Above the fold: a rule to be broken

Since the earliest days of the newspaper industry, the front page of the paper was laid out to get the top stories above the fold. Inside the paper, was a similar situation. Savvy ad execs like Don Draper knew that if a quarter page ad fell in the middle of that crease, readership would plummet. The fold could make you or break you. These days, this line of thinking has carried over into the Internet. There remains an abiding notion that an optimum website design lives above the fold (the depth of your browser window.) But even this is starting to change.

Why Businesses Should Consider Using a Content Management System in 2010

A Content Management System (CMS) is used for creating and managing the content on a website. A CMS offers people who know little about HTML with a set of tools that makes editing a website as easy as editing a Microsoft Word document.

Agency Creative designed and developed a website for Equest that featured a Content Management System. We will use their site as an example to show you why a CMS website was beneficial for Equest and why it can also be beneficial for your business.

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A Content Management System website would allow for you to have less dependence on your developer when it comes to quick edits.

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With time, comes change. Websites should not ignore this rule. With a CMS website, businesses have the power to constantly tweak their website’s content to reflect trends that are always changing.

Let’s examine a brief scenario involving the Equest “About Us” page.



Lets say Equest notices numerous comments on their Facebook fan page about one of their newer services. Naturally, Equest decides it would benefit users if they mentioned this service on their "About Us" page. All they’d need to do is

1. Log in to their CMS with their chosen username and password


2. Find the page (under articles for the CMS system)


3. Add the new content using the built-in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor.


4. Click Save

After those four steps, their “About Us” page would be updated.

Here is the system at a closer look.



On the left side of the page is the WYSIWYG editor. Here users can change the content, upload photos, create links and much more. On the right, there are options to change the Meta description and keywords for search engine optimization purposes.

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Conclusion

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We wanted to give Equest a well-branded site that gave them the ability to make quick edits. The CMS solution was perfect for them. In fact, it is perfect for any business that needs complete control over the speed and implementation of website content editing.

If your industry demands websites with up-to-minute information or you are constantly going to your developer to make edits to your website, a Content Management System is an efficient solution.

If you are interested in learning more about a CMS website for your business, you should contact us at info@agencycreative.com or call us at 972-488-1660. You can also look over two more CMS websites we developed for another client below.

http://www.financialfreedomofamerica.com/

http://www.firstfinancialfreedommortgage.com/

dPi re-energizes its brand

dPi has just named Agency Creative as agency of record. Based in Dallas, dPi is a leading provider of energy and home phone services to the growing pre-paid market. No contracts, no deposit, no I.D. are required to switch on your electricity or home phone. Just pay up front. It’s that easy. But reaching this “pay as you go” market is no easy task. They are a very diverse and mobile group. Consequently, it’s our job to break through language barriers, culture barriers and connect with the dPi customer. We do everything from TV to social media marketing. And it all has to be done in multiple languages for multiple audiences, not to mention multiple channel partners. Everything has to build the brand, as well as build demand. And, at the end of the day, we do it. We do it well. And we do it at a breakneck speed. After all, this is retail.

Holiday Cyber Shopping

Black Friday’s results were an encouragement to American retailers. Sales grew a whopping .05%. Okay, strike “whopping.” Still, considering the poor state of the economy, not too shabby. But the real news is what happened online. There, sales were up 11%. That’s a hefty $595 million. Pretty “whopping.”

Rather than queuing up in your long johns in some frosty parking lot waiting for Walmart’s doors to open, the smart customers pointed and clicked through their Christmas lists. They filled up their cyber shopping carts and checked out without standing in a single line. Plus, they did this all in the toasty comfort of their own homes.

Forecasters believe that Black Friday is just the tip of the iceberg. Trends indicate that online shopping begins to go through the roof on the Monday following Thanksgiving weekend. These emerging trends in holiday shopping reveal how consumers are deepening their love affair with the Internet. Now is the time for marketers to put their brand where the customers are lining up: the Web. You don’t have to have an e-commerce site to see results. Look at social media. A recent survey indicates that Facebook, Twitter and customer reviews are some of the most effective tactics for mobilizing consumers to talk up products (Etailing survey of 117 companies, September 2009). Leveraging social media can improve your organic rankings on search engines, populate the Internet with positive product reviews and even raise the click-through rates of your online banner ads.

Today, having a marketing plan that wisely utilizes the Web is essential in both building your brand and building demand. Marketers who embrace this trend will reap the dividends. Those who don’t will be, like that midnight line in the Walmart parking lot, left out in the cold.