We are excited to announce the launch of the brand new Knight Hawk microsite! Near the end of 2011, we were approached by Smart Targets LLC (a federally licensed dealer of professional tactical supplies and training materials) to create a visually stunning, informational, and educational new microsite showcasing their exclusive product: The Knight Hawk Portable Pop-up Target. When developing this microsite, we wanted to make sure that the visitor was able to quickly view the product and all of its great features- all while using SEO best practices.
The Knight Hawk Target is a “smarter target” than the simple pulley system or knock-down targets that are currently used in the industry, and far less expensive (not to mention hundreds of pounds lighter) than the hydraulic pop-up targets sometimes used. This target is perfect for Military and Law enforcement training professionals, allowing them to seamlessly set up multiple targets in multiple areas of the training facility with its portability feature. It also has a programmable remote and instant feedback feature that is perfect for setting up training facilities, or for any shooting enthusiast. The instant feedback system will stand up in 50 mph winds, yet can be knocked down with something as light as an air-soft gun (we even tested it with Nerf guns at the office and it worked).
The Knight Hawk Target has received support from Top Shot Season 2 Winner Chris Reed, as well as various board members of the NTOA, MTOA, and various law enforcement departments across the country. This product really is one that is going to change the future of Military and Law enforcement training as we know it.
We are excited to announce the second piece of an interactive program for Fibre-Craft Materials Corporation’s Springfield Dolls line. Following the launch of the SF Style Club interactive microsite, we’ve just launched the second part of the piece, an ecommerce sister site for Springfield Dolls, where you can buy all your favorite dolls, fashionable clothing, accessories, and furniture!
The online store features easy-to-navigate product categories, a searchable catalog of all the fashionable doll products, and a wishlist to save all your outfits for safekeeping or online shopping on a rainy day.
We made sure the ecommerce system syncs to an existing inventory management and shipping component. This ensures that the inventory numbers within the store and the warehouse correspond at all times.
If you have a website that requires users to register or login to take action, it’s time to consider implementing a social login option. That is, the ability to login to a website via your existing Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or other account. A recent social identity study reveals a few compelling stats supporting this:
90% of consumers will leave a website if they forget their user name and password
86% are bothered by being asked to create a new account on a website, and most will then leave the site or not return
41% of users would prefer social login over having to create a new account (35%) or even using a guest account (24%) (the same question in a study 1 year prior returned the reverse results in terms of order of preference)
What’s more, 78% of social login fans share site content with their social network. So not only does the social login option increase the likelihood that visitors will interact with your site and prevent them from leaving, it can also help encourage your customers to promote your site.
Think about every opportunity you might have for this, even in regards to content that doesn’t exist yet. Can people leave comments or write reviews on your website, and if not, can you find a way to integrate that kind of feature? Giving users opportunities to interact with your site and engage with your brand is important itself, and social login would be the cherry on top to help get them to participate.
And can visitors purchase products from your site? If they see an option to login through, say, Facebook, eliminating their need to even think about a password, they’ll be more likely to jump into their account and buy. Beyond that, once they’re logged in, you have opportunities to allow them to easily share what they purchase or what they want with their social network. Tack on an incentive to them to share with friends for even better response. read the full story...
With their new “Search Plus Your World” feature, Google’s search results are undergoing a transformation that will drastically change the way search results appear to users. The feature is now live on the Google Network, and will be fully rolled out to all users that are logged in to Google and searching in the English language.
What does the “Search Plus Your World” feature do?
The new “Search Plus Your world” combines Public, Personal, Social (Google+ only), and Private search all into one algorithm. Public results are just regular Google searches, while the new Personal feature compiles results based both on your past search behavior and social connections. The feature will also feed in relevant content that his been shared within your circles on Google+.
Here’s an image provided by Google that shows an example of the Personal Results feature. (Note: if you select the globe icon on the right it will hide personal results, and when the person icon is selected, personal results will be turned on.)
The left arrow above points to the section that states there are 50 personal results out of the 419,000 found for the search. Some of these 50 personal results will be blended into the first page of your search results.
Personal Results are compiled from these existing areas:
Regular Web Listings
Regular Web Listings (boosted because of social behavior and social connections)
Public & Private Google+ posts, photos, and Google Picasa Photos
In the image below (again provided by Google) we see more of the results for a search for “Chikoo,” the name of a Google developer’s dog. Chikoo is also the name of a fruit, and before the “Search Plus Your World” feature was implemented nothing related to his dog would have ever shown up in the search results. But with the new feature… read the full story...
New kinds of social media are popping up like wildfire, but which ones are catching the eyes of consumers?
We all know the social media big timers—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn—but a new wave of alternative social media sites are worth looking into. Some have been around a while, but they can still help your business’ visibility and discoverability. read the full story...
Relatively new to the social media mix: Pinterest.com
YouTube has been around since 2005 as a video sharing website. Recently, companies have been using this online tool to promote their services and advertise themselves. YouTube videos work because they are easily accessible and can be shared easily. Not to mention they help with Google Optimization.
StumbleUpon was created to let users “stumble” through sites related to their interests. All companies have to do to become a part of StumbleUpon is submit their website and associated categories. From here, whenever a person clicks “stumble,” their website has a chance to pop up on the site. On StumbleUpon, a link to a company’s blog or specific product pages would be most effective.
Pinterest (pictured above) is a different kind of social media site. A mix between StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook, users can see images other users have “pinned,” or uploaded. You can “re-pin” an image someone else has already pinned onto your own boards. Users create boards and categorize them however they want, such as fitness, food, crafts, or weddings. Business can get into it, too. A bakery could utilize this site by uploading pictures of their wedding cakes and linking the pin on their website. Just one re-pin can reach hundreds of people. Uses of this site can be limitless to a company.
Nu Finish, a longstanding envisionit client, came to us wanting to grow their online presence and breathe new life into their several-year-old website.
After performing a full audit of the website analytics and competitive online landscape, we identified some areas for opportunity for the Nu Finish website, including consumer education, fresh unique content, and revised architecture driving users to critical pages.
To showcase Nu Finish’s car-care expertise, we added a Car Care section featuring information on car wax versus car polish, as Nu Finish’s product is wax-free, which educates visitors on the benefits of using a car polish over a wax. A new How-To video section, embedded from the Nu Finish YouTube channel we created, equips users for product application and creates fresh, search engine-friendly content to help capture “how-to” based keyword searches. We also added a Testimonials section with an online submission tool, to leverage all the great consumer feedback Nu Finish receives.
Keyword research helped us update content, metadata, and marketing messages with stronger calls-to-action and discoverability through organic search.
Not only did organic search traffic increase 111% for “wax versus polish“ searches, but bounce rates and site engagement times improved significantly. Also, the number of visitors proceeding from the Home page to the valuable Where to Buy page doubled in Q3 over the same period last year.
Now that we’ve revved the engine of Nu Finish’s online presence, we invite you to see the Car Care site for yourself!
It involves both an aesthetic and structural update meant to keep users more engaged and on the site longer. YouTube’s ultimate goal is most certainly to increase their (thus, Google’s) advertising revenue potential, but put your cynicism away, because the key is: It’s designed to keep users more engaged and on the site longer. That is what you really need to know.
Here are the 2 key changes to the site and why they should matter to you:
More emphasis on Channels and Subscriptions than just on individual videos What Does This Mean? On the home page, users will now see handy channel categories helping them browse for content that interests them–even stuff they may not have considered being on YouTube. There’s also recommended channels, which is based on previous searches and views. And a customizable feed of new videos added by channels they subscribe to. Users can also connect from YouTube to Google+ and Facebook to see what theirs friends are sharing.
What Does This Mean For Your Business? YouTube currently reports 3 billion video views per day, which will start translating into lots more engaged viewers, with all the redesign alerts YouTube has all over the site. As video watchers start to more actively peruse content through YouTube’s cleaner structure, you need to take steps to get in front of them! read the full story...
Develop videos that you can upload on a fairly consistent basis: seasonal tips/motivation/ideas/inspiration, how-to’s on something your company produces, footage from events (especially great if you run a club, restaurant, or store and had customers in attendance–most people love seeing themselves and will share that content), footage of your company building a house for charity, even silly antics around the business.
Google has introduced Real-Time traffic data to all Google Analytics users, allowing you to view all traffic on your site as it’s happening in…real time!
Real-Time Analytics allows you to view who is entering and leaving your site, if they are a new or returning visitor, and most importantly what traffic source they are coming from.
Since Real-Time will define the source of a visitor, this is very valuable for marketers and business owners who want to know how well an ad campaign or social media post is performing. They can now gauge the immediate impact of those marketing efforts. For example, if you tweet about a new product on your site, you can immediately see how many site visitors were driven by that particular content. This will allow you to help pinpoint your marketing strategy, by allowing you to find what type of messages are the most effective and what time to post to drive the most traffic to your site.
Make sure you capitalize on this new feature, and use it to maximize your advertising campaigns to their full potential!
Check out some screen shots of the new Real-Time Google Analytics in action below:
We are proud to announce the launch of the Springfield Dolls microsite SF Style Club! Fibre-Craft Materials Corporation approached us to create an interactive program that will grow awareness and drive traffic to their Springfield Dolls line. Fibre-Craft is the parent company to crafts, games, and toys lines including Creative Hands, The Springfield Collection, Jr. Designer Series, and Rondo Room.
The Dressing Room in SF Style Club
SF Style Club is a space that encourages individualism, imagination, and creativity in young girls. Each site visit encourages deeper engagement by earning points to unlock content, merchandise, activities, and special features.
A key component on the site includes an interactive Dressing Room that enables users to dress their doll in over 160 clothing items from the Springfield Dolls Collection. The photographed items in the Dressing Room allow the girls to see their actual doll in clothing options before purchasing the items at a local retailer. Within the Dressing Room users are also able to share an image of their doll and the outfit they created with a loved one—which includes product SKU numbers so the recipient can locate items in-store, and soon, online!
Want to see what the site is all about before signing up? No problem! Just view the video we developed below for a quick overview of all the fun features and activities SF Style Club has to offer!
Carnivale is an exciting, colorful, and unique Chicago restaurant and bar located in the city’s west loop neighborhood. With energetic colors, photography, and wild design, it’s a luxurious restaurant that engages all of the senses with global flavors, Latin music, and savory aromas—not to mention their award-winning Mojitos, fresh ceviche, and wood-grilled steaks.
Carnivale approached us with the task of bringing that exciting, colorful, and unique experience of the restaurant into the online space, along with improved usability, strong SEO benefits, and an emphasis on their private event booking opportunities. We were more than happy to accept the task!
When you first enter the site, you’re exposed to an array of dazzling colors and a vivid movie behind red curtains that showcases all that Carnivale has been known to host–from weddings and private events to cabaret shows and live music.
To go along with the elaborate design and taste appeal (we all found ourselves constantly salivating while we developed this site), you can easily make reservations and request a booking or more information for a private event, while easily viewing the layout of every room and what each one has to offer. Users can browse Carnivale’s extensive photo galleries, view the menus and daily specials, and watch Carnivale videos on the site. You can experience Carnivale while on the go via the new mobile site we developed for them!
So, make sure you go check out Carnivale Chicago for some fine Latin cuisine, your next private party booking, or if you are just looking to enjoy a great Mojito (or three!) in a stunning vibrant atmosphere.
