Create180Design

Why and How to Make Your Email Marketing Messages Short

Helize — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 20:14:21 +0000

Why Keep your emails short? People still feel required to look at all emails they receive as important information. However, with the fast pace lives everyone leads, they will most likely not spend more than 30 seconds on your email, at best. In order to make sure that your readers know what your message is, keep it short and to the point. This will make your message easier to recall and increase the chance for the right kind of action.

1) Use “top 5 lists” or bullets to clarify your message. Bulleted lists are easy to quickly scan and absorb. This offers you the opportunity to get the most important information to your reader in a quick and clear fashion.

2) Add pictures with captions to illustrate what you are saying. Almost all of us are visual. Pictures can influence buying decisions so make sure your pictures are quality pictures that send the right message about your email.

3) Limit the number of links so not to dilute your call to action. The more links you add to your email the harder it is to get your reader to select the link YOU want them to select. Keeping your email simple and your links to a minimum will make your email more powerful.

4) Make your call to action easy to complete. Don’t ask your reader to complete a long form as your call to action. Offer an incentive for completing the call to action to help motivate your reader to select your call to action.

5) Make sure you can measure the success of your call to action. Make your call to action a unique link so that when you view your email statistics, you will be able to see how many people selected your call to action.

How Does Color Effect the Cost of a Logo?

Helize — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:46:02 +0000

Color does play a factor in the cost of producing your logo. Depending on the medium you are printing your logo on will determine the cost of your logo. Below are a few scenarios to consider;

1) If you will be getting your logo embroidered on hats/shirts/bags, then the number of colors does impact the cost of the embroidery. We recommend either keeping your logo to 3 -4 colors or having your designer provide you with an altered logo specifically to be used for your embroidered items.

2) Are you going to have storefront signage? Apart from the complexity of the design, the colors used also ads a factor to how your logo will look on storefront signage. If your logo is complex, consider having a 1 or 2 color design created just for your storefront signage. The easier it is for passers by to read the better.

3) Promotional products, like pens and mugs, get more expensive the more colors are required. Keeping within 3 colors or less will help in keeping the overhead of promotional products bearable. Again, if budgets are tight, have your designer create a one-color logo for your promotional items.

4) Print materials offers the greatest flexibility in color, however, if you choose to use an offset printer (spot colors- which are custom mixed just for your job) then the number of colors will impact the cost of the printing. Standard CMYK printers or digital printers will allow unlimited number of colors.

Generally, we recommend to keeping a logo within two to three colors, regardless of budget constraints. If you have a bigger budget and want to use more color, then 4 colors or more (depending on the nature of your logo) will be fine.

Socrate, President of All County CFL Property Management

Helize — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:10:39 +0000

On behalf of the entire team at All County CFL, we would like to thank  Helize, of Create 180 Design, for redesigning our marketing collateral. We have been using Create 180 Design for over one year, and during this  short time, Helize has partnered with us to launch our Newsletter, redesign our business cards, brochure, banner, and Facebook page. As a  result of the work that Helize has done, our entire marketing strategy  has changed. Create 180 Design has become an extension to our team. As a  small business, it’s great to have such an awesome marketing partner  without incurring the overhead of having a Marketing Dept.

Socrate Exantus, All County CFL Property Management

Craig, CEO of Custom Linen Solutions

Helize — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:38:41 +0000

Helize is an inventive Graphic Designer who produces timely superlative work. For anyone looking for Graphic Design, Advertising or Web based work… Helize can take care of it all!

Craig Mayo, Custom Linen Solutions

Rick, Manager of Centro Asturiano de Tampa

Helize — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:43:51 +0000

When you travel through this world you meet many people. Most you meet are easily forgotten or ignored.

There are times when we meet exceptional people. These are the people we marry or develop life-long relationships. In the business world exceptional people are even rarer. James and Helize are two of these, both possessing the unique and rare combination of talent and integrity.

James & Helize demonstrated their talent by the design and work expended in developing our web site & Facebook page. I invite everyone to go to our web site & Facebook page to witness their efforts and obvious talents (http://www.centroasturianotampa.org/ & www.Facebook.com/CentroAsturianodeTampa).

While for most abundant talent would bide well in most things. Both Helize & James don’t stop at this. Their professional integrity & work ethic are excellent. Everything promised (much more) was delivered.

I wholeheartedly endorse and support James Pennock and Helize Vivier. If quality work and promises made & kept are important to you, these are the two you need.

Rick Duran, Centro Asturiano de Tampa

Paul and Kim, Owners of GreenWay Property Management

Helize — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:51:54 +0000

I would recommend Helize to any business owner looking to make a difference. As a brand new start-up company, Helize has been instrumental in helping us drill down to what our message is to our customer. She then turned our vision into a branding concept. Many thanks to Helize, we could not have gotten this far without her expertise help!
Paul and Kim Ferguson, GreenWay Property Management and Vacation Rentals.

Rebecca, Project Manager for Ben Torres Music

Helize — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:50:22 +0000

I just wanted to let you know how impressed I was with your website design and ability to work with a 14 yr musician regarding artwork and logo ideas… You were a very comfortable person to work with and along with that, you went above and beyond in helping us maintain Ben’s site...
Often times businesses have a tendency to do a job and not follow-up with troubleshooting with a client. You let us know that when we acquired new videos, photos or issues with website uploads to just call you and you’d walk us thru it, this is above and beyond.
The entertainment attorney who referred us to you said he has referred you to clients for many social media needs and has never heard anything but great comments.

Thanks again!

Rebecca S. Torres, www.BenTorresMusic.com

Sabrina, Owner of Zuree Shoes

Helize — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:42:48 +0000

I am writing to give the highest recommendation to Helize the owner of Create180 Design. I was searching diligently for a business that was a one stop shop. I needed someone to create brochures for my retail store, do my business cards, website, and assist me with all the marketing material for my shoe store. Helize was so pleasant to speak with, she is extremely smart, diligent, responsive, patience, professional and personable. It is very hard to find a company that would do a job as well as Create180 Design. I have enjoyed working with this company and I will be working with this company a lot in the future.

Sabrina Atkins, Zuree Shoes & Accessories

Beverly, President of Method Interiors

Helize — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:05:38 +0000

Working with Create 180 Design to create my website was a real pleasure. Helize was able to take my wish list and turn it into exactly the website I was hoping for. She was professional and worked well under the tight timeline I had given her. I am thrilled with the results!

Beverly Brock, Method Interiors

David, Managing Partner of Jasmine Partners

Helize — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:41:13 +0000

We had been wrestling with how to create our own identity in our businesses, one that would embody our international focus while still supporting the products and services we offer. So, we turned to Create180 Design and asked to give it some thought. The results were breathtaking – an image and a set of designs that has already become the envy of many of our colleagues. Create180 Design is an atypical artist – extremely creative with excellent ideas, but totally without the classic artistic temperament, making them very easy to work with. We recommend Create180 Design highly for any of your design needs.

David and Arlene Brown, Jasmine Partners

Nora, President of Dupont Security Services

Helize — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:46:57 +0000

Helize, owner of Create180, LLC, helped us with designing two separate flyers for our Security and Cleaning business. We needed a professional presentation of our company that we can present to our clients as an individual sheet or as a cover to our proposals. Helize designed our materials with all the requirements we needed, on time and professional. Her attention to detail, creative direction, and affordable prices resulted in us getting the quality product that we needed for our business.
We will most certainly use Create180′s services again and recommend her to any company looking to present their business image in an effective and professional manner.

Nora Dupont, Dupont Security Services

Neville, Owner of Florida Computer Support

Helize — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:53:01 +0000

Helize did a wonderful job with my website. It now looks professional and is getting business for us because prospects are now able to find us!

Neville Brabrook, Florida Computer Support

Sarah, Owner of Hypnoteyes

Helize — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:44:58 +0000

After deciding to move myself in another direction I found the need for a graphic designer. After never having used one before I asked for a meeting with Helize we sat down and she explained her varied services and we sat down to discuss the options. Within 2 days I had a few samples which were great and within a week I had my awesome logo design, it far exceeded my expectations and I have had many comments and people asking me where I had my logo made. Create180 have been awesome and are now working on my brochure, I cannot wait to see the proof.
Thank you so much Helize for getting a logo for me so quickly and one that far exceeds my expectations. I look forward to working with you in the near future.

Sarah Riley, Hypnoteyes

Laura, Owner of Divas Bra Straps

Helize — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:42:34 +0000

One of my most precious and valuable passions for many years has been the creation of my female jewelry and wardrobe accessories. I have finally decided to invest in a means to sell my work to the public. After much research I decided to put this important task in the hands of Create180 Design, and am I happy I did; The professionalism, artistic talent and customer service far exceeded my expectations. I felt Create180 Design integrated themselves so much into my project that they truly understood my business and exactly what my goals were. The result was an exceptional Catalog that I couldn’t be happier with.

Laura Jones, Divas Bra Straps

SEO Tip – Keyword Alignment Strategy

James — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:57:47 +0000

The best laid out web page for maximum SEO has a consistent keyword alignment strategy between your page URL, Meta Title & Description, and of course your page content.

See the example below for a page selling scuba diving equipment in Orlando.

URL:

123Website.com/scuba-diving-equipment

Meta Title:

123 Website offers the best scuba diving equipment in Orlando, Florida

Meta Description:

123 Website has been providing Orlando, Florida with the best scuba diving equipment for the past 15 years. Contact us today for a free demonstration at 800.555.1234.

Content:

If you combine the above URL and Meta tags with content on this page that is focused around scuba diving equipment in Orlando, and has at least 250-300 words with scuba diving equipment showing at least once per 50-75 words, the search engines should figure out what you’re about and most important, so should your human readers.

Here is a good tool to test the relevance or “alignment” of your URL, Meta tags, and your page content http://www.seocentro.com/tools/search-engines/metatag-analyzer.html.

Creating a Strong “Call to Action”

Helize — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:16:07 +0000

Every website design should have a strong call to action, period. The objective is to get online visitors to complete something on your website, whether it’s placing an order, signing up for your newsletter, contacting you, or completing a survey, it’s the call to action that will get them there. Having a clear call to action on your site allows you to better measure the effectiveness of your site and is the foundation to a successful marketing campaign.

A Call to Action offers:

A way to measure your site’s objectives
To bring focus to your site
A roadmap for your users

A Call to Action requires:

An easy to use process
Creative visual design
Strong writing

Below are key areas that should be considered when developing your “Call to Action”:

1. Create a reason for an action - Give your visitors a reason why they should respond to your call to action. Explain the problem, present the solution, show the reward.

2. Location location location – Locate your call to action in a clear and open area. The better the location, the better the chances of the user using it. Usually the higher up on your site the better.

3. Make it pop – Location is one thing, but making your call to action pop makes it all the more apparent.

4. Make it big – Give it size and show it’s value. Size does effect the power of your call to action.

5. Give it space – Do not crowd your call to action with a bunch of text around it. Let your call to action stand by itself allowing your audience to easily find it.

6. Repetition – Add your call to action on as many pages of your website design as you can. With Google sending users to various pages on your site, it’s not always a guarantee that they will land on your home page.

7. Choose your words carefully – Clearly word what you want your visitor to do and add a sense of urgency to it. For example: “-Register- …This offer expires August 31st.”

8. Bonus – Not expected, but always a good option, would be to offer a “reward” for completing the call to action. It can be a give-away or gaining extra credits, whatever is relevant to you business.

9. Keep the process simple – Show your visitor that what you want them to do is a simple process that you have perfected for ease of use. People don’t want complicated processes.

10. Once you get them, don’t ask for too much – People are always reluctant to give away too much information, so only ask for what you absolutely need and nothing more.

Writing content for your website

Helize — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:52:47 +0000

One of the most important tasks during the website design process that often gets the least amount of attention is the content writing.

Writing website content is not extremely difficult but does require additional considerations compared to writing an article for a newspaper. With website content you are writing for both a human audience and search engines, both of which are equally important to you.

Your content should first be written for a human audience. Then later go back and ensure you have interjected your keyword/keyword phrase in strategic locations that still keep the content reading smoothly for the human reader.

Do not try and optimize your page content for more than 2-3 keywords. Search engines have been around for a while and have advanced quite a bit but the reality is they still have the reading comprehension of a small child so you have to be simple and direct.

The days of just “stuffing” your webpage full of your keywords are thankfully gone. The search engines also look for excessive keyword usage and will not give credit.

Pay close attention to what you are focusing on in your content. I had a client who has a few vacation homes in Orlando. Their web page made so many references to Harry Potter that the search engines thought this site was about Harry Potter and not Orlando Vacation Homes.

Here is a good tool to get an idea of what the search engines are seeing in your content when they come to your web page http://www.seocentro.com/tools/seo/keyword-density.html .

Are you getting the right type of logo for your business?

Helize — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:15:47 +0000

When faced with needing a logo designed for your business, the challenge becomes deciding what logo style fits your business best. We would like to share with you different styles of logos that have been designed in the past in order to help you gain better understanding what each style clearly means.

Stylized Font

This logo style uses a font as the grounds for the logo design. The font can be altered and small embellishments can be added to the font for additional customization. Most of the time, the company’s full name is used with the Stylized Font style logo design.

Initials

Just as the title of this logo style suggests, it is based on using the initials of your company to create a logo. Primarily created using custom fonts and optionally adding minor embellishments.

Symbol

Designing a company logo that includes a symbol of what your company represents is the basic definition of the Symbol logo style. With proper marketing and branding, your symbol should become recognizable without needing to include your business name.

Detailed Illustration

Combine your company name with a detailed drawing to create one complete illustrated logo design. The illustration is an integrated part of your company name and neither can stand by itself. This type of design requires a lot more time for development and expect several more rounds of revisions, including an increase in price.

Character/Mascot

The Character or Mascot logo design style is similar to the Symbol style except that the symbol is replaced by a mascot that can be used in different settings, potentially become animated and can be altered slightly for different uses, but still remain recognizable. It can be a cartoon character, or an identifiable object. This design requires a lot more intense design development and research so expect this design to take longer than most other designs, and expect to pay more as well.