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South By Southwest 2008 HIghlights
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
Writing for the Web
Elements of a Good Logo
Top 5 Web Page Design Basics
How to improve your Web site to boost sales

South By Southwest 2008 Highlights
SXSW is one of the most attended, preeminent interactive conferences in the world and it happens in Austin every March. This was our second year in attendance and we're sharing what we've learned with you. This year the buzz was about social networking and the effect it's having on corporations, advertising and the world community.

A few of the highlights:

• Consumers are using technology to get the things they need from each other rather than from traditional institutions like large corporations.
  
  
• Companies have to remember that social networks and what is said on those networks matter just as much to consumers, if not more, than what the company says about itself on its own website. There is more trust in what the social networks say than in what company advertising says.
  
  
• Blogs and social networks allow people to talk about subjects and locations, including niches and mini-neighborhoods, that traditional media is not able or willing to cover. Social networking has let consumers and users get "local".
  
  
• If your company is considering building a blog, remember these points:
• Consider why you are blogging and what your objectives are.
• Speak authentically and tell the truth to your consumers.
• Speak to your audience and cover topics they find interesting and valuable.
• Let your content be sharable. Let customers re-post your content on their own sites or share it with their friends.
• Get employees from every department involved in posting to the blog.


• When building a viral website, it helps to remember these five important steps to success:
• Acquisition – users visit your site from multiple channels such as search engines, blogs and links.
• Activation – users interact with your site through content, forms, blogs and widgets.
• Retention – users come back to your site for useful information via blog subscriptions, e-newsletters and auto response emails.
• Referral – users tell other people to use your site via email, forms and share with a friend technologies.
• Revenue – you make money due to increased brand awareness, traffic and conversions.
  
  
• The Google generation, 18-24 year olds, is the most entrepreneurial, political and non-violent generation we've ever seen. The Internet, and social networking in particular, has created a "collective intelligence" among them. Collective intelligence forms when people share knowledge from diverse backgrounds, debate that knowledge in an open forum and then arrive at a collective agreement on the subject. Because of collective intelligence, the Google generation often thinks in terms of "We" instead of "I". This is one reason Obama's "Yes, We Can" tagline has resonated with this audience.
  
  
• Social marketing and networks will only increase through mobile technology now that devices like the iPhone make mobile internet browsing easy and accessible.

1. Expansion
The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope

2. Contraction
A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus

3. Publicity
The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising

4. Advertising
Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy

5.The Word
A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer

6.Credentials
The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity

7. Quality
Quality is important, but brands are not built on quality alone

8. The Category
A leading brand should promote the cateogry, not the brand

9. The Name
In the long run a brand is nothing more htan a name.

10. Extensions
The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything

11. Fellowship
In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands

12. The Generic
One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name

13. The Company
Brands are brands. Companies are companies. There is a difference

14. Subbrands
What branding builds, subbranding can destroy

15. Siblings
There is a time and a place to launch a second brand

16. Shape
A brand's logotype should be designed to fit the eyes. Both eyes.

17. Color
A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitor's

18. Borders
There are no barriers to global branding. A brand should know no borders.

19. Consistency
A brand is not built overnight. Success is measured in decades, not years.

20. Change
Brands can be changed, but only infrequently and only very carefully

21. Mortality
No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution

22. Singularity
The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness

• If it reads it leads
  A snappy headline will help pull the reader into the rest of the copy. A good headline tells the reader what the rest of the copy is about and creates interest.
  
  
• Differentiate yourself
  One of the most important things your copy can do is separate you from the competition. Be sure to tell your potential customers how your product or service is different, why it's better and how it will benefit them.
  
  
• Set your priorities
  You never know how much copy your customer will read but if you put the most important points in the first sentence or two you can be sure they at least know the main issues.
  
  
• Make it scannable
  Most users will not read long, dense copy. If you need to have extended copy be sure to break it up with subheads, paragraph breaks and/or images. Lists and bullet points work well.
  
  
• It's all in the wording
  Before writing copy make a list of words you would like to rank for with the major search engines. These are your keywords. Make sure to work these words into your copy so you can start ranking for them.
  
  
• Use descriptive links
  "Click here" doesn't tell the reader (or google) anything. "Learn how to sell your house" tells the reader what to expect after the jump and allows you to increase your keywords.
  
  
• A perfect match
  Your copy and design need to work together. The copy shouldn't impede the design and the design shouldn't distract from the copy.
  

For help in writing for the Web, contact us for a free consultation.

So what makes a logo good? Here are some of the basic elements of a successful logo.

• Simple
  Good logos are simple. They incorporate just one typeface and/or mark. This simplicity makes a quick statement about your company without unnecessary fluff.
  
  
• Scalable
  Logos should be able to scale down small enough to fit on a business card as well as large enough to fit on a billboard. Be sure your graphic design firm gives you vector images of your logo so it will scale without becoming illegible.
  
  
• Versatile
  A logo should look good in both black and white and color. Logos are often used in black and white advertising where color is not available. When color is used, it should look good in both spot color and four color.
  
  
• Appropriate
  Logos should use fonts and colors that appeal to their demographics. A woman's spa should not use huge clunky lettering and a men’s basketball team wouldn't use soft feminine letters. Your audience can often influence your color choices; generally, men prefer blue while women prefer red.
  
  
• Different
  The best way to stand out from your competition is to be different. Don't emulate a competitor's logo. Not only can it be illegal, you'll stand a greater chance of getting noticed if you're different. While there are many common aspects of logos, there are plenty of ways to make them distinguishable through graphic elements, colors and fonts.
  
  
• Memorable
  The best way to be memorable is to make your logo speak truthfully about your company. It should evoke a feeling or provide insight into what your company does. By doing this it will become recognizable over time.

1. Place important information in the top left corner of the page. Eye-tracking studies indicate Web users look at this area of the page first. Remember that many of your users will come from search engines and know little, if anything, about your company. Creative Suitcase typically places logos in this area to show users which site they've landed on and to increase company branding.

2. Take advantage of the images and headlines on your page. They are your best tools to grab a user's attention so think carefully about your choices. Images should be relevant to the page content and interesting to the viewer; people are often drawn to images of other people. Your headline should be memorable and indicate what the page is about.

3. Start important elements of the page "above the fold." This term refers to any elements showing on a user's screen without them having to scroll down. 50% of Web users do not scroll down a page to view more. If your most important information is hidden below the fold, 50% of the visitors to your site won't even see it. Creative Suitcase uses a standard 500 pixel cut-off when designing home pages.

4. Arrange elements on a page for easy and comfortable viewing. The design should lead the viewer's attention to your most important information. A hierarchy of images, colors and text should be used so they don't compete against each other for attention, but instead create a simple, flowing design.

5. Design copy to be easy to read on the Web. This includes formatting text in a font size of 10+, using a universal Web font for html text and breaking up large blocks of copy. Most users don't read Web copy, but scan the page instead. Make it easier for them by breaking up paragraphs into short, easy to digest bits of information. Try alternating a 4-5 line paragraph with a 1-2 line paragraph. Use colored or larger subtitles to make important copy points stand out.

This is just the beginning. Successful Web design takes an understanding of your audience, knowledge of the intricacies of the media and a little patience. If you'd like to learn more about using Web design to boost your sales, sign up for a free one-hour consultation.

• Focus on the purpose and goals of your Web site. To insure a site is going to convey its purpose and achieve its goals everyone involved with the project should know what those are. Without intentions clearly stated you may be facing a re-write or re-design, and therefore wasted money, months down the line. Ask your design team for a project profile to get you started.
  
  
• Understand your target market and speak to them through copy and design. If your Web site is geared toward children your copy should be written at their reading level and the graphics should be interesting to them, even if not to adults. Conduct market research or hire a firm to do it for you.
  
  
• Ensure your Web site is easy to navigate. Users should be able to find the subject they're looking for quickly. If the site is large a search function is helpful. You should plan for future additions early on, if possible, so they will fit easily into the site. Don't plan on creating sections later, instead make sections that are easily expandable.
  
  
• Your Web site design should legitimize your business. It should not look like an amateur designed it. Information should be orderly and easy to read. Text should stand out from the background and not be written over patterns. There should not be more than one area of the page moving at a time.
  
  
• Think about using Flash to further engage the viewer. Studies show users stay twice as long, on average, on a site that utilizes Flash.
  
  
• Make your Web site more than an online brochure. Have a way for users to contact you on every page – the easier they can contact you the more often they will. An incentive to join your mailing list is a plus. Many companies offer informational e-newsletters, heavy on useful information and light on advertising. This keeps your company top of mind.
  
  
• Drive people to your "money page." If you're a non-profit looking for donations, this might be your donation page; if you're a software company, this may be a demo of your product. This is achieved by a callout on every page or direct mail that drives people to this particular page.
• If using Google Ads, you have a greater chance of click-throughs if they blend in with the design of your site through type and color styles.
  
  
• Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The difference between being on the first page of a Google search and being on the second can mean millions of dollars. Register with all the search engines, be sure your code is clean and keep keywords in text higher up on the page. There's much more to this and many resources on the Web.

If you'd like to learn more about using Web design to boost your sales, sign up for a free one-hour consultation.