Mirco & Mirco is an interior design studio which has produced some stunning designs for a variety of clients, ranging from blue chip companies to cool, stylish restaurants. However, Mirco & Mirco found themselves facing a challenge when it came to showcasing online the brilliant work they have done in a classy and a sophisticated manner.

When they contacted web design agencies about this task, for one reason or another none could deliver the website they were looking for.

“The other agencies were very technical and made the whole process too complicated. All we wanted was a good-looking website so we could present our work and ourselves in style.”

That’s when they came across our studio, Intellect Design. At the first meeting we established:

• A time frame for the project
• The website objectives
• The visual style required
• That a stylish, interactive and dynamic gallery would be needed

During our discussions several options were raised such as which technology should be used. We explained the pros and cons of each approach – in plain, jargon free English – and a decision was made.

Then, with the framework defined, the creative process could begin. It was agreed that up to three designs were to be produced and submitted for approval. The first design, with a dark background, was very well received and it had many aspects they were looking for. However, after a few usability tests, it was decided to use a light background instead. A new design was presented which hit the mark.

They were even happier with the solution for the gallery. It was what they wanted, and moreover it harnessed technologies that would improve their search engine ranking and make them more accessible. The gallery works perfectly even on iPhones and iPads.

Mirco & Mirco were delighted with the end result which can be seen on their new website

“Jibtuning e-Commerce Website using Magento e-Commerce platform”

//Jibtuning    //Visit Website

“La Mamma Pizzeria & Trattoria Website”

//La Mamma Pizzeria & Trattoria    //Visit Website

Every business should have one, regardless of its size. The thing is, when you mention online strategy to some people, especially small businesses, they freeze. They see strategy as some fancy word used in the corporate world. I used to think this way too. The good news is, you don’t have to. An online strategy can be as simple or as complicated as you like. However, I’d suggest it should be as simple as possible. This way you and your team (if you have one) will have a document they can actually refer to rather than a useless piece of paper relegated to a corner.

Now, how to start? The first thing is to have in mind what you’d like to achieve with your online strategy. Is it increase the number of visitors? Leads? Conversion rate? The second part is equally simple. When would you like to achieve it? Give yourself a realistic timeframe. Answer these two questions as honestly as you can – no point in saying that you’d like to increase your conversion rate tenfold in two days. Be honest. Would that be feasible? The best thing about being a small business is that you can change quickly. Use that to your advantage and re-evaluate your goals constantly. Now you’ve decided what you’d like to achieve and given yourself a realistic timeframe, let’s start breaking it into smaller projects and tasks. For the purpose of this article, let’s say that you’d like to increase your online conversion rate by fifteen per cent within the next three months.

– The first thing you need to do is to review your copy. It might have been done by a professional copywriter or by yourself. In either case it doesn’t mean that it is unchangeable.

– Once you have reviewed your copy and are happy with it, start creating (or hire someone to do it for you) a second version of every page that’s important so you can do some A/B testing (link). At this stage you should also consider whether it will be necessary to redesign your site. I’m assuming that, for whatever reason, you’ve decided not redesign, otherwise this post would be far too long.

– While you’re doing your A/B test, you might see interesting results. Play around, test again and make sure that the copy you choose is right for you. Once you’ve done the testing and have decided which copy is the best for your site, maybe having added some graphics/imagery, the next stage is to monitor your visitors and see whether the new copy is working as intended.

With three relatively simple steps you’ve laid the foundation with which you can achieve your goals. Now let’s move to the next stage: generating more traffic.

You don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune in order to generate more traffic. All you need is dedication and a bit of patience. The first thing you could do is review your blog and social networking (I’m assuming you have a somewhat neglected blog and Twitter/Facebook account).

Start writing posts that are meaningful to your audience. Be helpful, offer ideas and solutions related to your industry. Let’s say you sell niche winter holidays. Be sure to write (as a personal account, if possible) why this or that resort is better for seasoned skiers. Give examples and be detailed. Explain the pros and cons of off-piste snowboarding. Be engaging! Talk to your audience like you would talk to a friend. That’s for both your blog and Twitter. This way you can be sure that your audience will notice the difference and will spread the word that your blog is an obligatory stop for whoever is planning a snow holiday.

The secret here is to write meaningful articles about topics that are interesting to your audience, so you can engage with them in a relaxed manner. Also, pay special attention to the comments/reposts of your articles. You might find valuable insight that can be used in your business.

“We chose Intellect Design to re-design our website and build a bespoke content management system based on their in-depth understanding of our requirements and their competitive price. The structure and design of our new website is excellent and has received positive feedback from internal stakeholders and customers.

Throughout the whole project, Intellect Design were professional, easy to work with and never failed to meet our deadlines. We thoroughly recommend Intellect Design to any organisation looking to improve their web presence.”

//Mirco & Mirco Website //Visit Website //View Case Study

Online Marketing Basics

article by Bytestart

As the Internet has grown exponentially in recent years, we have witnessed a massive shift of marketing activities to the online space. This article outlines some of the key things you should do to effectively market your business online.

Secure that domain name early

The natural starting point is the creation of a website. Once you start your business it is important to secure the domain name in the markets you intend to compete in. These help ensure that prospective customers can find us easily by typing our name directly into a Web browser.

There are numerous ways you can build a website, from doing it yourself using available software tools, to hiring website specialists. Regardless of the method chosen you need to be completely clear on the main purpose of the website. Is it to sell products or to generate leads? Once the primary purpose is clear, you can then decide on the layout, alongside the look and feel.

Ensure your website is optimised

Given the hundreds of thousands of websites out there, it is worth reviewing a number to get a feel for the type of design and user interface you would like. Finally, when it comes to a website it needs to be ‘search-engine friendly’. This means that searches initiated from the likes of Google (using repetitive software, called ‘bots’) can find your site, scan it and identify the keywords associated with the website.

Many firms offer Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services which are designed to help you achieve high rankings on the search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google. Most of the techniques they employ are widely known so you could choose to do it yourself.

Also be aware: anyone promising top place listings on Google should be treated with caution. There are techniques (so-called black hat techniques) which can be used to game the system – however, Google has been known to punish sites known to be using such techniques, as BMW® found, to its cost, when Google delisted them in 2006.

As it takes time for a new website to get indexed by the search engines, it is likely that traffic will be low at the start. New sites tend not to feature in organic search returns for some time, but there are ways to drive traffic to your site using some of the methods described below.

Use Web analytics to improve your site

Once you have set up the domain name and site, you will want to understand how many users you are attracting, where they are coming from and how they are behaving on your site.

Google Analytics is the most popular tool to manage this. It is available free from Google, easy to implement and even easier to use. If you want to see where people are going on your site, tools such as Crazy Egg® will help you improve the design of your site by showing you where people are clicking and where they are not.

Once the basics are in place it is now a case of creating awareness of the existence of your site and generating traffic to the site.

Get traffic to your site on day one

The quickest way to get traffic to a website is signing up for Google AdWords’ Pay-per-click (PPC) service. In the U.K. the vast majority of Web searches are via Google so this is the best one to focus on. This service lets you create adverts that appear when people search for certain keywords. You then pay according to each click you receive (hence the name ‘Pay-per click’).

The main attraction with this option is that it is a highly targeted form of advertising, and you only pay when the prospect clicks on your advert and lands on your website.

Create unique landing pages

You need to decide where you want to bring the prospect when they click. Dropping users onto a homepage can be confusing, so you need to create a number of landing pages that are highly relevant to both the search term and the AdWord copy.

The beauty of running Analytics in the background is that you can measure conversions so you can identify which combinations of advert copy and landing pages are the most successful.

After that it’s a case of testing, testing and more testing. A/B testing is a popular method where 50% of the audience is randomly assigned to see page A, and 50% to see page B. Whichever page results in the most conversions ‘wins’ and that then becomes the new default page.

Get websites to link to you

One well-known component of the Google algorithm that decides on the attractiveness of your website (which then correlates to a higher search ranking) is the number of back links to your site. The more sites that link to your website, the better, particularly if the linking site is an academic or government-owned site. Each link is considered a ‘vote’ and votes from impartial sites such as academic ones are deemed to carry more weight.

Seek a presence on high-traffic sites

It may be possible for you to feature on larger portal sites by offering to support them with either new or fresh content or special offers. Steer clear of anyone offering you a tenancy agreement, e.g. you pay £1,000 per month to feature on a third-party website. These offers mean you bear all the risk and they rarely, if ever, deliver any meaningful traffic.

Blogging is not all it’s cut out to be

A number of companies set up blogs to enable them to communicate with interested parties and customers on a more informal basis. Blogs are simply basic websites which contain a list of posts or news stories by an author, typically about a specialist topic.

While Blogs are easy to set up and maintain, they do place a demand on the blog owner or blogger to constantly update them. If you do not think you have the time to post news stories daily it is probably best to avoid the temptation of creating a blog. Other, less demanding forms of social media include placing comments on forums and participating in news groups.

The above activities should give you a flavour of some of the types of marketing activities you can undertake online. Others, such as issuing online press releases and creating newsletters, can also help you drive traffic to your websites. From there it’s a case of ensuring the design and offer are compelling enough to entice the user to buy from you, assuming that is the primary purpose of your website.

“We asked Intellect Design to help us modernise our website. They came up with a new design that was creative and fitted our design brief perfectly. The whole process was quick and efficient and they were in constant communication with us. They were happy to make changes that we suggested. The CMS system is very simple to use. The website looks fantastic and we have had excellent feedback about the website from potential customers. We would highly recommend Intellect Design.”

//Easy For You Services    //Visit Website

“We chose Intellect Design to re-design our website and build a bespoke content management system based on their in-depth understanding of our requirements and their competitive price. The structure and design of our new website is excellent and has received positive feedback from internal stakeholders and customers.

Throughout the whole project, Intellect Design were professional, easy to work with and never failed to meet our deadlines. We thoroughly recommend Intellect Design to any organisation looking to improve their web presence.”

//Mirco & Mirco Website    //Visit Website

“Easy For You Services Website”

//Easy For You Services    //Visit Website

“Logo created for ULS – Union Language School, a language school based in Bournemouth”

//ULS – Union Language School    //