Marketing | Webdesigner Depot

23 Jan
Augmented Reality: the future of digital media
Inspiration, Marketing, Technology
Tweet View Comments

When I wrote about QR codes (Designed QR codes: the next level), it was very well received. When I wrote “SnapTags: Will they kill QR codes?” people got a little nasty with their suggestion on what I could do with snaptags and my mother. Now that I’m delving into Augmented Reality, I’m wondering what suggestions people will have for me…and certain family members when I insist that AR is the future of digital media?
According to Wikipedia: Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one. Read more
27 Dec
Designing for your target audience
Clients, Design, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

Some of the truest words I’ve heard to date are, “If you don’t plan on creating your own business, then you plan on being broke.”
While, there are many people out there who have made a nice living working for other companies, it shouldn’t be crazy to think about going into business for oneself, whether it be a full time job or a part time gig. With the changing economic climate things aren’t guaranteed and, quite frankly, the time spent helping someone else achieve their goals could be time well spent on chasing your own dreams.
As graphic designers, freelancing and creating our own small business is usually a pretty common thought; it’s almost a given. Even if we don’t market ourselves as freelancers, I’m sure some of us have gotten into doing side jobs to put some extra cash in our pockets. Some designers just like to offer design services while others have full businesses revolving around clothing design or creating products, or perhaps partnering with someone else to offer more products and services.
Regardless of what it is that you do, in order to see some growth in your business you’ve got to figure out who you are targeting. Many of us may believe that our product is for everyone, but trying to get your product in front of everyone is going to be painful and expensive. What you want to do is figure out who you are specifically targeting, figure out that niche and put your efforts into them. Finding out more about them will help your effectiveness and eventually help your reach because once you know who you’re selling to, you’ll better know how to design for them. Read more
13 Dec
10 tips and resources for creating a stunning web presentation
Marketing, Resources, Tips
Tweet View Comments

A visually stunning presentation is sure to leave a positive impression on your audience, whether you are using it to market a product, introduce your services or communicate information.
Today, the web offers us a myriad of solutions and methods for delivering information to a wide audience on demand.
Options include Flash, PDF, video, photo slideshows and jQuery. No matter which format you choose, the presentation itself needs to be compelling, easy to follow and compatible with multiple devices to have the most impact.
A web presentation designed using modern techniques offers a high level of interaction, fast loading times and responsiveness that a desktop presentation cannot provide. However, the format you choose for your presentation matters little if the presentation itself is not effective. Here are some guidelines to follow to ensure your presentation is memorable and conveys the message you want it to: Read more
5 Dec
Social media for creatives
Marketing, Social Media, Tips
Tweet View Comments

I’m amazed at companies, especially marketing firms, that stop their social media. It’s usually a blog that hasn’t been updated in a year or the proud display of fans numbering less than ten, eight of them being employees at that firm. What does that tell potential clients? It says that firm has no idea about social media. As someone who deals with social media on a daily basis, I see the value and I see the mistakes. It seems easy, in my mind, but I know it’s not or companies wouldn’t make so many mistakes.
Certainly social media has taken business by storm. People are still in a quandary about how it works, despite proven stats and ROI. Some companies do it on the cheap and some throw millions into it. It seems odd that so many people can’t see what social media is all about – being social!
When I hear someone say, “I don’t like Facebook,” I think, “enjoy the rest of the 20^th century and I’ll catch up with you later…maybe!”
It is, of course, more serious than that. If you’re not keeping in touch with old friends and former coworkers, you are letting your network die and, as many articles keep pounding into our heads, your network is the most important way to get work. As with the occasional phone call to a close friend to see if they’re still alive, sharing some news and laughs and just showing them that you care, social media is the new phone call—it’s how we are social now. It’s important and cannot be ignored.
Read more
23 Nov
Branding and the importance of consistent design
Branding, Marketing, Reputation
Tweet View Comments

When you start working with clients you have to understand that the work you produce is not just about how good or bad a design is. It has a lot to do with the way the design fits into the wider spectrum of things.
Does this design fall in line with the overall theme of the company?
Does this design ‘say’ what the company tries to say?
In some instances and with some clients, you don’t even have to make a ‘great’ design, however, you are expected to make something that would be well received by the company and their audience.
Being aware of this is being aware of the branding of a company. Read more
10 Oct
SnapTags: Will they kill QR codes?
Design, Marketing, Packaging
Tweet View Comments

I remember a time when truncating the UPC bar code on the cover of a magazine was a huge coup. Taking the huge, lumbering code, which took up too much real estate on the cover of a publication, was bothersome and affected the design space.
Cutting the bar code by half, in height and width, was celebrated as a major advance in the much-needed item used for scanning the price by, at best, only half the retailers, seems so petty and foolish now.
When printers discovered you didn’t need to place the codes on white boxes, we rejoiced at not having the little lines popping out on what were beautiful covers, interrupted by alien chunks of absurdity. Again, it seems odd no one had discovered this fact for all the years bar codes had been used.
When we discovered that we could play with the bar codes, making fun little designs and jokes; we wondered why something so simple had escaped us for so long. We reveled in the design challenge of playing with the codes while still keeping them functional.
Read more
27 Sep
Advertising as we know it is DEAD
Advertising, Branding, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

As an undergraduate of my university’s advertising program, every year, I’d have some sort of Super Bowl function that was centered around watching the commercials. After all, as an ad student, this was kind of a big deal and would be absolutely relevant to the next week of classes.
We would laugh at, be upset with, and critique most of the million dollar spots. Even though I was more interested in designing and directing print ads, I figured it couldn’t hurt to contribute to an upcoming topic and knock back a few brews.
Either way, once the final quarter ended and the winners celebrated by dumping Gatorade on their coach, I always felt unsatisfied. I know football isn’t my sport of choice, but most times the commercials were lackluster (and the half-time shows have been the pits). Most times I found myself making excuses for the commercials; “oh, that’s great for their target audience” or “oh, it was only a 15 second spot.”
Then it hit me one day after discussing the commercials with my baby-boomer mom. We were just talking about a pretty terrible commercial when she responded, “Yea, y’know commercials just ain’t what they used to be.”
While she probably said it flippantly, today, she is absolutely right—advertising as we know it just isn’t the same, and it’s truly on it’s last breath. Here’s my take on why…
Read more
26 Aug
Use your blog to get design jobs
Blogs, Marketing, SEO
Tweet View Comments

Are you a freelance designer? Are you interested in boosting your credibility, building your client base and increasing your number of paying projects? The answer is obvious, but knowing where and how to get started can be daunting, especially during the periods of low client work (you know what I’m talking about).
Having worked with a ton of design and development professionals in the field, I’ve seen that some of the most successful, most productive and busiest contractors have a blog attached to their main website or portfolio. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. By not having a blog, you could be missing out on some serious contract work.
A blog could be one of your most powerful assets in getting your name out there and securing new jobs. In fact, considering how simple it is to get started, the extremely low startup costs and the minimum of time required to create compelling content, I’m baffled as to why designers don’t consider it a priority when running their freelance business.
Here are the top three reasons why you, the budding (or even experienced) designer, need to start a blog (and sooner rather than later).
Read more
18 Aug
Responsive web design has created opportunities across the board
Design, Freelancing, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

From time to time, an industry experiences fundamental changes that radically alter it. Along with this comes an explosion of opportunity: opportunity for individuals to stand out, for new products to emerge and for entrenched companies to be replaced. Now is such a time in the web community.
For as long as I can remember, the primary focus in web development has been on ensuring that websites render the same across all browsers. We took great effort to ensure that a client’s website looked exactly the same in everything from old versions of Internet Explorer to the latest Firefox, all at once.
In the past few years, we have witnessed growing interest in what is known as progressive enhancement, which is the technique of serving advanced features and styles to modern browsers but not to older unsupported browsers.
This approach never seemed to settle in across the board. Most agencies still strive to make their websites universal. And progressive enhancement was often regarded as an excuse to ignore annoying problems. As it turns out, web people are rather crafty and have created tools that overcome countless browser problems. Read more
15 Aug
Designed QR codes: the next level
Design, Graphic Design, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

Say what you will about QR (Quick Response) codes: they are just a fad, they will be forgotten once augmented reality takes hold or they’re just an extra step in inputting a URL but they are here and people are enjoying using them, so make the most of them!
QR codes, if you haven’t heard of them or clicked the link above to see the whole explanation, are scanned via a reader application (usually on your smart phone) that will take you to a video or web page.
They have been used in Japan for over a decade (invented by a Toyota subsidiary, Densu Wave), and now the rest of the world is catching up.
Why not just have the URL and let people hand key it in on their cell phones? WHAT? And make people actually expend energy? Charlatan!
Seriously, you can’t fight technology so make the best of it.
Read more
21 Jun
Email marketing services reviewed
Marketing, Opinion, Review
Tweet View Comments
Selecting an email marketing service can be daunting. There are dozens of solutions to choose from, all with extremely varied options, features and pricing.
Even more perplexing is that many reviewers rate these solutions in an effort to identify the “best” option.
There is no single best option, but rather a lot of great options. You just have to find the one that matches your needs.
Unlike the exhaustive round-ups that cover every option available, I have narrowed the field to what I consider four of the best. All of these are terrific solutions that address a variety of needs.
I won’t mention every last feature of these services. Because they all have the same basic functionality, I will focus on what makes each distinct and what to expect from using them. Read more
28 Apr
Ultimate guide to crafting extraordinary headlines
How to, Marketing, Writing
Tweet View Comments

No amount of effort put into a pixel-perfect design, with eye-pleasing typography, and heart-warming content can ever offset the importance of an incredible headline. Without it, your efforts will go unnoticed.
Yet some of the ugliest websites can get all of the attention and recognition that yours deserved. A shame, isn’t it? But it is probably because you forgot to work on the most important part of any piece of online content: the headline (or title).
This one little thing — often no longer than a dozen or so words — can have a dramatic impact on who sees your content, how they perceive it, and their willingness to share it with others. So, making the greatest headline possible for every piece of content you create in the future is critical.
Not to worry, though. Regardless of whether or not you’ve been making it big on Digg or have yet to catch anyone’s attention, I’m going to share some of my knowledge and secrets that I gained while writing at some of the Internet’s most popular blogs.
Read more
4 Mar
7 Ways to Garner Local Clients and Referral Business
Business, Freelancing, Marketing
Tweet View Comments
It is assumed in the online business, especially in the design field, that most big clients are international.
But that doesn’t mean that all lucrative projects are with international clients. As companies such as the controversial BlitzLocal have discovered, there’s a vast and lucrative market for providing local businesses with online visibility.
While such businesses specialize in search marketing, the fact that they exist is fairly solid evidence that there’s a viable market for local design.
Before investing in an international advertising campaign, designers should consider the business opportunities in their local communities.
Whether a small town, regional center or global city, a designer’s community is a source of projects that never runs dry.
The 7 tactics below will help designers locate new clients, attract the attention of local business leaders and generate a region-based design empire. Read more
11 Feb
How Old-Fashioned Marketing Can Supercharge Your Design Business
Business, How to, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

Search for any design-related term and you’ll be greeted by a wall of competition.
From invasive AdWords pitches to aggressively marketed websites, online competition in the web design world is rapidly approaching its breaking point.
Small freelance businesses are unable to market themselves without an ample budget and plenty of time.
Increasingly, freelancers are forced to turn to bidding websites in search of work. They compete for projects that offer little in the way of income and that entail a great deal of stress.
Thankfully, there are other ways to generate business. Many go against the “online only” marketing slogans that designers have been fed for years.
Read more
1 Feb
Introducing MightyDeals’ New Affiliate Program
Community, Marketing, News
Tweet View Comments

Since November last year, we’ve been running some truly amazing deals for designers at MightyDeals.com
As you’ve probably seen by now, the deals are really awesome and the discounts (sometimes up to 85%!) are simply out of this world!
What’s so great about MightyDeals is that it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.
For you, our valued audience, you get to hear about new products and services, and a chance to buy them at a fraction of their regular price.
On the other hand, merchants get free publicity and great sales with no risk involved. And things are getting even hotter with our newly launched Affiliate Program!
Read more
23 Sep
Create Great Websites, Without Any SEO
Business, Marketing, SEO
Tweet View Comments

Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO is a subject which gets talked about to death all over the web.
There’s a fairly large group of people who believe that SEO is the be-all and end-all to anything on the web.
They believe that without it, you are nothing and with it, you are everything.
Today we’re going to look at why that isn’t true and why you can create a truly great website which performs well in search engines, without any seedy SEO tactics.
We’ve also included a case study of WooThemes and QA with Adii Pienaar and his views on SEO.
Read more
10 Nov
40 Seriously Funny Print Ads
Advertising, Humor, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

Print adverts need to get a message across with a single image and without the recourse of interactivity that we find today on the Internet.
As interactive media expands, attention spans are getting shorter and shorter every day.
For any company trying to get their product or service out in print format, the task is ever more challenging and difficult.
Humorous ads remain one of the few effective ways to engage an audience in a very saturated advertising market. This is an area where the audience is far more receptive and still willing to pay attention.
In this post, we’ve gathered 40 hilarious and really creative ads for your enjoyment… Read more
15 Sep
The Evolution of Apple Ads
Apple, Branding, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

Apple first started advertising its products in the late 1970s.
The 80s showed a wide variety of ads, some of which served to convince consumers that they should purchase a computer, and specifically an Apple.
These ads were text-heavy and light on images, as were many computer and technology ads from that era.
Apple ads really came into their heyday during the 1990s, with the “Think Different” campaign, which became very popular as they featured a number of famous people.
Here’s a stunning compilation of some of Apple’s most notable advertisements from the 70s until the present day, including a few videos ads. Read more
1 Sep
5 Tips on How to Write a Killer Slogan (with Interactive Examples)
Logos, Marketing, Writing
Tweet View Comments

Slogans are memorable phrases often used in conjunction with company logos and in advertising campaigns.
They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product or brand.
But how often do you see “serving you since 1982″ or a similarly canned slogan under a beautifully designed logo? Too often.
In this post, we’ll discuss 5 essential tips on how to write a killer slogan and, if you feel you can’t manage it on your own, where to go to get them written for you.
At the end of these tips, you’ll find a selection of famous slogans as well as an interactive showcase of famous slogans. Read more
13 Aug
Freelancing and the Power of Partnering
Business, Freelancing, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

When a business decides to outsource, it is looking for a solution.
It has a pressing project but lacks the internal resources to do it itself.
Chances are, some poor marketing director has walked out of a boardroom meeting, faced with a recurring problem: the deadline has been set, the work laid out in front of him and he has no way to get it done.
At this point, our poor marketing manager doesn’t want to spend hours searching the Internet for the right web designer, review another pile of résumés for the perfect copywriter and plow through stacks of portfolios for a graphic designer…
In this article we’ll review 5 useful tips that you can use to harness the power of partnering. Read more
24 Jul
25 Inspiring Examples of Sign-Up Pages
Inspiration, Marketing, Web Design
Tweet View Comments

A well developed and organized sign-up page has to relay a large quantity of data in a small area and must be quick and easy to read and understand.
Overly creative plan names are more likely to hurt your sign-up process instead of help, as they’ll take longer to understand.
It’s better to save your creativity for the other pages which will be redirecting the user to the sign-up page.
Start a trial and error phase to test out what your audience might specifically be attracted to as this will vary from site to site.
Here are 25 creative examples of sign-up pages which you can use as a starting point for inspiration when designing your own. Read more
21 Jul
9 Marketing Tips from a Six-Year Old’s Lemonade Stand
Business, Financial, Marketing
Tweet View Comments

The other day my daughter, Sophia, announced that she wanted to set up a lemonade stand.
Seeing as how I didn’t really want to spend the better part of my weekend selling lemonade, I tried to talk her out of it by showing her how much she’d need to spend to buy the lemonade mix, get the cups, that sort of thing.
Regardless of my best efforts, there was no changing her mind. She wanted to go into business and there wasn’t anything I was going to do to stop her.
So as I succumbed to my role as venture capitalist in her first business startup. I decided that at the very least, this would be a great chance to teach my daughter about counting money, basic business principals, that sort of thing. Read more