Wow this camera is Good!

Before you invest a lot of your time and energy into an Apple 1to1 class in iPhone photography, consider some of the benefits your competitors receive from working with professional photographers and consider what issues you might be facing.

DIY Photography ~ Doug Brooks – Photography Representative

People who take their own photos to use in advertising or promoting their products or businesses fail to recognize that the inherent lessor quality of their images, as compared to those done by a trained and seasoned professional, often make a negative impression on their potential clients that loses the sale. If the images are sub-par will the product being sold be sub par? If you don’t put the effort into presenting your product in a quality fashion could it be as a result of them not knowing what quality is? How does that impact the sale? Honestly, people may not consciously know why …. but they do respond negatively when something is perceived as being less then stellar.

“Do people know that big marketers often spend a day or more having a single image created for their advertising campaign?

Recently VanKirk photography competed for a job for a boutique company.
No store, all web, and they didn’t understand that their food item had to look fabulous to make the sale.
They asked us how long and how much to shoot just over 30 of their confection items.
We suggested we’d max out at 4-8 per day dependent upon the product itself and how many people were there to art direct.
They wanted all 30+ shot in one day and they needed that day to be the following week.
When I pointed out that would mean taking a picture every 20 minutes in a 10 hour day… no potty breaks allowed, they didn’t get it.
We stated that when it comes to high-end food photography time = quality, that lighting, composition and propping rarely happen that quickly, they simply didn’t get it and didn’t appreciate our attempt to educate them on the subject.

Apparently, someone said they would do it. Someone always does.
So 3 weeks later we found out that the shots weren’t looking that great, the person who accepted the job took nearly 2 weeks to get it done, everyone was unhappy.
It was a lose / lose situation!

When it comes to photography for your business, think twice about DIY photography or the cheapest source and stock photography that makes your site look alike.

When you hire Beyond Big Marketing, you benefit from our experience and perspective from working with a marketing company that understands the value of Professionals like Debra VanKirk and how she can make a difference in your business. Choose this Chicago marketing company and leave DIY marketing to your competition.

Our next blog … What happens when you think your DIY Social Media is “good enough?”

Too many websites are written for the search engines and not for the reader. Google Panda, a new versioning of the world’s largest content aggregator is taking that into consideration when it is delivering it’s results.

The good news is that a well written website or blog stands out from the crowd and elevates your reputation in the eyes of your prospect.

Don’t worry so much about if you have a Facebook page or a Twitter account or how to reap the benefits of a social media until you develop a strategy of what you are going to say.

Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. - Mark Twain

Here are some simple questions to consider when writing online content:

1. Is this a good, useful article that people would want to share?
2. Should I give give credit where credit is due? (link out to thought leaders)
3. Is your communication concise?
4. Is it entertaining?

Google also is taking a closer look at quality of content. Fresh and interesting content is what your customers are looking for. It’s all about relevancy and good intent.

Google has implemented a new tool called the document-level classifier that makes it harder for spammy pages to rank high.

So write original content, make it interesting and if you don’t have the time or the skill to write things well, find somebody who does. 

Unlike AOL, the rest of the Internet doesn’t have an unsend button.

Bart Harris Photography and Beyond Big Marketing have created a marketing package just for you. It includes digital image capture of your artwork, a personal website, 1000 post cards, an online press release. & and a search engine optimization plan for as less than $1,100.

Just ask Linda Boardman, Oak Park fine artist, how she likes her new website and marketing materials.

Visit www.cranecomposites.com

Well that’s not exactly true. Beyond Big Marketing recently teamed up with Crane Composites to make their website dream, a reality. Their website was well thought out and well designed. The problem was, like many large companies, the site needed to function in IE6 along with most current browsers. The site was ready for development but needed expert coding and trouble shooting to make the website concept come to life. Taking existing files and making them compatible and functional is often more difficult than constructing the files from scratch. (which is exactly what we ended up doing) But solid communication and attention to detail helped us deliver this project on time, on target and on budget. The client remarked. “Beyond Big Marketing is great- all went well and we are up with new website now! Thank you again, the site is fabulous!” All we can say is … Thank you Mindy. Look for an innovative on site SEO strategy for Crane Composites in the coming month.

I wish I had a Chicago Marketing agency that understands ....

Engaging a marketing agency for the first time can be like being the new kid on the first day at school. It doesn’t have to be that way. Beyond Big Marketing has recently developed custom solutions for several new businesses in Chicago. We’ve selected an ala carte package of services to start your business off on the fight foot. These services include naming, logo development, collateral materials website and search engine marketing. Many new clients appreciate the ease of entry into a complete marketing solution for their business and the control they have. Beyond Big Marketing wants to become your marketing partner. What does your business need?

At Beyond Big Marketing we know the difference between a writer and a content developer. You need to find a great writer that also knows how to write content for the web. When we write content for the web, we create an excel spread sheet that identifies the targeted keywords for each page. Then we write the title tags, H1 Tags, and copy based on 3 or 4 key phrases per page.

Copy with a purpose

Then we look at the copy to make sure that the content is compelling for the reader.

There’s a lot going on for the content developer, Just ask Kevin. they have to work hand-in-hand with the metrics specialists to make sure that what they write is what people are looking for. They have to accomplish a lot of stuff behind the scenes.

If they do their job well, your website is more profitable.

That’s just one of the marketing strategies we use for our Chicago-based businesses. Let us take a look at your website and we’ll show you how to increase traffic and conversion on your website.

Strategic Project Management Plan

You might be curious how your marketing project might be handled at Beyond Big Marketing? That’s a good question and probably one your customers are wondering about too. Here are some of the tools and tasks we used to manage our website relaunch…

Outlined below is the strategic planning and management tasks for the Beyond Big Marketing Phase II website launch. Above you will see the chart for success to accomplish these goals. There are 5 phases this plan and they need to be adhered to accomplish the goals of the strategic plan.
Discovery Phase will look at competition and goals of the business plan. This will happen even before we proceed into planning. The discovery will be based on developing a deep understanding of the client’s needs and objectives.
The competitive analysis is based on providing a business decision that affects the roll out of design and development. I will take 5 of my top competitors and analyze the home page, site navigation, site organization Links and Labels, Search and Search results, readability, performance, and graphics.
Planning Phase involve establishing prototypes for functionality, developing an information architecture plan, identify keywords and competitive search phrases and build a wireframe to visualize the structured execution plan.

Organizing Phase involves developing a schedule including a Gantt chart (see above) and adhering to the schedule and deliverables. Content Development and Website development are established on a series of milestones.
The content is created in an excel sheet with Title Tags, Metadata, H1 tags Copy and targeted keywords. These are checked for reading ease, content density and conversion. The website structure is based on a site map, flow charts, mad wire frames. These are married to a home page Look and Feel plus a subsequent page design for approval.

Influencing Phase Once the designs are approved, it’s time to get the team on the same page. The time lines, deliverables and goals of the website are all discussed in an open format. All of the pieces of the puzzle are out on the table. This is the time that all need to provide input and suggestions, all possible problems and issues need to be addressed. He key to this phase being executed well is in communication. As a manager I will need to ensure that everyone is set to achieve a more efficient level of operation.

Controlling Phase The complexities of managing this project in different locations and with and skill sets. All information will be available online for the entire team so each can measure their internal performance against the team. Each member can measure the team performance against the organizations stated performance goals.
Closely adhering and monitoring the schedule allows us to attain the stated goals.
Having a clear plan that is transparent to the team and the client, improves morale, increases productivity and provides a quality product.
The chart above only outlines the Phase II website plan. The new business plan will also include a plan to generate new business. But the website needs to be in place before we start driving new customers to it. More on this project later.

If you are a Chicago Business considering doing business in the Internet, it is important to understand your customer and your product. First your product needs to something someone wants and you have to be able to be found by your customer online. Your website needs to be structured in a way that it can be found by people looking for your products. This means that you don’t always need people to find your home page first.

Owning a URL that includes a popular search term is important. Example www.lunchbox.com would be a good one if you sold lunch boxes.
Google considers the age of your URL, links to the site and content on your site as well.

One thing you need to consider if you are targeting a regional audience, you can focus your online marketing on geographical filters to increase your ability to be ranked.

Learn more by contacting www.bigblackpencil.com

Beyond Big Marketing is a small business marketing agency in Chicago. We learn many of our marketing strategies from the very best . Today I learned something about Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think. I recently visited his web site and thought I had uncovered a usability issue in his web site. I wrote Steve an email to let him know my thoughts.

I really wasn’t expecting a response, but Steve wrote me back and I thought I’d share the email with you. The reason I am sharing isn’t just because his understanding of usability and how people search the web is legendary, It’s because he took the time to respond to me. People who listen to their customers, never stop learning.

First my email to Steve …

From: Mark Cramer
To: Steve Krug
Subject: Problem with your site

Steve,

You are my hero. I use your book to make me look smart. I was on your website today and I had to think too much.

Your Version

“So if you know someone who’s going to buy the book, please do me a favor and ask them to buy it by clicking here.”

My Version

“So if you know someone who’s going to buy the book, please do me a favor and ask them to buy it by clicking here.”

Regards,

Mark Cramer

bigblackpencil.com

From: Steve Krug
Subject: RE: Problem with your site
To: Mark Cramer

Mark…

Thanks for the kind words. I figure we can all use all the help we can get to look smart.

About your suggestion: You’re right, of course, and it’s something I never noticed. (Which is exactly why I’m so gung ho about user testing: we’re all too close to our own “stuff” to see the blemishes.)

But this particular flaw also falls in the category of Probably-a-kayak-problem: Even though it may cause a question mark to appear over some people’s heads, it’s hard to imagine that most of them won’t eventually figure out what it’s supposed to mean (click one of the buttons over on the right that say “Buy!”).

My first instinct was to rush in and change it, and in fact I was already in DreamWeaver when I realized it was a little more complicated than it seemed at first. The two paragraphs actually say
Thanks to Amazon’s Associate program, if you use the links on this page to buy my book, they pay me a small commission.

So if you know someone who’s going to buy the book, please do me a favor and ask them to buy it by clicking here.

[“here” actually meaning “on this page”.]

I was going to change the second sentence to read
So if you know someone who’s going to buy the book, please do me a favor and ask them to buy it by clicking _____.

Except I realized I wasn’t sure what _____ would be. “The links on this page”? It already says that in the previous sentence. “One of the buttons on the right”? Kind of awkward, and why did I call them links in the previous sentence and buttons now? Maybe the first sentence should talk about buttons.

And on and on.

So in my book at least, the math works out like this in the long run:

Probably not causing most people a lot of trouble
+ No good solution obvious to me
————————————————————-
Leave it alone and hope for the best

It may not be the right choice, but at least you can see where I’m coming from.

Thanks again, though. It’s always interesting.

Steve