to get a flexible silicon mould of a 911 to fit over different sized vehicle platforms.

If an otherwise forward thinking and innovative company, with buckets of money to spend on development can get caught in such a deep hole then surely it can happen to any of us in our businesses. Perhaps when you think about it and do a little rooting about you may find some processes, policies or products that are labouring on outside of their original design spec and may even be damaging your business.

Specifically from a design point of view, there are lots of very outdated logos and letterheads out there in the business world, not quite old enough (or good enough) to be retro. It is not always necessary to do a complete re-design, in fact it would be better to find the essence of your existing design and use that to create a new brand that evolves out of the old, moves the game along and uplifts your brand, that has doubtless received much investment over the years.

It is commonly accepted that you should regularly look at your web presence to ensure that you are getting the most from on-line media. Why not use the next opportunity to look at your branding too. Most good web agencies are also skilled at branding and graphic design and I am pretty sure that you will save a bit on the redesign if you are doing it as part of a web job.

I for my part am always happy to chat to a prospective customer about any aspect of their design and branding needs so feel free to get in touch.

And above all things, be considerate!

Whenever I go to public consultations or attend a workshop hosted by a local Council, Business Link, RDA or even the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) I get told that the public sector is prepared and eager to do business with SMEs and local business. I have read numerous articles and releases encouraging people like me to look for work with the nation’s biggest spender. As evidence of their munificence they (the various public sector bodies) provide us with some invitingly named web portals. Enter The Chest , Supply2Gov , Compete For.
Aside for the obviously unfriendly design and layout of all three, both supply2 and Compete For work pretty well although as an operation funded by our taxes, I find it staggering how often the Supply2 bunch try to get money off of me. Supply2 will give me free access to all opportunities in my sector within my local authority area. To date, not a single opportunity has arisen. A number however have presented themselves in neighbouring boroughs however I have to take out a rather costly subscription to get access to these. Also the councils maintain their heavy purchasing bureaucracy where I am sure they employ people whose only task is to obfuscate tender documentation so that only former public sector buyers can become successful public sector bid writers. This must be a result of some union decision to ensure the allocation of well paid bid writer positions in the private sector and healthy consultative opportunities for retiring buyers.
Rant over! The real reason for me bringing this up was one of the portals in particular got to me in a big way. To put it short it’s a pig to use! The Chest this is the worst case of over engineered non function that I have seen in my life, it reminds me of a Russian WW2 submarine, unattractive, unfriendly, robust and ineffective. Reigning this discussion in further; on the subject of design, most of us should be familiar with the concept of form following function. Many lazy designers or in some cases bad designers have used this as an excuse for creating a less than elegant product that does its job admirably. I can think of some business software I have used in the past as a fine example of this. In some cases this is viewed as sensible austerity, passing the savings in design time in to the consumer.
The concept of sensible austerity is a complete nonsense and I don’t think anyone is fooled. There are examples of this all around us. Take for example brown brick council houses, high-rise estates and some other relics of socialist Britain. These solutions offered comfortable living solutions to the destitute and those less well off but wrapped it all up in such an appealing facade that they literally exude waves of depression, squalor, debasement and various antisocial pathoses.
There do exist some very up market items that could be and sometimes are called Haute Couture that are in fact triumphs of form over function. In some cases these items are barely able to fulfil the function for which they were intended (I hesitate to use the word designed). In other instances the elaborate design does little or nothing to enhance the product and can in some cases hinder its most efficient utilisation in this case I reference the Lamborghini Reventon which is in no way more capable than the standard Murciélago on which it is based. These are rare items and usually have very little impact on the lives of anyone other than the select few who can afford to buy them.
What most people prefer is balance. Balance indicates thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness gives people a sense of being important. If people think that corporations/institutions have given real consideration to their needs and desires that will impress them and generate brand loyalty, the type of brand loyalty that people like Apple, M&S and possibly your local butcher enjoy because of their customer first attitude. Good, not expensive or extravagant design is how you demonstrate that you care about your customers.
At Reckless New Media we always strive to give our customers a sense of wellbeing and the notion that their brand, their corporate identity and their future web sales are in good hands. The tool that we use to do this is consideration. We pay a lot of attention to our customers business; we look into the needs of their clients, their selling style and corporate culture so that we can understand their requirements. This we feel has enabled us to create a host of very effective websites that enable our customers to generate new business from the internet and to foster lasting relationships with their web based customers.
Can you think of any examples of good customer first branding and design? I would welcome your suggestions in the comments box.

Fish, Chips and Exceptional Curry

I took some well deserved rest last week and went out to Abersoch and Pwelli on the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales. It was a beautiful sunny day and my wife my friends and I spent much of it on the beach soaking up the sun. In town (Pwelli) as is typical of most British seaside towns there were a plethora of fish and chip take-aways. The thing that struck me about all of these organisations was the fact that they all have really clear and compelling branding. All of these shops do what they say on the tin, customers know instantly and from far away what they do and once they get a whiff of them , they realise that they want it.

The entire fast food industry provide excellent examples of clear and efficient branding - Think McDonald's, Subway, Dominoes, Starbucks and even your corner Chinese. They all have the same components, clear charismatic visuals that work hand in hand with sensory stimulation.

For a small company, it is really important to create a compelling visual, that tells people (prospective clients) what your business is all about. This is something that can easily be overlooked. It is important that the branding is compelling to it's target market but also iconic. All of the best brands are iconic, even the local chippy has the fish symbol, for McDonald's its the golden arches and for KFC it's the Colonel. Can you create an icon?

What about the sensory/emotional response? With fast food, the most powerful form of ambush marketing is the smell, it permeates the high-street and reaches punters at a subconscious level. How can you reach your customers subconscious? That is the challenge for brand builders in the 21st century. In a saturated market full of competent competition, how can you protect your customers from the budget priced come latelys and the competitor who moves in next door?

We cannot all use smell or even one of the other 4 senses. We can all however use the 6th sense, the sense of satisfaction. I know how cheesy that sounds but if you think of yourself as a consumer, what is your single largest reason for not taking up a budget priced product or service?

Usually it is fear of product failure or inferiority. Other times a concern about hidden costs may also be a factor. Many premium brands get a lot of mileage from lifestyle advertising promoting the satisfaction they bring their clients. satisfaction can come from the quality of the product but it also comes from quality of service.

Incorporate satisfaction into your brand. Make your staff's smiley faces and impeccable manners a brand attribute. Train anyone who answers the telephone to do so professionally and in a friendly engaging manner. If you are able to do this, the sense of satisfaction will work for your brand the same way as the sense of smell does for the chippy.

I was inspired by an excellent dining experience at an Indian Restaurant in Matlock, the service was exceptional and the food was delightful. I spent much more than I planed to and that to me is an example of good marketing!