#brandwellcreative.com

We just launched another new site for our new client Menlo Hardwoods. They are a high end furniture maker based out of Menlo Park, CA. The specialize in creating completely gorgeous furniture created from claimed a rare Claro Walnut tree native only to California.

 Along with creating a whole new brand, we helped design and develop a custom WordPress based site for them. In the coming months, we will slowly implement their press section for mentions, more images for their fluid gallery and more content. We chose WordPress because of it's flexibility and decided to develop a completely Responsive Design from the start. This means the site will be viewable on all devices and platforms.

Carpenters have been building and crafting homes for thousands of years. Sure, technology has played a strong role in making homes bigger, stronger and more structurally sound, but, in the end, a house is four walls and a roof. The carpenter uses his tool box to build that home; hammer, saw, nails, etc. yet, what his imagination and effort allow him to create with those tools is entirely up the him.

You see, your website, your business card, your logo, your perfect location, your great customer service, these are all just tools you have in your tool box which help you build the perfect business you desire. You're the carpenter and although it's very easy to lose site of your tools, you need to stand back, take inventory and understand the potential you have in your possession to truly make an impact and create the business you want today. After all, you're in business for one reason, to make money. If this weren't the case, then you should close shop or just give your services away for free.

Is Your Website Good Enough

Now, I'd like to concentrate on that one thing you can't seem to wrap your head around: your website. Although there are a lot of business owners claiming to already have a "good" website, my question would be, have you taken a look at it lately? Probably not, because if you had, you would have noticed that the copyright information is grossly out of date, the front page is broken, the site is talking about products that don't even exist any longer and you have moved from the location listed, etc. Ok, maybe your site isn't that bad, but do you know if you have analytics installed on your site? Do you know how many users are visiting your site, per month, per day, per hour? Do you have your Social Media accounts linked to your website? Is there a way for you to convert your visitors into potential customers? If you can't answer these questions, then you may have a problem. Let's just test the health of your website with a quick little Q & A.

Q: Is your site optimized for Search Engines?

A: Your site should have a strong defined title, description and set of keywords embedded in the pages. This will help the search engines "find" your content. The descriptions need to be relevant to the content on the page so that you can rank properly. Also, your site must be coded cleanly. Often developers can "hack" a site together, leaving garbled code and poorly optimized, un-tagged images  which can hurt the site's performance and download time. Bottom line, if the mechanics of your site are bad, the search engine performance and visibility will dramatically suffer.

Q: Do you know what people are looking at/for when they come to your website?

A: If your developer/designer did a good job, they should have installed some type of Analytics on your site. I personally install Google Analytics on each of my sites. It's easy, contains a massive amount of user/visitor information and best of all, it's free. By having the analytics on my sites, I can see how many visitors are viewing them, where they are coming from, what other sites are linking to my website, how long the viewer was on my page, what areas they clicked, etc. The list goes on and on, but the reason these analytics exist is because they help developers and site owners understand how their site and content is being used, or not.

Q: Do you have social media accounts and are they integrated with your site?

A: Social Media Marketing should be your key strategy in order to run a budget-friendly marketing campaign. Simply put, there is no easier way to market, promote and effectively win over the the hearts of hundreds, if not thousands, of loyal fans. These are customers who "like" or "follow" you out of sheer desire. They either "heard" of your business or are loyal patrons, no matter, they want know more about your business. Working to engage with your audience on the large social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc., it becomes very simple to drive traffic back to your site and, ultimately, your business.

How Well Is Your Website Working to Make You Money

The main issue is not really about how great your site looks, it's more about how well is your website built and how is it working to make you money? I have a long list of brands and companies I admire and I will often go and check out their website or Facebook Page. If finding that website is too cumbersome, or the navigation is really clumsy, I lose attention immediately. Look at your site and determine why you are sending users there, what's the call to action, how can you continue to keep users coming back, how will you engage with your customers and build a larger, stronger following? These are the questions that matter. The answers to these questions will allow you to make better business decisions with your website, allot appropriate budgets and market more effectively.

You must remember that you have tool box full of resources, use them to help build your business and watch it grow. If you're not entirely sure how to use these tools, then hire a marketing partner or consultant who does, but doesn't come with an agency price tag. This will be well worth your investment because most times, working with consultants, you will learn from a "hands-on" approach and can eventually take over yourself. In the end, all businesses succeeding is far better than none at all. 

Here was a nice little write up in the Alumni Magazine for Saint Ignatius High School Prep for our newly designed website, SIPrep.org:

"SI launched a new look to its website in August thanks to a West Coast grad and an East Coast company.

The site’s new look is the creation of Marwan Salfiti ’93, a web designer formerly with Monster Cable, and the founder and design director for Brandwell Creative.

Salfiti was part of an advisory committee that met two years ago to evaluate the look and user feel of SI’s former website. The group urged SI to redesign its site, and Salfiti was hired for the job.

Students, parents, faculty and eighth graders weighed in on an earlier design, and Salfiti incorporated a variety of suggestions to come up with the final website, one that uses the school’s colors and a collage of several of the school’s six campuses.

“I wanted to build on the rich history and heritage of SI and its longstanding reputation as a preeminent city school,” said Salfiti. “The design tells the story of SI then and now, with photos that are visally exciting for everyone.”

Salfiti hopes that when alumni, parents and students visit the website, they feel as if they are actually inside the school. The website and the institution should match. My company specializes in creating this kind of experience.”

I know that in recent years there have been a lot of designers expressing their feelings on "do-it-yourself" logo websites very public, me included. I really cringe when I see companies out there like LogoGarden or Logomaker.com taking a craft and exploiting it like it's "just that easy". Then, I stand back and try to take the birds-eye-view at this business model. I start to think intelligently about this proposition and what it means to branding professionals like myself as well as so many thousands of extremely talented graphic designers whom I know or aspire to be. Suddenly, I come to the conclusion that these logo companies exist for one reason, to serve the clients I don't want to, nor have to.

You see, in the grand scheme of things, the logo is the easy part, sort of. On average, a really well designed mark can take me 40+ hours and weeks of research, revisions and tweaking to create. So, in essence, the labor is not something to shun as I just have. But, what that mark means to my client, the value, that's really what matters and is what separates hack logo makers from branding professionals. In parallel, this is what separates a successful company with a defined reputation which believes a mark explains their story from from a company which believes they simply need a logo with bright colors to do business.

Start Thinking of Your Company As a Brand, No Matter the Size

As a business owner, you really have to define who you are as a business, who your customers/clients are and how you are going to server them. Yes, you HAVE heard this all before, but now, ask yourself these questions thinking of yourself as a brand, a company with values, tradition, customer service, morals and so on. Now, things start to look a little different. Whether you're just starting a new business, or you've been in business for the last 20+ years, think about what impact your company has had on your life, your employees' lives, your customers' lives and your communities, and so on. Hopefully, you have created a positive impact impact with your company and its products/services, which is all the more reason to actually think about how your company is presented each and every time.