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What to Blog About If You’re a Service Based Businesses – How to Blog

21.03.13

Blogs are a brilliant way to maintain the communication channels to your audience and clients. There are many topics to blog about within your business it’s just a case of a little creative thinking and identifying what will be an interesting read to your market.

You know your business and market sector better than anybody yet when discussing a clients website or online marketing strategy I regularly get told by clients “I have nothing to write about” or, “People won’t be interested in what I have to say”.

My first question to this is…”Do people use your services?” The answer is always yes…”therefore people are interested, you just need to find a way of creating engaging, insightful content for them”

Below are some ideas for topics that you can blog about. By no means is this a definitive list as the sky’s the limit but they will get you started.

Blog about new services or the improvement of services but do not sell sell sell. A blog should be informative and readers will quickly switch off to sales spiel. You may want to include a link to a page on your website that covers the sales material.

Champion your successes. Blog about new client wins, how you have helped clients, projects that you have completed and the results of your work.

Blog about regional events. Try to relate them to your industry but no worries if you can’t. It will help your local search organic SEO.

Blog about new things that are happening in your industry. Try to keep it conversational with limited jargon. It shows knowledge of your sector and that you are keeping up to date will industry developments.

Offer free advice, hints and tips for your audience. Think about what your customers are struggling with or challenges they face.

Try to make your blog posts useful. If your content is useful your audience will be more inclined to share it with their contacts.

Introduce a little humour at times and make reference to cultural fashions and trends. A little personality makes for a more interesting read.

Always use a high quality images or diagrams to support your blog post. It’s true that pictures can say a thousand words.

Do not overdo it. Keep it moderately short unless its instructional where processes cannot be skipped.

Always stay on topic. Readers will not be patient with blog entries that deviate from the point.

That’s all for this week guys…our next blog will be “What to Blog About If You’re a Product Based Business e.g. Ecommerce”.

If you would like further information call us on 01543 897 661
or email info@lightbox-design.co.uk

The Benefits of a WordPress Website for the End User (The Client)

22.02.13

Summary

As a website development agency we are always presented with a diverse range of questions regarding website development, blogging and SEO. Many of these questions centre around Content Management Systems and development language so we thought we would write a blog that answers some of those questions particularly focussing on WordPress.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an open source blogging tool and content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.

(There are 2 primary development languages – .PHP and .ASP,
MySQL is the most popular open source SQL database management system)

WordPress is currently the most popular blogging system and CMS in use on the web and powers around 20% of active websites.

There are many CMS systems available but the most popular in use today after WordPress are:

Joomla
Drupal
Umbraco (for websites written in .ASP development language)

All of the above are excellent Content Management Systems that allow scaleable flexibility and the tools you need to manage and update your website.

The Benefits of using WordPress to Power your Website

As previously mentioned there are an array of CMS systems available to website developers and bloggers alike but in our experience and statistically speaking WordPress is the best for both developer and end user (the client). We are going to focus our benefits list on the end user experience. So what are the benefits of WordPress?

Providing that the website has good layout and has been developed to a high standard, search engines love the architecture of WordPress. This is relevant because it creates a solid foundation for you to implement your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy and get the website ranking for your chosen keywords.

WordPress is definitely the most user friendly content management system on the market (which is why it’s the most used CMS system). The benefits to the end user are that you can very quickly update all aspects of your website easily without complex jargon or any knowledge of website development.

Here’s why:

WordPress uses simple Language. ‘Pages’ are called ‘Pages’ not ‘Artcles’ or ‘Titles’ as some other CMS systems label them. It’s obvious really but it’s these little things that really do help. If you’re a business owner trying to figure out that to edit a page you firstly need to click articles to see your list of pages your wasting time that could be spent running your business. That’s not to mention the other elements that are labelled weird and wonderful names.

There is no multi level complex site map to navigate just to edit a page. 2 clicks and your editing.

The layout and structure of the interface is clean and well thought out, focussing on usability.

The media management (images, video etc that appear on your website) section is visual and gradually builds as your site evolves. This means you end up with on online bank of images suited to your website and business that are accessible with a click of the mouse button.

If the website has been developed properly, WordPress will automatically resize images for you so you don’t have to worry about web resolution and pixel sizes etc.

Blogging is an effective way to keep your existing customers up to date with what’s going on in your business but also an effective way to offer beneficial information that is of interest to your audience. WordPress is the leading blogging tool and your website will benefit from this powerful tool with a WordPress CMS.

You can easily add users (administrators) and setup different edit permissions. Each has their own login username and password and can access the CMS from any device with Internet access to update the website.

On the move? No problem! There is a WordPress App that allows you to update your website wherever you are (providing you have Wifi, 3G or 4G access).

Things to be aware of with a WordPress website and questions that you should ask the agency that is designing and developing your WordPress Website.

This applies to any service really, but make sure that you choose the right agency to design and development your website. The beauty of WordPress can almost be destroyed with some agency’s building websites entirely centered around plugins that are bolted together and shoe-horned into the HTML code. On face value this is not obvious until you look at the code and realise that the HTML is is poorly structured. Search engines like clean code and architecture.

Is the design bespoke or is it an off the shelf template? There are some great templates out there but if you are buying a ‘bespoke design’ make sure it is a bespoke design.

More Information?

If you would like any more information about Content Management Systems or website design in general call Lightbox 01543 897 661 or email enquiries@lightbox-design.co.uk

Cornetto Evolve their Branding

16.02.13

Cornetto have evolved their branding. We love the new identity. The logo has more authority and we love the introduction of the subtle heart in the ‘C’ character. It will look great on the ice cream packaging and will make more of an impact to draw the shoppers eye to it.

We Love Tom Jones!

27.09.12

We already loved Tom Jones but after an afternoon of the best of Tom Jones we have all decided that Tom is the coolest man on the planet!!

His silky tones have helped us along to creating fantastic website design and branding work for Cream & Browne Interiors/Lifestyle along with a Facebook App for Carmex.

Thanks Sir Tom

Did I mention We Love Tom Jones!

Lightbox Create Bespoke Content Management Website Design for Hampton Manor

26.09.12

Content Management Website Design

We have created an incredibly stylish bespoke Content Management Website for Hampton Manor based in Solihull, Birmingham that not only looks great, but also provides Hampton Manor with the ability to update and change every aspect of the content of the website through an easy to use Content Management System (CMS).

The brief for the project was:

To create a website that reflected the character of Hampton Manor Hotel.
To showcase the facilities and services of the hotel.
To design a functional user friendly navigation system whilst also enabling visitors to explore the website through alternative methods and quirky graphics.
To create a platform for Hampton Manor to be able to add latest offers, latest events and blog posts allowing them to proactively connect with their audiences on a regular basis.
To create a Content Management System that enabled multiple administrators within the business to edit all content of the website.

Click here to view the full project details and information or let us know what you think

For more information about how Lightbox can help your business through effective marketing material call 01543 897 661 or email us

What To Think About When Creating A New Website – 8 Important Considerations – Part 2

24.07.12

Last month we posted an article containing the first 4 of 8 considerations when creating a new website. This month we complete the final 4 considerations that enable you to develop a website that not only looks great, but functions well, is expandable and performs well in search engine rankings.

5: How do I contact you?

How many times have you arrived on a website with the sole purpose of wanting to contact the business or organisation only to find that you have to navigate through page after page to find their contact details and in some cases never do. This is extremely frustrating and more often than not will lead to visitors leaving the website and sourcing their requirements else where.

Contact details must be clear, prominent and consistent. For instance depending on the layout of the website design you may want to locate your contact details at the top every page to make it easy for visitors to contact you. You should offer multiple ways to contact the business as different users will have varying preferences e.g.

Telephone Number
Email address
Social Media Links (if applicable)
Address

Want more business conversions from you website? as well as having clear contact details you need to prompt visitors to your website to take action by implementing call to action techniques into the website design. For instance, you may have a marketing window on the website that says ‘We sell the best BBQ’s in the world’ coupled with an image. Now add ‘Order this BBQ by calling 0800 123 456 or email newbbq@bbqworld.co.uk’. You could also attach an offer or promotion to the call to action.

By implementing call to action elements like this into your website design you are guiding visitors to take action and helping them decide what to do next. The key is to echo this throughout the website e.g.

Need Assistance? Call…..
Found what you are looking for? Call…..

These techniques depend on your market, the purpose of the website and your online marketing strategy but should be implemented into your website design otherwise you may be missing business opportunities.

6: Lack of Structured Layout – Particularly text content

Have you ever arrived on a website and being presented with a page full of text displaying paragraph after paragraph of words?…We’ve all been there, and i’m guessing we’ve all immediately thought ‘I’m not reading that!’ and clicked away from the website.

Focused keyword rich content is very important and we aren’t saying that pages shouldn’t have lots of it – in fact they should, being as this is what Search Engines index (read) on your website.

The key is to present the content (text and images) in a manor that makes it manageable for visitors to digest – particularly on the homepage.

You may have a need for pages of technical data and text, but this should be located further into the website for visitors that have a desire to read it (although even this should be well structured). The homepage should provide visitors with a clear overview of the businesses products and services and sign post them to the topical content areas of the website should they choose to read the topic specific content.

Text should be formatted into manageable paragraphs and where possible divided into clear sections of the website page. It should also be a legible size. There should be a balance of headings, sub headings, text and images and if you have a very important marketing message, highlight it by overlaying it on a graphic.

Your aim is to present a well balanced, informative engaging website to your intended audience. Remember space on the page is your best friend.

7: Poor use of Images

They say that pictures say a thousand words. When creating a new website it’s important that you use high quality images that complement your marketing messages and business values. Images need to engage visitors so it’s important that an effective use of imagery is implemented into the design.

No matter how great the website design and functionality is, poor quality, amateur images will immediately make the website look dated, amateur and will reflect badly on your business. There are many stock photography websites that you can buy good quality images such as istockphoto and shutterstock. These are a cost effective way to have images that reflect well on your business. Be sure that you seek advice from your website designer (who should understand your marketing and business needs as well as your audience) on which ones to use. The designer should suggest these in the design process anyway. If you buy good quality stock photography you can also use the images throughout your marketing material bringing consistency to your marketing approach.

Whilst Royalty free stock photography is a great low cost source for images, the problem is that they can appear on other peoples website and marketing material due to the nature of ‘Royalty Free’ images.

If stock photography isn’t what you want to use, isn’t appropriate for your business or you have a specific product that’s bespoke to you, then custom photography is needed from a Professional Photographer. Unless you are a professional photographer you will not be able to create the required level of quality in photos taken yourself…no matter how expensive your camera is. Photography and lighting is an art and this is the first impression your customers are going to have of your business so its worth the investment. You also then have a quality library of images that can be used throughout your marketing material.

Effective use of images can differentiate you in your marketplace. Images can create new angles to promote your products and services and set the theme and style on your website. Images can influence buying decisions particularly on eCommerce websites where customers are viewing your products so good quality images are a must.

8: Management & Scalability

When creating a new website it is important that when the website is complete, you have direct access to the Content Management System so you can consistently update content, write blog posts and work on your online strategy. There are so many user friendly Content Management Systems available that it is a must that your website has one integrated. Gone are the days of clients having to go back to their website development supplier for small updates to their website as the control is now in your hands. We no longer develop Websites without Content Management Systems purely based on the fact that you cant do anything with them.

Content Management Systems

Content Management Systems allow users to login and edit the text and images on a website. Depending on the specification of the website you may need to manage an events calendar or property search system, Content Management Systems enable you to do this in line with your online strategy. They also enable you to work on your on page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy.

Something to think about when formulating the sitemap and specification of the website and Content Management System is the scalability of the website. Does the Content Management System allow you to perform the online tasks that you require? It’s important that you understand the capability of the system so that your website can grow with your business. It is well worth investing in a system that delivers the functionality required from the outset rather than realise that you need to invest further down the road as this is almost always more expensive.

View Part 1
What To Think About When Creating A New Website – 8 Important Considerations

We hope that these 8 considerations have been helpful and insightful. We will be posting more useful tips and advice on Website Design & Development and Marketing. In the meantime have a look at some of the Website Designs Lightbox have created.

For further information or advice on creating a new website for your business
call 01543 305 931 or email us

Gravity Defying Product Design! – If we had desks like this we would produce even more creative Website Designs

02.07.12

Creative Partner at a Dublin design agency, Rory Hamilton, Made an office product design statement, after designing this amazing desk!

With giant Jenga blocks & Real helium balloons…Yes real balloons, Rory has designed a fun yet, baffling design!

We wished our desks looked this good! We would be even more creative and produce even more creative Website Designs and great Branding ideas.

What To Think About When Creating A New Website – 8 Important Considerations – Part 1

30.06.12

Creating a new website for your business is a positive move to develop your brand, increase your customer/client outreach, attract new clients, retain existing clients and grow your business.

So, to ensure that creating a new website is a positive experience when the project is complete, and worth the investment we have created a short list of considerations that should be addressed before you begin:

1: Selecting the right website development company

There a many website design & development companies so this process alone, before you have even considered the website itself can be a daunting prospect. As with using any supplier, if you can get a trusted recommendation to a company from a business colleague you are half way there although the same considerations should be made as if you select a supplier yourself.

Ask to see examples of previous work and links to those websites
View client testimonials
Discuss Website Hosting and Domain Name ownership
Ask questions about their approach to projects and their business
Can they technically and aesthetically deliver the website you want
Talk about timescales and payment terms
Discuss the support you will receive after the website goes live

Most of all get a feel for the company and the team or individual you will be working with. Creating a new website is a time consuming project (depending on the size of the website) so its very important that you can have a good relationship with the web development company.

2: What is the purpose of creating a new website?

Ask yourself what the purpose of the website is and design the website around that specific intent. Are you creating a new website for any of the following reasons?

To be used as an Information hub for your business’s key products and services – If so how will you effectively communicate that information? Images Galleries, Well presented content, Video, etc.
To sell products and services. Display the products clearly and make it easy for visitors to view and buy products or contact your business for more information.
Client Interaction – Is your website going to offer ways that clients can interact with your business?
Get more business – This will be the underlying purpose of all websites unless they are primarily an information provider e.g. a local council website, but even then they will be looking to increase traffic or some sort of response.
Increase your brand outreach.

There are too many purposes of a website to list them all in this blog post but being clear of what that purpose is at the start of a website development project will ensure that you get an end result that you are happy with.

3: Make sure the home page of your new website Communicates what your business does

When creating a new website you need to communicate exactly what your business does quickly and efficiently. How many websites have you arrived on and thought what’s this about? Then instantly clicked away from the site.

The home page is often your first impression and has to engage with people and tell them what your business does. It may be as direct as saying ‘We are a website design company’ or ‘We sell BBQ’s’. Sometimes images alone can communicate this but we would suggest a combination of purposeful imagery and headings.

Remember, your potential clients or customers want to quickly know that they are in the right place and not wasting their time. We would recommend delivering this both visually and through effective headings.

4: Ensure that the website has a user friendly and consistent navigation

Invest time into formulating the site plan and architecture of the website. Think about the end user, do some research into how your audience would navigate around a website like yours.

Once the web design company have created a proposed website design layout go over the navigation structure again before the development (coding) stage of the project starts. This effort will save time and money in the long run.

A website navigation should be clear, have obvious titles and remain in a consistent location on all pages of the website. The same applies to to any sub navigation menus. Think about offering visitors fast track ways of accessing the information they are looking for and always enable them to get back to previous pages easily.

If you do not create a user friendly navigation system when creating a new website you will quickly lose visitors and your key marketing messages will be wasted.

So that’s it for Part 1 of our 8 important considerations when creating a new website. Part 2 will be posted next month so be sure to check back for the 2nd installment.

For further information or advice on creating a new website for your business
call 01543 305 931 or email us

Staffordshire based Colton House launch new Content Management Website Design

22.06.12

Great News! The new Colton House Content Management Website Design has Gone Live!

Staffordshire based Colton House, a luxury Guest House near Lichfield approached Lightbox Creative Studio to create a new Content Management Website Design that would:

Create an inviting and informative online presence
Effectively showcase the Guest House through engaging content and beautiful photography
Drive more traffic to the website leading to more bookings of the rooms
Provide a platform for visitors to search availability and book rooms online

Firstly we looked at the brand as a whole and identified that the Colton House marketing material and branding lacked consistency and representation of the business so we created branding that was complementary to the history and heritage of Colton House yet projected a contemporary edge to appeal to a diverse audience.

We set out to create a website design that would inspire visitors searching for a Hotel/Guest House in Staffordshire to want to choose Colton House. We identified that People choose Hotels and Guest houses based on two primary buying triggers:

The quality of the rooms, grounds and location (through viewing photography)
The price of the rooms

We centered the website around the photography and provided a user friendly navigation system to view the rooms, prices and information. Visitors are able to easily check room availability by clicking on the ‘Check Availability’ widget at the top of the page which remains a constant throughout the website.

Lightbox directed a photography shoot at Colton House to capture the surrounding landscaping, interior of the rooms and facilities and finer details that evoke luxury. We worked with the brilliant Russ Mills Photography on location.

Visitors are easily able to contact Colton House and book rooms online if they wish. We made use of current website technologies and marketing methods by integrating live Social Media feeds and links for visitors to connect with Colton House through Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

Lightbox created and styled the Colton House Social Media pages ensuring that they remained ‘on brand’ and consistent to the Website Design and marketing messages.
Visit the Colton House Facebook and Twitter pages

Click here to view the full project
Or View the Colton House Content Management Website Design