The new Junior Service League of Woodstock’s website design is a Wordpress blog based site using a customized template aimed at matching the colors and style of the League’s members. Use of Wordpress will enable the Public Relations and Communications chairs to make frequent updates to events, needs, sponsorships, activities and success stories of the League as the years progress. Also new to the website is the ability to purchase tickets to the annual Holiday Tour of Homes fundraiser coming in November, or pay for your sponsorship right online. They also can now take monetary donations online using Paypal or a credit card.

The new website should prove to be a great tool for this dynamic organization. Their hard work and dedication to serving the families of Cherokee county with donations of food, clothing, school supplies, shoes, toiletries, money, and caring concern deserves recognition and a big, giant THANK YOU!

› To learn more about becoming a sponsor of this year’s Tour of Homes, click here.

› To learn more about membership in the Junior Service League of Woodstock, click here.

If you know of a group or organization that needs a more professional, polished and functional website, please tell them about Inspired 2 Design’s website design services. We work with groups in Woodstock, Cherokee county, and all the metro Atlanta area. Plus, we often offer discounts to charitable and faith-based organizations.

For year’s we’ve heard that Content is King! And the Internet has propagated that fact repeatedly over the last 15 years. Now it’s 2010 and the convergence of different types of marketing is a growing trend – all based around content. But the message you need to get out there isn’t in a neat little tweet of 140 characters, and people don’t refer you if they don’t know you, if there’s no relationship. So let’s say that success to you means 200% growth in the next 5 years. To grow you need to increase customers, equipment, staff and possibly space. You also need to grow your marketing base.

We’ve heard for a couple of years that traditional advertising is a thing of the past. It used to be that you outspent your competitors to gain market share. The companies with the deepest pockets had the best known brand. That trend changes more each day. Today, your reputation is critical more than ever, and no amount of spending will remove a customer’s bad taste (just ask BP!). Today you need to spend more time on relationships, more time on content, and more time than money basically.

For many of us, time is more important than money. Time to do what we want, time with family, time for fun, time for rest, relaxation, exercise, hobbies, time for work, time for play… so what’s the best way to make the best use of your time? In a word… STRATEGIC PLANNING.

In order to create a strategic Marketing Plan for today’s marketplace, you need to start with the basics and those are your brand (reputation) and your website. These are the two most important elements of building a profitable campaign that’s always looking at the end result – your success (and however you’ve measured that).

Step 1: Discovery
Identify the value of your brand, its effectiveness, its consistency, its differentiation, and its general reputation level. What are the goals for your brand? Are you meeting them?
Identify the value of your website. Your website should connect, impel, and generate. Does your website contain accurate, up-to-date content that is consistent with your brand? Are call-to-actions clear, easy to use, and everywhere they need to be? Are you getting leads from your website? If not, contacting a marketing-based, graphic and website design company should be the place you start.

Step 2: Set Objectives
Since we’ve established you control what success is, the only way to get to that result is to set goals and objectives that clearly define the path. The ultimate goal is to build your brand and increase traffic and conversions on your website because, that momentum is what will drive you toward your success goal.

Step 3: Create Campaigns
The campaigns you create will all be designed to reach the objectives set in step 2 with the ultimate goal of enhancing step 1. These campaigns may include search engine optimization and search engine marketing, social media, networking, content building (blogs and articles), event marketing, and publicity. The success of each strategy creates momentum that drives your organization forward.

Step 4: Set Budgets
Budgeting time and money is critical to success. Make sure you leave room for moving either from task to task as you work the campaigns so you spend time and money on the marketing areas that are working the best. In other words, if your Facebook fans are hot on a subject, engaged and interacting, don’t be rigid and say… “time to work on the blog”. Keep your audience engaged where they are, and be flexible.

Step 5: Measure
You have goals, you have budgets, you have campaign ideas. Now you have to set the times you’ll measure, evaluate and update your plan.

Step 6: Devil’s in the Details
Here’s where it gets sticky. Inspired 2 Design recommends creating a full year strategic marketing calendar for businesses. This is a detailed plan, by month or by quarter. It includes all the above, specific details. What event, what keyword, what blog entry, what Tweet, and the task assignments, responsible parties, time allotments etc.

This 6-Step Marketing for 2010 Outline is critical to success (whatever that means to you and your business). For help getting a plan on paper, contact Inspired 2 Design at 770-781-3452.

In the past two weeks, Inspired 2 Design has completed three web design projects:

1. KE Greene Mechanical and Hydronics: a Holly Springs heating, air conditioning and hot water company, has a new website:

website_design_kegreene

The cool thing about KE Greene’s new website is the Blog/RSS feed connection. We’ve set up their website and blog so that as they add news and information to the blog that talks about hot water, the RSS feeds that blog post into the Hot Water page, same with all the other services they offer.

2. Ball Ground Heritage Days, a 2 day festival held in historic, downtown Ball Ground has a new and very functional website for its 8th Annual event this year. Their new CMS website has a fun flash banner, features scrolling sponsor listing, applications for participation (via PDF), and more. The event is coming May 15th and 16th, 2010, so if you’re a crafter, food vendor, or local business, there’s an opportunity to sponsor, host a booth, join the parade, or just come and have fun.

The BGBA is hosting the event this year and it’s going to be the biggest and best ever! Find out more at Ball Ground Heritage Days.

3. Social Media Crazed? Social Media lost? If so, Inspired 2 Design wants to take you by the hand and walk you step by step through the process of getting connected to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Our Social Media Workshop will be held March 11, 2010 at My Corner Office in Canton. Register on our newly designed and published website Train for Social Media.

Watch Inspired 2 Design’s website for more additions coming to our marketing sample portfolio including new business card designs, new logo designs, new brochure designs, new publication ad designs and more. Smart business owners know that the last place to cut the budget is marketing. You’ve got to be doing something no matter how busy you may be or how slow to prepare the field for new clients and customers.

If your company is not prepared for 2010 with a marketing plan, and you need help deciding what’s right for your business, call Inspired 2 Design – 770-781-3452.

This number is significant because it’s very clear that entrepreneurs are realizing that a custom, professional website is important for building their brand, servicing their customers, bringing in traffic, and converting visitors to leads, and leads to sales. These goals are intrinsic to your business website, no matter how big or how small your company is.  A well-designed, usable and functional website that’s designed for easy navigation and marketability is key to a successful company.

Along with websites we’ve designed, we have helped many small businesses get found on the internet through dynamic, and organic, search engine optimization. SEO can and will get your business on the top pages of Google for your search keyphrases – when done appropriately. What’s really cool is that many more businesses are going by way of organic search engine optimization and not attempting to pay the month by month services that take them for a ride and deposit them back to passing go without collecting $200.

Even more still are bringing in real advertising pros to maintain their existing website, as business owners are finding reliability among web developers to be a problem. Not so with I2D. We’re happy to make fast and flawless updates, corrections and enhancements to existing sites whenever possible. And when it’s not cost-effective for us to do so, we tell you.

Custom design is important, especially when considering who to hire. A template does nothing for your brand image. A PC or IT company does nothing for your marketing. So consider experience, consider product, consider customer service, consider the long term effect and benefits your company will gain from its own unique website design created by someone who knows how consumers work – not someone who just knows how computers work.

Fifty and counting, yes we’re proud! Contact Inspired 2 Design for your company’s new or improved website design.

Browse website design number 50.

Inspired 2 Design publishes website #50 for Premier Trademark

Visit the new website by Inspired 2 Design.  If your organization or ministry is looking for a quality website that’s functional, easy to navigate, and converts visitors to donors, volunteers, or new members, call Inspired 2 Design – 770-781-3452. We bring over 20 years of marketing experience to the table, and what’s more, our custom website design solutions are affordable – even for non-profits and charitable organizations.

The new site for The HOPE Center in Cherokee county was a fast moving project, completed in about 4 weeks, which is our norm with client support. We’re so happy to have had the opportunity to work with Cindy O’Leary, director of the center located on Main Street in Woodstock. This site is geared toward supporters, donors, volunteers for the ministry and provides news and information, success stories in text and video, a calendar of events, online donations and needs list, and volunteer job descriptions/application.

Click here to see visit the new website, and while you’re there, be sure to read about the wonderful things happening at The HOPE Center…
maybe even make a donation or sign up to volunteer your time!

Contact Inspired 2 Design at 770-781-3452, or click here to email us, to discuss your charity’s website, website redesign, and internet marketing efforts.

“You need a business website to market your products and services, but you don’t have the money to invest in an ad agency to help you build and maintain a website from scratch.  What can you do?”

She says it’s “Simple!”

We say “Think again!” or maybe just… “THINK!”

While there’s absolutely no offense directed toward the author of this piece… we just felt the need to present the other side of the coin:

5 Reasons Why NOT to build your own website using Wordpress or other DIY tool:

Reason 1. It’s Free
Poor excuse…
Some of it is free, but you still need to host your files, and have an email account set up. And don’t go using those subdomains. That’s no way to build a credible business presence! Watch out for FREE and LOW COST hosting. Typically that means SLOW hosting, or Banner AD city! You still -even in 2009 – get what you pay for.

Reason 2. Creating a Unique Design doesn’t have to cost a fortune
At least she got the “unique design” right. You do want a unique design for your website. The worst thing you can do is to pull a canned template off the shelf and put your name on it, not in business. Stay away from the FREE stuff. And to be honest, you should double think any of the premium templates, unless you have a qualified designer work the template to fit your brand, your message and your target audience. Just because I can draw up a plan for my new house, doesn’t make me an architect. Be smart and bring in someone who knows how to combine color, graphic elements, navigation, and apply the right code so all the pieces work together seamlessly. Even with Wordpress, you need to bring in a pro – you can do it, but like Home Depot, we can help.

Reason 3. Even the Technically Illiterate Can Maintain a Website Created with Wordpress.org
In a matter of speaking, this is true. But, do you know which widgets, plugins, and updates you need or should have? Sure, the “technically illiterate” can add posts, but they’re not in any way, shape or form, “maintaining” their site. They’re just updating it. The best advice in the article was to pickup Wordpress for Dummies… Wow.

Reason 4. You can Add a Blog and Boost Your Search Traffic, Incoming Links, and More!
You can? Gee, I thought Wordpress was a blog! And you’re going to do all that with a blog… amazing. First, you need to understand how search engines work, you also need to know what search terms/phrases your customers are searching, and then you need to consistently enter relevant content into your blog… among other things. And inbound links don’t just appear. Like Magic! POOF! No, you need to go out and post on other blogs, building links by referencing your own blog entries. By getting involved in the social mediasphere, you can do many things to promote your website. But make sure you’re bringing visitors to a clean, quick, and marketable website. After all, don’t you clean your house before the guests arrive?

5. There is a Wealth of Online Support Available to Help When You Have Questions or Problems with Your Site.
Sure, and there are tons of books and online information on how to fix my car’s transmission, but that doesn’t mean I’m out there doing it.

I guess the part that really amazes me about this type of advice to business owners is that it’s so fool-hearted. THIS IS YOUR BUSINESS FOLKS!

Here’s a link to read the original article if you’d like.

We’re  just not sure why people:

a. Lessen the importance of your website to your business success by recommending DIY solutions.
b. Lessen the impact you need to capture a visitor. You have about 7 seconds until they decide to stay and click or leave.
c. Lessen the importance of brand consistency to your customers.
d. Think that a website is unaffordable. Especially when you look at the years of return possible from a website vs. say, a newspaper ad.
e. Think that business owners have the time to do it all. How many hats can we possibly wear?

That’s the I2D take! Call us for a quote, you’ll be surprised at what a professional web design team can do for you.

So, what exactly is turn-key? Well, in a nutshell, turn-key is a phrase that originated with developers who build a building or home that was move-in ready (turn-the-key is all you have to do).  With builders it means that you don’t have to sub-out all the parts of the job, the construction company does it all. Turn-key means “ready to use”. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines turnkey as “one who has the prison keys”. How true! Wouldn’t you like to be freed from the prison of details!

Turn-key service is exactly what Inspired 2 Design built its business on, because business owners have a store, office, or supply chain to run. In the marketing and advertising realm, turn-key means you don’t have to purchase your website’s URL/domain name and remember to renew, you don’t have to worry about bandwidth on your hosting account, you don’t need to spend hours trying to set up a new Email address to auto download into your Outlook mailbox… because we do it for you. On the print side, turn-key means you don’t need to worry about whether your logo is scalable, whether the printer needs bleed, or whether images are CMYK at 300dpi for offset… heck you don’t even need to know what that all means, because… we do it all for you.

The value-add to turn-key service is time, sanity, and actual dollar savings. You save your time running all over town to two or three different vendors to get your logo designed, business cards printed, website developed, t-shirts ordered. You don’t need to find out whether the Around Town magazine or the Cherokee Tribune are a better value with bigger reach. You don’t have to go to the sign company, printer, embroiderer, and billboard company all on Tuesday. All you need to do is call a full-service company, and say “Here, can you handle this”.  We’ve heard horror stories from clients who’ve decided it was cheaper to handle their own printing, or maybe they have a friend, or they are just the type of person who needs that feeling of control.  When they got down to it, they try to save on edits by bringing in their I.T. guy, they try to save on outsourcing, they try to save on small nitpicking items that in the end all add up to a big cost. Let your designer handle it! Let the designer work with the printer on the details that complete the job because they speak the same language, they can work together faster and totally invisibly to you – the client.

Many industries utilize turn-key service that you may not even be aware of. Ever buy a computer? Did it come with an operating system installed? That’s turn-key service. Why do you go to a restaurant and order dinner? Just so you don’t have to stop at the store, prep the food, cook the meal, serve, clean up and wash dishes… that’s turn-key service. You’re probably using some type of time saving, turn-key service more than you think. The reason? It saves you time, money and headaches.

It’s the value-add that Inspired 2 Design offers so that when your project is ready to print, we handle everything so you can do what makes your company money. It’s the value-add that when your website needs integration with another merchant or database service, we handle it, so you just collect.  It’s the value-add of turn-key service that sets some companies apart from the competition. Turn-key service providers are leveraging partners, resources that allow you to magnify your business growth.  Contact Inspired 2 Design for your next project and get back to work on the things that make you money!

Fun Finds is a consignment shop like none other. The store features what they call “gently used” furniture, accessories, rugs, lamps, tabletop, wall art, etc. But what sets it apart is that from the moment you walk in, if you didn’t know it was used, you’d never know it wasn’t brand new. To further the experience, Betty called upon her years of experience as an Interior Designer and put the thrift items together so that you don’t have any question in your mind how to do up a room. But if that wasn’t enough, she’ll teach you! Yes, if you bring your photo to her, she’ll help you plan out your space. Fun Finds is also offering free workshops. The first workshop was all the buzz around town, with over 30 people attending (everyone I spoke to raved about it!).

If you’re interested in the free workshops, the new arrivals or the specials happening at Fun Finds, you’ll have to go onto their website and sign up for the email mailing list, and subscribe to Betty’s blog. That way you’ll never miss out on what’s new and happening behind the Dairy Queen in Canton.

New Website Published for Fun Finds & Designs in Canton

Check out the new site, and be sure to let Betty know how you found out about her fabulous new shop! Support small business in Cherokee – shop local!  If you’re a local business owner who’s not taking advantage of the marketing opportuntities a professionally designed website can bring your company, contact Inspired 2 Design and we’ll discuss the growth opportunites that await you!

One of our new releases is already ranking on page 1 of Google! WOW!

Coming soon…