I’ve recently been talking a lot about website design requirements, proposals, and contracts. I’ve done so because I know a successful website design launch is more than software code, text, and images. Website design success is a direct result of a structured process and solid documentation. Executing a successful website design project begins and ends with a solid documentation. This documentation can be a proposal, contract, or statement of work. The name of the document is less ... Read More
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Custom WordPress Theme Design vs. Theme Customizations
Most WordPress users do not understand the difference between the customization of an existing WordPress theme and the creation of a custom WordPress theme design. And why should they? They’re users focused on running their business and not on the jargon of WordPress design. Each week we run into this area of confusion and each week I feel the frustration from users trying to maneuver through the maze of premium WordPress themes, graphic designers, programmers, and WordPress ... Read More
Congratulations Emmett Helsel!
he Web Savvy Marketing team would like to congratulate Emmett Helsel, our scholarship winner for 2015. Emmett is an upcoming graduate of Grayling High School and will be attending Saginaw Valley State University in the fall to pursue a career in biology and health sciences. I started this scholarship a few years ago, because I wanted to give back to the village that raised me. My hometown is in northern Michigan and it is rather small in comparison to the city where I now live in. In this ... Read More
Can a Website RFP Improve Your Project Success Rate?
Have you ever issued a website RFP and received limited responses? Did you wonder what went wrong and why design agencies failed to reply with earnest? You’re not alone. The breakdown in the RFP process can be attributed to both the RFP issuer and the RFP responders. And it is an issue that has been growing for years. On the client side, a lot of companies fail to publish a solid RFP, which makes it difficult for agencies to respond or even take them serious. On the agency side, design ... Read More
WordCamp Videos That Inspire
If you’ve ever been to a WordCamp, you’ll know there are a lot of good presentations that cover a wide range of topics. If you’ve never been to a WordCamp, you simply don’t know what you are missing. Before I went to my first WordCamp, I assumed the talks would be focused on code. I don’t code, so the idea of sitting through 45 minutes of PHP, CSS, Java, and API babble frightened me. I thought it would bore me to death. But I was wrong! WordCamps Offer More Than Code There is so much ... Read More
Google Analytics Goal Tracking Helps You Make Better Business Decisions
Google Analytics goal tracking allows marketers to record specific actions or interactions within their website. These goals are then used to report on website activity via tables, graphs, and flow charts. While goals are generally track a completed conversion, such as an inquiry form submission or product sale, they can also be used to track specific website events. I’ve traditionally used goals within Google Analytics is to obtain a better understanding of our successful website activity ... Read More
Credit Union Marketing in the Age of Digital
Last week I visited a local Michigan restaurant to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday. As soon as I walked through the door I was greeted a life size cut out of a gentlemen in a suit handing me a sandwich. This overly large cardboard advertisement was for a local financial institution promoting their services - in the lobby of a restaurant. And best yet, the sandwich was named after the bank. Think I'm kidding? I'm not. Look to the right to see the ad from the bank's website. I could ... Read More
Use Google Analytics Annotations to Make Better Marketing Decisions
Do you struggle with making solid marketing decisions based on tangible data? If so you are not alone. We talk to a lot of business people who feel they are forced into making decisions on the fly and without tangible metrics to back up their chosen direction. While I cannot solve all of your marketing conundrums, I can offer a suggestion that provides an option for viewing website traffic shifts and monitoring potential sources of such movement. Within Google Analytics there is an easy to ... Read More
Say Goodbye to the Fold and Say Hello to a Positive User Experience
About a decade ago I had the pleasure of working on my first website project with a professional graphic designer. At the time I was employed by an enterprise software company and my role was the head of marketing. As we progressed through the graphic design process, my boss (the company president) was absolutely adamant about the entire home page showing “above the fold” on this laptop. At the time he was spot on and this was considered a best practice for web design. All of our design ... Read More
A Strong Logo Serves as the DNA of Your Marketing Efforts
A logo is the DNA of marketing. DNA is a molecule that carries genetic information. It is the material that houses the information about how a living thing will look and function. In marketing terms this equates to a company logo. A logo is a fundamental component of branding and marketing. Similar to DNA, it will establish the look and feel for all other branding and marketing efforts. A logo includes a unique combination of topography, color, shape, and form that represents the core of ... Read More
Successful Website Design Projects Begin With Solid Project Scoping
Tomorrow I’m headed to WordCamp San Diego to present a session titled Expectations Management in Contracts & Scoping. The entire presentation is focused on establishing proper scoping and documentation for website design projects. The session is a collaborative one, so I’ll be joined by industry veteran Karim Marucchi (the CEO of Crowd Favorite). While this presentation is focused on helping WordPress developers, the same lessons apply to those who purchase web design services. After all, ... Read More
Announcing Genesis Walkthroughs Right Inside Your Dashboard
Did you know Genesis walkthroughs are now available right within your WordPress dashboard? They are and we’re super exciting to share this news with the Genesis community! Whether you’re a Genesis developer or user, this is big news and we’re really happy to be part of this roll out. Let me tell you a little about it and how you can take advantage of all this educational goodness. Last year my friends Ben Fox and Bart Dabek reached out to me about a cool learning tool they were ... Read More
WSM Becomes a WBE Certified Web Design Agency
I’m pleased to announce that Web Savvy Marketing is now a WBE certified web agency. WSM was formally certified as a Women Business Enterprise (WBE) by the National Women Business Owners Corporation. NWBOC was the first national certifier of Women Business Enterprises. Over 700 public and private sector individuals participated in establishing the Standards and Procedures of this rigid certification review. The Reason WBE Certification is Important For Web Savvy becoming WBE certified ... Read More
WordPress Accordion and Tabbed Content Can Negatively Affect SEO
Late last year Search Engine Roundtable posted an article about the usage of tabs, accordions, and hidden content in websites. This article was a quick overview of how these design elements will negatively affect SEO within a website. The article seemed to lie under the radar and most people missed it. It’s so far under the radar, I haven’t heard much about it since I read the post in November. I decided this topic needed further discussion because a lot of designers and website owners are ... Read More
The Danger of Not Having a Mobile Friendly Website
If you don’t have a mobile friendly website and you’re not overly worried about, you’re making a mistake. It’s a mistake that is big enough to cause you keyword ranking and a decrease in search traffic from Google. Think I’m being overly dramatic? I’m not and I’ll show you why. On January 20th I received an email from Google alerting me that an old client website needed to “fix mobile usability issues.” Here is a screen capture of the email: I received another notification on ... Read More
Grayling Strong and Viking Tough
Persevere through all things. This was something my Grandmother taught me early on in life and it is something that has followed me into adulthood. In both my personal and my business life, I’ve learned the lesson of powering through, being tough, and staying strong. I learned the value of being Grayling Strong and Viking Tough. In the spring of 2013 my Facebook feed was filled with heartbreaking comments about my hometown’s golf team. That fateful day, my small hometown lost a golf coach ... Read More
Creating the Ideal Home Page
You’ve got the perfect idea. I mean a good one. One you’ve been waiting your whole life to come up with. It’s good and you are going to be a superstar. You know this ever so perfect idea needs a killer website to make it come to life. Not just any website, but a good one that will quickly and beautifully illustrate your concept and why the world must embrace it. You pop on over to ThemeForest.net or Template Monster or any other website that offers thousands of WordPress themes. Somehow ... Read More
Save 20% on any Theme with our WordPress Black Friday Sale
In honor of our crazy Thanksgiving tradition of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, we are offering a limited time coupon for 20% off any of our premium WordPress themes. We've had a lot of people inquire about a possible Black Friday sale, so we're just going to break down and do it. We only run a sale once or twice a year, so buy now before you lose your opportunity to save. Here's How to Grab Your 20% Discount First, put down the turkey leg and stop eating that pumpkin pie. I know ... Read More
Crowd Favorite Partners with Web Savvy Marketing
I’m very excited to announce a new partnership between Web Savvy Marketing and Crowd Favorite. I’ve had the pleasure of spending a great deal of time with the Crowd Favorite folks this last year and I’ve discovered the two companies have a significant amount in common. So much so, that we all wanted to work a little closer together. A Little Bit About the Crowd Favorite Team Crowd Favorite is an international firm that delivers professional services in design and engineering to Fortune 500 ... Read More
We’re Making WordPress Internationalization Easy With Translation Ready Themes Coded for Localization and Multilingual Usage
We’re making WordPress internationalization a whole lot easier by producing over 35 translation ready themes coded for localization, multilingual usage, and right-to-left language support. We've updated all of our existing stock WordPress themes so they're translation ready and we're going to make sure all future stock themes support easy translations and RTL content presentation. My Confusion on WordPress Internationalization We should have done this a long time ago and this is fully my ... Read More
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