grid+design firm blog

Grid+Design Firm is pleased to announce the launching of the new Morristown - a Ballerina Love Story website.

Morristown is an independent film written, directed and produced by the talented Christo Garcia. In addition, Christo plays the starring role in the film that truly expresses his passion and command of ballet. The film features a cast that expresses beautiful dancing while providing an insightful look at the dancers’ lives both inside and outside the dance school. To learn more about Christo Garcia and the cast, visit www.morristownthemovie.com!

When programming a form in html, the form will display on a PC / IE browser with an extra space beneath the form. While it does not display this way on a MAC, you still need to correct the issue to ensure your form is viewed properly across browsers and platforms.

Here is the Quick Tip Solution:
HTML has no mechanism to control this. However, with CSS, you can set the margin-bottom of the form to 0. For example:

<form style=”margin-bottom:0;” action=…>

We hope you find this tip helpful with your html programming.

Grid+Design Firm has joined the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce thanks to a very friendly visit from Sue Cooper-Street. We are very excited about joining the more than 2,800 businesses and professional organizations in the St. Petersburg area. The St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce is the largest Chamber in the Tampa Bay region and is celebrating its 109th year. We are proud to be offering our creative website design and development solutions to the businesses in St. Petersburg and beyond.

Mention the word flash to an SEO professional and he/she is likely to cringe. While the spiders have a problem crawling text contained in the flash file (although Google claims to have fixed the problem…wink wink), Flash can still play a key role in creating an exciting and engaging website.

So what is Flash exactly? Well, have you ever been on a site that has animation, transitioning effects, movement, interactive galleries and games or a number of other eye-catching effects? That is Flash. In fact, Flash is capable of doing far more than I can, or care to, write about in a blog. Flash is an advanced programming software that allows web designers and developers to manipulate graphics as well as implement various animation, music, video and other interactive features on a website. While not for amateurs, Flash can do wonders for the effectiveness of a web site.

The important thing to remember, however, is to realize that Search Engines cannot read what is within the Flash file. If SEO is the priority of a website, then you do not want to have a pure Flash website. As an alternative, utilizing Flash elements in concert with relevant content will result in an engaging website that is still SEO friendly.

In a recent post, grid+design firm announced its upgraded HTML e-mail service. As a follow-up to inquiries about this service, I thought it might be worthwhile to provide a few tips on creating a successful HTML e-mail campaign.

A successful campaign requires the efforts of both the client and the agency. Enlisting the services of an agency is critical for the design, delivery and reporting to be effective. In their 2007 report, eROI found that agency clients’ emails perform better than in-house efforts across the board, with half the bounces, more than double the open rates, and 42% better click-through rates. Because we are an agency and we are well equipped to handle our portion of an e-mail campaign, I will not focus on tips for design, delivery or report tracking. Instead, here are a few tips for the client portion of the campaign.

+ Create a Quality Subject Line - make the subject line compelling and do not mislead the recipient. Try to encourage action with the subject line, but limit the characters to 50 or less.

+ Send e-mails on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - these days have the highest open rates, especially for businesses.

+ Do not send e-mails too often - sending multiple e-mails per week can annoy the recipient and lead to lower open rates.

+ Have a call to action - determine the conversion goal of the campaign and work with the agency on how to accomplish this.

+ Write compelling copy - make clear what you are offering and make it relevant to the recipient. Compelling copy will have recipients waiting for your future e-mails.

+ Focus on what you want to achieve - prior to writing copy or enlisting and agency, outline your objective for the e-mail. Do you want to drive traffic to your website, stay in contact with customers to inform them of new products or promotions or do you want to have them contact your sales team?

E-mail campaigns are a valuable marketing tool. But remember, they are only effective if done correctly.

In addition to its web design and web development offerings, grid+design firm has upgraded its HTML e-mail services. E-mail has become a critical part of any firm’s communications and marketing plan. It can help retain customers, keep members informed, increase sales, fill seats, raise brand visibility and help you grow your business. E-mail is faster and more affordable than traditional print mail, and, by some measures, it offers the best return on investment of any marketing medium.

The upgraded HTML e-mail service offered by grid+design firm allows the client to :

+ See real-time totals for emails received, opened, clicked, forwarded, signed up and more (and details for who did what, and when)
+ View response details for entire campaigns and for individual recipients
+ Stay compliant with new CAN-SPAM requirements including automatic handling of opt-out requests
+ Track email bounce rates (hard bounces and soft bounces)
+ Store your past campaigns and results in your online archive, and easily link to past campaigns from your website
+ Create an instant, side-by-side comparison of multiple campaigns and their results
+ Create stylish email campaigns utilizing the industry’s best practices
+ Get assistance on delivery-related matters whenever you need it

Contact grid+design firm and learn more about this service! >>

In conversations at gatherings or discussing web design and web development with prospects, I am always both amazed and alarmed when my inquiry into who did the company website is met with the response: “Our IT department”. A website can certainly be utilized as a business tool, but nobody will disagree that its main purpose is to be utilized as a marketing tool. Hence my question: When did IT become Marketing?

In my experience, I have encountered this more times than I can remember. Although I have been able to enlighten some, there are still many companies that trust its web presence to the men and women of the IT department. I am not referring to small business but to businesses with revenues in the hundreds of millions!!! Websites that are both designed and developed by the IT department are easy to spot. While many websites built by the IT department operate with a fair level of functionality, the vast majority lack even the most basic professional web design elements. This is by no means an attack on the IT department as they serve a vital function. The fact is, however, they are being asked to do something that they are not trained to do.

Savvy marketing professionals realize the value and importance of a professional web presence. Often times the company website is the only encounter that a prospective customer will have with a company. Driving people to the website is important, but of equal importance is what the prospective customer encounters when he or she gets there. A website that lacks professional web design will discredit a company immediately upon arrival. A website that does not function correctly will frustrate the prospective customer and will cause the prospective customer to abandon the site. Conversions are key and a prospective client abandoning the website because of poor design and/or development is damaging as it is likely to occur often.

I am not sure the rationale behind companies having the IT department complete the website design and development. My initial thought would be that management is attempting to save money by having the service done in-house. Are they really saving money? The company is paying the member(s) of the IT department to do something that likely falls outside of their skill-set thus they are being paid to learn. More detrimental to the company is that they paid for a poor web presence. There is no measure of how much business is lost because of a website that lacks professional design and does not function correctly.

If I had one message to the marketing directors and upper management that are currently entrusting the company web presence to the IT department it would be this: Customers in today’s market have access to more knowledge and a greater array of products and services than ever before due to the internet. If you are not taking the opportunity to promote the company and its offerings in a professional manner on the web, you can be assured that the competition is. Let IT do what that department is there for, and that should not include marketing.

As with most industries, the website design and development industry is comprised of companies ranging from single-person freelancers to large agencies. The process of choosing the website design and development company to engage in the creation of your personal or company’s website can certainly be confusing. Do you go with a large firm that is highly visible because of aggressive marketing and association memberships? Do you seek out a freelance designer and developer to save money? Or, do you spend time researching to find and enlist the services of a boutique agency such as grid design firm? There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each.

The large web design and development companies are certainly recognizable and have walls full of awards from societies and associations that you have probably never heard of. As a result of aggressive and well thought out marketing efforts, large agencies are very easy to find. The fact that these agencies are great marketing machines and boast a long client list cannot be denied. Also, these firms employ talented senior-level web designers and web developers as well as layers of account managers, administration and marketing professionals. Large firms offer a complete range of services that might extend into non-web design and non-web development sectors such as media buying and ad placement. The disadvantage to large agencies is that as a rule they are more expensive due to the fact that the cost of the levels of administration and account managers are passed on to the client. Also, the design and development of the website is likely to be relegated to lower level employee than the head of each department thus causing a longer cycle for the project.

Boutique agencies are much smaller than large agencies. The staff at boutique agencies is small, but the talent level is usually of a high caliber as these firms tend to employee only experienced people that are experts in the agency’s specific offerings. The layers of administration, account managers and lower level employees are not present at boutique agencies, as they are at larger agencies. Boutique agencies have fewer clients, therefore the level of service and responsiveness that they provide the client is a strength. While there might be a project manager or a director in charge of all projects, the entire project is completed by only the top level professionals. The disadvantage of boutique agencies is in the range of services that they provide. Boutique agencies are experts in a specific trade, thus you will not likely find services such as media buying and ad placement. However, many boutique firms have partnerships with other boutique firms that offer specific products and services that might be of value to the client.

Freelance designers and developers are usually offering their services as a ’side job’ while maintaining full-time employment elsewhere. The advantage to using a freelance designers and developers is the price. Freelance designers and developers do not have employees to pay, thus they do not have to cover any costs but their own. While this is an advantage for pricing, it is a disadvantage in regards to the finished product. Web design and web development are two distinct trades, thus one individual is not likely to be an expert at both. A truly successful project is the collaboration of top level professionals, including the creative, development and management teams. Also, because a project is likely to be in addition to the freelancer’s ‘day job’ the client will not get the responsiveness or service during normal business hours.

As you see, there are advantages and disadvantages to each level of agency. I hope you find this useful in helping define the desired web design and development experience for your personal company website, and I hope this assists in your search for the right company to provide the service.

Grid Design Firm is a boutique agency in St. Petersburg, FL that provides custom Web Design and Web Development solutions.

The terms website design and website development are often used interchangeably by the general public and even by companies that are in the business of creating websites. The fact is, however, that while these two distinct skill-sets do overlap in the process of creating a website, they should be recognized as two distinct trades. Web developers deal with the functionality of a website and much of the “backend” work they do is transparent to the end user. Web designers deal with the “look and feel” of the site as well as the layout of content to ensure that the site is easily navigable for the end user.

Being that website design and website development are two distinct trades, the person performing these tasks require unique pedigrees and education. A web developer must have knowledge of programming language to build the infrastructure for dynamic web pages as well as be able to build/integrate a vast range of applications into the website. The main objective of a web developer is to make sure that the potential customer that visits the website can perform an action and the website responds correctly.

Having a website that functions correctly is obviously important, but of equal importance is the user’s experience once he/she reaches the website. A web designer must have knowledge of all graphical elements such as color, fonts, imagery and text layout. The main objective of the web designer is to create a positive user experience and to distinguish the website visually from its competitors’ website.

It has become very commonplace for website companies to not only use the terms web design and web development interchangeably, but also to have the same person performing both functions. To be an expert in both website design and website development is very rare, thus the companies that create the most successful websites enlist the services of an expert website developer and website designer to collaborate on projects. A website that functions correctly but lacks visual appeal is not effective and visa versa. Even the largest and most well known web companies are quick to list awards and accolades, yet, you will notice that the content on their own website does not display correctly across browsers and the website lacks a strong visual presence. A website is a business tool, but more importantly it is a marketing tool so make sure you are getting a website that functions, but also a website that will portray your company in a positive and professional manner. A website that was not created through the collaborative efforts of a web designer and web developer is obvious and can immediately discredit even the largest of companies in the eyes of a potential customer.

Grid Design Firm enlists the services of both expert web designers and web developers to ensure that we produce highly effective websites, locally in the Tampa Bay area, and to all of our clients nationwide.