DESIGN & MARKETING

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WHAT COMES FIRST: You’ve probably been told over and over, “build your online presence”. It may have been phrased as “establish your platform”. How ever it’s put, there’s no doubt you have to use a website, and you may be best off using social media, or maybe email marketing, or blogging, or some combination of […]

LESS IS MORE PART II: NO

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INTEREST: In my last article, I wrote about getting people interested when they come to your website. Vital to that is the Emotional Message, which I’ve discussed with you many times before; but there is another essential factor which is on the Informational Messaging side, and that is giving them enough to get them interested […]

LESS IS MORE PART I: INTERACTION

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PERSONALITY I’ve often spoken or written about a brand being like a person. People relate to people better than everything else, and we personify things that we relate to that aren’t people (know anyone who talks to their dog or cat or car or…?!). That’s why creating a brand is like creating a personality. INTERACTION […]

Website Trends Into 2018

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WHERE THINGS ARE GOING I get asked a lot about where things are going in websites and web design. Above all, the answer is simplicity. This means cleaner, less cluttered layouts, more empty space and fewer words. TYPOGRAPHY With that said, typography becomes far more important: large, bold headlines and blocks of text arranged asymmetrically. […]

MEMBERS ONLY

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MEMBERSHIP SITES There are many authors, speakers, coaches and consultants who offer things others want to learn or know about. A great way to monetize that is to have a membership website where people pay a one-time or recurring fee to get access to that material. Here are some good reasons why it pays to […]

Video on Your Website

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A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS The old saying is still true, and when it comes to animation – moving pictures – it’s even more true. People find a Play button almost irresistible, and background video – a looped, silent video behind words and/or static images – is extremely effecti ve in capturing attention. The […]

Human Centered Design

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HUMANS Humans have feelings, thoughts, and emotions . When a website does not merely perform a function (give information), but instead coaxes a response – a reaction – then it becomes something we personally relate to as we would another human, a pet, or a beautiful home (and after all, your website IS your home – […]

I Don’t Care About You, Part II

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EMOTION & DESIRE How many times have you heard the phrase, “People buy based on emotion”? If you’re trying to educate yourself on the road to being successful, then the answer probably is, “A lot”. The reason for that is that it’s true! As in so many other things, it was Apple that pioneered the […]

More on Emotional Design

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EMOTION Emotional design has the power to turn users into fans, spreading the word about things they love. Emotion says what’s important to us, or not important. THREE LEVELS Don Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group talks about the three levels of emotion that affect our behavior. Here’s a list of emotions used in brand […]

Digital Marketing Part II

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To understand what Digital Marketing is all about now, let’s talk about what is called Content Marketing. BRAND IS KING: There are a number of highly respected branding experts who will say there is no such thing as “marketing” now; it’s all about branding. They are in essence correct, because the entire process of marketing […]