Recently Launched!

We’re proud to announce some of our recently launched projects!

Studio DNA Salon
www.studiodnasalon.com
November, 2007

 

 

The Million Lights Project
www.millionlightsproject.org
November, 2007

 

The Festival of New American Musicals
www.lafestival.org
November, 2007

 

 

Discrimination Attorney
www.discriminationattorney.com
October, 2007

 

The Safe Sippy
www.thesafesippy.com
September, 2007

2007 WebAward Winner!

We are proud to announce that we are the recipient of a 2007 WebAward for
Outstanding Achievement in Website Development
presented by the Web Marketing Association!

Our award was presented in recognition of our work on the Christopher Laue Productions site.

 

Christopher Laue
Executionists, Inc.
Events Standard of Excellence

Creative Director: Richard Parr
Senior Designer: Kaoru Wood
Flash Designer: Conrad Julian
Project Manager: Temy Gu

 

 

Our overall scores:

 

We are thrilled and grateful to be recognized!

Kickoff questions

Here are some key issues to think about when commissioning a web design company to make or remake your website.

1. What is your intended launch date for the new site?

2. What shortcomings existed with the previous site?

3. What are the main reasons you are redesigning your site (new business model, outdated site, expanded services, different audience)?

4. What are your primary online business objectives with the site redesign? (Examples include increased sales, marketing/branding awareness) Please discuss both long- and short-term goals.

5. Describe a typical site visitor. How often are they online, and what do they generally use the web for? Give basic demographics: age, occupation, income level.

6. What is the primary “action” the site visitor should take when coming to your site?

7. What are the key reasons why the target audience chooses your company’s products and/or services (cost, service, value)?

8. Use a few adjectives to describe how your site visitor should perceive the new site.

9. How does your company differentiate itself from competitors? Do you think your current audience differentiates you from your competition? Please list competitor URLs.

10. List the URLs of any sites you find compelling. What specifically do you like about these sites?

11. Will this site use existing content from the previous site? If so, what is the source, who is responsible for approval? If not, will you be creating content in-house or using an outside provider?

12. What is the basic structure of the content, and how is it organized? Is it a complete overhaul of the previous site or an expansion? Do you already have a sitemap or outline for the proposed redesign?

13. What is your target platform and browser? Are there specific technologies (Flash, AJAX, JavaScript, DHTML, etc.) that you would like to use in the site?

14. Briefly, what are your short-term marketing plans (specifically, for the site redesign and the 6 to 12 months following launch)?

If you can quickly and succinctly answer all of these questions, you’re well on your way to creating a great website. Knowing your target audience and exactly how you wish your site to function will help us help you expand your business.

Recently Launched!

Book
(www.readtoc.com)
Launched May, 2007

For this website, we did the entire design and development, including the Banner Ad design. Also, We also programmed basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to maximize potential search result yield.

Glass Family Law
Law & Legal Services
(www.glassfamilylaw.com)
Launched May, 2007

Again, we completely designed and developed this website from scratch. Also, we included basic SEO to encourage traffic from various search engines.

Library Bar
Bar & Restaurant
(www.librarybarla.com)
Launched June, 2007

This was our design, as well. After development, we included SEO to increase web traffic to the site.

 

Take some time to check out these great professional products, services and establishments.

When you’re done, take note that Executionists can design and develop a website to highlight any product or service — visit executionists.com and browse our portfolio!

Get Aggressive on the Web.

If you’re a traditional retail business, you can often open a shop selling widgets with little local competition. Other than your signage and the occasional mailer to remind people that you’re there, there’s little need for aggressive marketing.

But, open a business on the web, and suddenly you’re competing with local, national and even international competitors. Unless you have a niche, local service business or exclusive product, you have no choice but to get aggressive on the web.

So what can you do?

A quick Google search shows us:

• 22,056 books on web marketing at Amazon
• 185,000,000 related sites on internet marketing companies
• 109,000,000 related sites for website marketing tips

With all these resources, how do you determine what makes the most sense for your business?

Here’s our top 3 ways to get aggressive with your web marketing:

1) Design.

Make sure your site is designed well. Is it visually appealing, or does it look like someone threw up random text and images? Does the text captivate and motivate visitors to learn about your business?

2) SEM (Search Engine Marketing) & SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

This has become a huge industry over the last five years. If I look at web stats for our website, I can see that over 50% of our traffic comes from search engines such as Google. There’s a strategy to getting a high position in the search engines, and knowing how to develop that strategy and implement it is critical to the success of a web business.

3) Affiliate Marketing.

Are you a member of any professional business organizations? Chamber of Commerce, Trade Organizations, etc. Chances are these organizations will have websites and member directories. Maximize your exposure on these affiliated websites because links from them to you (and vice versa) will boost your website traffic.

Let’s not forget about email and print marketing. But I’ve got to get back to work, so I’ll get to that next week.

If there’s a topic you’d like us to blog about, let us know. And if you want to get aggressive on the web with your business, give us a call for a free consultation.

Professional Approach to Web Development

DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY

Step 1 | Client Needs Assessment

By meeting with you, we define the primary goals and project schedule, identify the
target audience, and tailor the design solution to your industry.

• Understand who will use the Web site (Target Audience)
• Understand what Web technologies you will require
• Identify content
• Produce project schedule

Step 2 | Research and Discovery

We gather all available data content from you, such as company profiles, product descriptions, or in-house publications and brochures. Thereafter, we research the Internet and all other relevant information sources to familiarize ourselves with your
industry and your competition. We also spend time researching the competition, both online and offline.

• Identify the tasks users need to complete
• Consider the processes required to support Web site features and functions
• Develop technical scope and sitemap

Step 3 | Design Concept

During this stage, we begin the process of developing the site’s look and feel, the flow of content throughout the site, the logical organization of the site’s information, and its functionality. These concepts are presented to you for your evaluation and approval.

• Prototype Delivered
• Web Site Organization
• Color Schemes and Menu

Step 4 | Development

With your approval of the Design Concept, we develop the site in full using approved graphics, content, navigation, database design, etc. Of course, one of the questions asked by new clients is “how long will it take to create my site?” The answer is, “it depends.” Specifically, each client’s needs are different, and many needs present unique challenges that may require more time than anticipated.

• Client staging site and status
• Web server is setup and configured
• Databases modeled and pre-populated
• Domains are transferred and email accounts are setup

Step 5 | Testing & Launch

We test your web site to ensure it is cross-browser compatible and to evaluate its performance. This is the time when we may modify the site for performance gains. Thereafter, we transfer the web site to a web server for the public’s access.

• Web sites are tested at various stages of the development process
• Review of Web page content, functionality and graphic consistency
• Usability testing – measure how well the Web page allows a user to accomplish goals

Step 6 | Promotion

Your development plan may include forms of pre-production, offline promotion to generate interest in the launch of your site. Online promotion takes place after the site has been placed on the web server.

• Content optimization
• Code and meta tag optimization
• Search engine submissions and registrations
• Web statistics analysis
• Email Broadcasting

Step 7 | Post Production

After the web site is fully functional, we provide complete support to our clients, including evaluation, training for site management, upgrades with the latest technologies, and any required updates.

• Determine who is responsible for updates to the Web page
• Limit the ability of certain users to update the Web page
• Re-evaluate goals based upon business objectives