Welcome to 72dpi,
72dpi is a quarterly newsletter for the clients and friends of Stella Design. It’s our way of keeping in touch, and keeping you up to date with all that’s new in the world of graphic and web design, brand development and strategy.
What’s New at Stella Design? (A jammed packed edition)
Stella Design Launches New Website Editor… We all need to change the content on our websites from time to time, but it’s time consuming to get a web agency to do it. You should also change content regularly to maximise your search engine optimisation (SEO), but again, it’s double handling. Why not do it yourself with the ‘Stella Design Basic Website Editor’?
This is a perfect tool for those clients who don’t have the budget to invest in a custom built content management system, but want to add, delete, change and refresh content at your leisure. It’s easy to learn and will save the cost of us doing it for you! It’s perfect for those wanting to do basic changes such as edit a news section or change images or prices in a product or image gallery.
Congratulations Sevak Babakhani… For those of you who have met and worked with Sevak, Stella Design’s preferred photographer, you’ll be pleased to know that he was recently a finalist in the Harpers Bazaar Annual New Fashion Talent Photographer of the Year search. Whilst he didn’t win, Sevak did have his work published and has a lot of exciting new assignments and work on the way. Congratulations Sevak!
A Stella Fit-out… We have a new look that juxtaposes brilliantly with our historic environ. Complete with the "White Room" for client meetings, the "Break Out Room" for unexpected visitors and an informal entertaining setting, our new space is ultra-modern and very cool! Our overall theme is white with accents of red to highlight our brand and the lovely water views. If only we had time to enjoy it…
Message from the MD
Firstly, I’d like to take the opportunity to welcome on board our recent new additions to our client list – all with very diverse and exciting new projects coming up. A warm welcome to; African S Capes, Amanda Penel Counsellor, Dimidium Group, National Lending Group, Precision Physio, Regnan Governance, Southwell-Keely Law, The Regency Hyde Park and Yachting Unlimited.
In this edition of the website we’re focussing heavily on the importance of content, particularly for online use. The Internet and the way we interact with it is changing, recent media releases of the new computers you can touch and interact with is just the start of a content driven future.
Words and the power of selling is an under-utilised tool. And with the launch of the Stella Design Website Editor there’s no reason not to make content work harder for you. Read on for other helpful ideas on content and the impact it can give to a successful online project.
Did You Know… on the Web, good copy has three clear, easily understood objectives: It elevates your search engine ranking, it holds the attention of your prospects and sells your product or service. By changing your content regularly, you further enhance your SEO rankings.
Latest Projects… will be back in the next edition to make way for our special feature on protecting your most valuable asset – your website. As a ‘liquid’ asset, your website is fluid, constantly changing (or should be) and the first port of call for many to your business.
Liquid Asset – Good Design Makes Good Business
The first rule of thumb in having a website is to update it regularly. This does three things:
• Gives people a reason to return
• Helps your rankings in the various search engines like ‘Google’
• Keeps you focused on improving it
Changing your web content easily
Changing a website used to be a hassle – it was expensive and time consuming to ask your web design agency to continually update for price changes or product pictures. But with the advent of simple to use Content Management Systems (CMS), there are no more excuses! A basic CMS will let you easily update your content and should have the following features:
• Scalability - so that it grows as your website grows
• Ease – as simple to use as writing an email or using Word
• Accessibility – logon and use from anywhere in the world
• Publish when ready – make your changes when you want to, not when your web agency can
• Modular – the ability to custom-add shopping carts, calendars for booking events, news features, archive systems, electronic newsletter functions, forums and blogs for clients and customers when you’re ready to upgrade to a bigger system
Make your first impression count
Your web site is now the first point of reference customers use to figure out who you are and what your company offers. If you have a lousy web site, you’re giving out a terrible first impression – and we all know how much they count! People used to judge you on your business card, now they judge you on the quality of your website too.
Understand site stats
Take the time to understand your site stats (Stella Design can help). Your stats will tell you who’s using what words to find you, what pages they’re searching in your site, how long they stayed and so on. All of this information enables you to alter your site to what people actually want to read and see.
With all this interest in web sites, we’re reaching saturation point. People just won’t come because you have a site; you need to focus on attracting traffic. There’s a lot of competition out there!
How Stella Design can help
- We can do a complete audit of your existing website and develop a web strategy for you
- We establish a stats reporting system that tells you what people are doing within your site and interpret the figures for you
- Offer you an ongoing website maintenance service to help you keep your site fresh and interesting
- Help decide whether you need a custom built CMS or whether you’ll be fine with Adobe Contribute (website self-editing software)
- Organise any training required
If you’d like to find out more about maximising your image, then please call us on (02) 8514 5900.
The Importance of Content – Always Write and Stella Design make you readable!
The average person is bombarded every day with information and advertising – research indicates we see around 5000 messages a day! So we’ve asked an expert web writer to give you a run down on what works and what doesn’t. It’s vital to make what you say in your website count. After all, there are a lot of other web sites out there to go and browse (108 million web sites, 29 billion pages and rising*).
Most people scan text
Did you know there are two types of reader?
• The browser – 67% of the population simply scans for keywords and ideas
• The reader – 33% who tend to read everything on the page
This means you have to think carefully about what you really want to say. You need to condense your message down to its pivotal points and then make it easy for people to understand what you want them to do.
Use these rules to make your web content easy to scan:
• Be clear and concise – say in 20 words what you’d like to say in 50.
• Use the 1 paragraph, 1 idea rule.
• Caption every picture in your web site
• Make your text readable – use bullet points, underlining, bold, sub heads and headlines for key words or phrases
Some basic psychology will also help you get your message across quickly
The Zeigarnic Effect, named after the psychologist who noticed it, is the discomfort that people feel when they haven’t completed tasks. In a web sense, it means don’t have links and different subjects littering your page. People start thinking they should follow the other links or read about the different subjects. You’ll just distract them. Basically, don’t confuse them with too much to do.
Present your main idea first
Do this in the headline or subhead and then back it up with the supporting text below. This means people don’t have to ‘work’ to quickly understand what you are offering.
For example your subhead might say Trainer of the Year for 2006, 2007, and your body text will give the details of what, where and how.
Use a professional
Writing good web text is an art form. The skills of condensing a message, putting the main ideas into scannable form and making the whole thing readable means more people will read it and buy whatever you’re offering. You wouldn’t do your own legal work or put a filling in your own tooth, so don’t write your own web text. Spend a little on getting your message right so that your web site works as hard as it can.
Did you know…?
You should also litter your web text with the keywords people use to search with. Doing this so the text still makes sense is what a good web writer will automatically do for you.
A good web writer is part English specialist, part psychologist, part salesman. He or she can increase your response by 10 – 20%. What sort of difference would that make to your bottom line?
If you’d like to know more about what a web writer can do, click here: www.alwayswrite.com.au
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Latest Desktop
Tired of ordinary old calendars? Download our latest desktop calendar from the Stella Design website (complete with instructions). Each month there is a new desktop available. It’s an ongoing effort from Stella Design to prove that good design crosses any technology. June’s desktop is available for download and includes 2 great choices of design. more>>
Can Stella Design help you?
We love what we do. And we only do what we’re good at: Brand Development, Stationery and Brochure Design, Packaging Design, Exhibition and Signage Design, Advertisement Design, Direct Mail Campaign Design, Publications and Booklet Designs, Website Design, Content Management System and Database Development, Search Engine Optimisation for Websites, Electronic Direct Mail Campaigns, Motion Graphics Design, Interactive CD-roms and Training Program Design.
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