This year was great. Actually, 2012 was even better than any previous year in the history of TheeDesign Studio!

Our company hired many talented people, launched a lot of great websites, and executed numerous successful SEO and internet marketing campaigns for our clients.

TheeDesign Studio Major Milestones in 2012

• Became an Award-Winning Web Design company with a MarCom Gold Award.
• Remodeled our office to add a third conference room and a more spacious sales floor.
• Hosted several marketing, web design, video production, and educational events.
• Expanded our Raleigh web design and marketing team by:
  • Hiring another in-house talented Web Designer / Project Manager, Tevan Alexander.
  • Adding two more SEO rockstars to our Internet Marketing department: Cole Watts and Lauren Curatola.
  • Expanding our sales team by bringing aboard Eric Gilmore and Michael Dowd.
• Developed and launched our first responsive design websites that work seamlessly on all desktop and mobile devices including computer screens, tablets, and smartphones.
• Gave back to the community by:
  • Raising awareness and donating money for the U.S. Paralympic team.
  • Hosting a community Pumpkin Carving Party.
  • Guest speaking at local universities like NC State and Meredith College’s marketing classes.
  • Holding a Tacky (but funny) Christmas Sweater Contest and gave away a new iPad Mini.
• Featured on WRAL.com and in Raleigh Chamber of Commerce newsletters.
• Grew our client base to over 300 small and mid-size businesses from around Raleigh and the U.S. *And there are no signs of slowing down!

TheeDesign continues to be proud sponsors of:

• Triangle Interactive Marketing Association (TIMA)
• American Marketing Association, Triangle Chapter (TriAMA)
• The Largest SEO Meetup in the U.S.

TheeDesign Studio LOVES our clients and our fans! And this Valentine’s Day, we want to share the love by giving away great free swag from local participating businesses!

For the next three days (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) our social media managers will be posting trivia questions on TheeDesign’s Facebook page. Be the first to answer correctly and you will win a prize from our partner businesses!

Giveaway Rules:

1. Trivia questions will be posted randomly throughout Wednesday February 13th through Friday February 15th, 2013.
2. No purchase necessary.
3. Contestants need to “Like” our Facebook page.
4. The first correct answer left in the comments of the question will be awarded the winner.
5. Trivia winners may only win once.
6. Winner will be notified by Facebook message.
7. Winner must be available to pick up their prize from TheeDesign Studio in Raleigh, NC or the participating business’ location during normal business hours.

Geeky Valentines

TheeDesign Studio has done it again – We are very proud to share that our web design team has won not just one, but TWO, web design awards!

The AVA Digital Awards recently announced their winners for the 2013 international awards competition and TheeDesign Studio was mentioned twice. Our website design for Lizard Lick Towing won a Platinum Award and our website redesign for the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association (TIMA) won a Gold.

There were 2,000+ entries from the United States, Canada and several other countries in the 2013 AVA competition. Only 14% of the entries won the Platinum Award (the organization’s top honor) and about 17% received Gold.

What Are the AVA Digital Awards?

The AVA Digital Awards is an international competition that recognizes outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, direction, design and production of media that is part of the evolution of digital communication. Work ranges from audio and video production to developing websites that present interactive components such as video, animation, and blogs.

Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the web design and digital media industry.

What Does It Take to Make an Award Winning Website?

While the two websites have very different audiences, they both had one thing in common: they needed to be user-friendly. TheeDesign designed and built these websites on a WordPress platform with custom plug-ins and integrations. In addition to being search engine optimized and user-friendly, the two new websites include dynamic social media integration, custom management tools (like member and sponsorship solutions), event calendars, and blogs.

In the ultimate competition between template and custom design, there are a few reasons custom always takes home the gold.

Aspect of Design.

As probably the most obvious choice in website design, custom will always win, hands-down. Simply put, template websites lack individuality. One looks like the other, with no creativity. Also, change in content and metadata is important for ever-evolving best website design practices, and many templates do not offer this flexibility. Offering limited customization options, template designs make it difficult to stay up-to-date with current website design trends.

Coding Best Practices.

As coding is the vital part of a website, custom designed website code always succeeds over template website design code. For one, code in a template is produced once and usually never updated, not up to par with current web standards, or designed to handle the latest integration options. As a result, this can reduce user accessibility and browser and device compatibility. Many times, this code is also bloated and contains errors. Bloated coding slows down load time, which in turn can annoy visitors and lower your page ranking. There may even be a chance template coding is connected via pre-set links to bad sites, which will lead ratings to tank. Lastly, template sites have no regard for SEO practices. Many offer inadequate access to create and change content & metadata, which is a problem for performing best SEO management.

Ultimately, you want to convey your company has something unique to offer, and, just as your business evolves, you want to have a site that can progress the same way. A professional website designer will work with you to design a website that will not only work now, but also as your business needs change.

A website is a reflection of your business-do you want your customers to think yours is just the same as all the rest?

The latest trend in web technology is responsive web design (RWD).

RWD is an advanced form of web design that responds to the screen size and resolution on which the website is displayed. More businesses are adopting this technology to be able to accommodate the millions of mobile searches performed each day.

Not sure RWD if right for you? Maybe this short video by Cole, Tevan and Lauren will help seal the deal:

If our awesome video isn’t enough to sway you in the direction of responsive web design, how about some facts and stats:

• Mobile and tablet internet searches are predicted to overtake desktop internet searches by 2014.
• 67% of users said they would be more likely to purchase from a mobile-friendly website.
• Google LOVES responsive web design, it is easier to crawl, index and organize and makes sharing extremely easy.
• Managing one SEO campaign is easier than two.
• Consumers have a positive user-experience when transitioning from a mobile to desktop view.

Responsive web design is the best option for any SEO strategy. It will not only make your SEO strategy easier, but also provide a positive user-experience across all devices.

It’s a question on every savvy business owner’s mind, and a question our SEO team gets a lot: “How can I make sure my website shows up #1 in Google?”

The bad news: you can’t.
The good news: you don’t necessarily want to be #1 anyway!
What do I mean? Google’s Matt Cutts explains…

Google Webmaster Tools: “No one can guarantee #1 ranking in Google”

Ranking High in Google is Still Important AND Attainable!

Just because you cannot guarantee first place in search results, doesn’t mean that not being in the top isn’t important. Because it is. In fact, it’s very important!

Website listings that show up on page 1 of a Google search result are much more likely to be clicked on and explored than listings that fall on page 2 or beyond. Why? Because most likely the answer or solution to what the visitor was searching for can be found within these top results. There is no reason to browse subsequent pages, unless you haven’t found your answer from the get-go.

Of course with that said, how many of us have done a Google search and if we didn’t see the results we wanted on the first page, we simply rephrased our search parameters (rather than click on more result pages hoping for a match)?

Luckily, there are steps and internet marketing tactics that can be taken to help your website appear consistently in the top results of Google.

1. Check that Google has already indexed your website

You can’t show up in the top of search results if Google’s crawlers don’t first know your website exists. Jen from Google explains how this works.

2. Identify the search terms for which you’d like to be found

If you want your website to rank high, then you must convince Google that pages on your site are highly relevant to what your audience is searching. And you can’t do that until you ask yourself some important questions:

• How are people currently finding your website?
• What phrases are associated with your organization and industry?
• Which of those phrases involve buying intent?

Identifying the keywords that people are likely to use, and for which you want to be found, is a critical step in ranking high in Google.

3. Consider some of the most important ranking factors for SEO

• Quality content
• Excellent website organization and flow
• Citations and backlinks on websites with high domain authority
• Social media presence and activity
• Google+ Local (formally Google Places)
• Customer reviews
• Presence on local directories (ex. Yelp.com)

If you want your website to rank high, then you need to convince Google that it is not only highly relevant for that search phrase, but also that the individual webpages are high quality (and it helps to be popular on social media!).

4. Have an active blog

An active and informative blog is one of the BEST tools you can use to get to the top results of search engines. Google rewards websites that publish new and relevant content on a consistent basis. This is also a form of “Content Marketing” that you should be including in your regular marketing plan already…

Content Marketing is a marketing format that involves the creation, publication, and sharing of media and content in order to acquire customers. This includes a wide variety of media including: news, video, white papers, ebooks, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, Q&A, photos, etc.

5. Stay on top of algorithm updates

Google is constantly updating their ranking algorithms. So what you see today as the #1 search result may not equal tomorrow’s. Don’t be surprised if you see your website move up and down a couple of spots in the rankings on a daily or weekly basis. This is why SEO tactics should always be both flexible and ongoing.

Your address says a lot about you both offline and online. What you might not know, is that where you decide to place your physical headquarters can often have important ramifications on just how your business places in the search engines.

Local SEO and Your Address

If you have used a search engine lately, you might of noticed something weird in your search results. Beyond the usual string of search results, you might have seen local search results based upon your location.

These results were created by Google to help people find local relevant business locations based on a users data. Need a pizza place? Simply type in “pizza place” and see the local results show local pizza places close to you (in this case, Raleigh Glenwood Ave). Or, if you are looking for a plumber looking up “plumber” and watch the local results populate with local plumbers.

Now for your business to show up in these search results, it’s important that your business actually be located in the specific location that the searcher is looking for. A Cary, NC pizza parlor will not show up in the Raleigh listings. Occasionally if a searcher does not have many option, in their local city locations for a particular service or query nearby city options will show up, however this only happens few and far between.

How to Show Up in Google Local

Now having an address in Google Local and submitting your business in Google Places does not mean that you are going to place if someone is searching for your local service or establishment.

Just like any search engine algorithm, there are a variety of factors on why one website ranks higher than the other, but our Raleigh SEO team has learned that the following factors do play an important part:

1. Your Physical Address
2. Your Number of Customer Reviews
3. Your Local Citations

If you have a location related to what the user is searching for plus local customer reviews and local citations pointing to your website, it’s a great help to starting to rank your website in the local search results.

Like many small or medium size business owners, it’s probably that time of the year to get a new website. Everything is going mobile and responsive, so it’s time for you to look around and see what options are available.

One of the most important website platforms these days is WordPress. Created in May of 2003, WordPress has slowly grown to be the home for many powerful websites. It was even reported in August 2011 that 22% of all new websites use the WordPress platform and that 60 million websites use it worldwide.

No longer just an easy content management system that people use for their blog, this open source blogging platform has turned into a powerful content management system that companies around the world are using for their website.

Today more and more companies are using WordPress, as their preferred website platform. Just take a look at a few of the following companies who are using WordPress to the best of it’s ability.

BBCAmerica.com
BBC America uses WordPress to keep television viewers regularly updated on their scheduled programming, as well as to give fans the opportunity to engage regularly with their favorite TV shows.

BestBuyMobile.com
Best Buy Mobile, Best Buy’s mobile division, uses WordPress to help customers find local Best Buy Mobile stores.

Strayer.edu
Strayer University uses WordPress and a variety of plug-ins to connect customers to the Strayer University school options that are available to them.

MTVU.com
MTV’s College division uses WordPress to keep teenagers and twenty something’s updated on opportunities .

Bonnaroo.com
Bonnaroo, one of the US’s biggest annual concerts, uses WordPress to keep fans updated on their ever changing event lineup.

Top Celebrities and Personalities Using WordPress

As you can tell WordPress has many forms, but it’s not just limited to powerful sites such as Best Buy, BBC, and MTV.  Many personalities around the world are using it for their own website as well, this includes: rappers Jay-Z and Snoop Dog, musician Katy Perry, basketball player Steve Blake, comedian Howie Mandel, reality star Kim Kardashian, jazz musician Jane Monheit, actor Channing Tatum, and Olympic Medalist Usain Bolt.

As you can tell, WordPress has gone a long ways from it’s early blogging days.  If you’re looking for a website option, you can’t do any better than going with WordPress.

What happens when you get together a creative team of web designers and internet marketers in Raleigh? You get the Best Triangle Web Design Company!

We are proud to share that TheeDesign Studio has been voted as IndyWeek’s 2013 Triangle’s Best Web Design Company!

IndyWeek is a print and online progressive newspaper, providing culture and commentary for the Triangle. The publication provides information about local happenings, politics, eateries, cultural events and more. Their Annual “Best of the Triangle” awards local businesses around Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill who are nominated and voted by city residents. This year saw more than 10,000 people in the Triangle vote for their favorite restaurants, dentists, lawyers, bakeries, and web designers.

Our team celebrated our award at IndyWeek’s 2013 Best of the Triangle party this past weekend at the Durham Athletic Park. It was a great turnout and we got some fun photobooth pictures taken by our friends at NCFotoBooth!

If we could bring back artists who shaped the history of design, would they make it as a great web designer today? Let’s take a look at Salvador Dali.

If you don’t know who Salvador Dali was, here’s a quick history lesson:

You may know him only by his flamboyant mustache, but more famously, Salvador Dali was known for his striking and bizarre art work. He was a very imaginative, unusual, and often over-the-top. Dali was a Spanish surrealist painter in the mid 1900s. Surrealism was a 1920’s cultural movement, where artists would combine conscious and unconscious elements, making dreams and fantasy found in reality.

There’s no doubt Dali had talent. He was an amazing, imaginative and creative artist. But how would his art stack up as a web design? Lets now take a look at a few basic design principles web designers traditionally follow in this day and age.

Web Design Principles

Functionality

As any successful web designer of today would tell you, a website should have a set of objectives it is trying to achieve. Is the site designed to simply inform? Make a sale? Drive one to contact the company? It doesn’t matter the answer-what matters is if the site functions efficiently to meet its objective.

Content

A website’s content should be as thorough, yet concise, as possible. A website only has seconds to catch someone’s attention. Pair that with keeping the rules of search engine optimization in mind, and you have yourself one tough task.

Conversions

Whatever the goal is for website, it should be done so a conversion could be made. A website has to be set up properly to allow for easy conversions. Prominent calls-to-actions, easy methods of contact, fresh and original content, a professional and honest image-these all help to convert.

Aesthetics

A company’s brand and message must be clearly defined across all platforms-grids, white space, typography-all these small details go a long way. Every element in the design has a purpose.

Miscellaneous Details

Mainly, this category includes the developer side of a website, properly using social media, SEO, creating mobile, or using responsive website design, and so on-all these are important factors as well.

So, would Dali make a good web designer?

After breaking down what makes a strong web design today, I believe Salvador Dali would NOT make a “great” web designer. The principles of his style of art go against basic common principles of today’s web designers.

• Functionality. Surrealism makes one think, whereas a well-designed website should easily give the answer/information they are looking for in seconds.
• Content. Dali’s work was complex. Web design content should be concise, yet get to the point.
• Conversions. Tying in with functionality and content, easy functionality + concise content = conversions.
• Aesthetics. Aesthetically pleasing? Yes. It wouldn’t be argued that Dali would create unique and amazing design. As well, In his art, every detail had a specific purpose. However, back to web design basics-being clear is key.
• Miscellaneous. Since this argument is solely based on the element of design, we’ll just forgo this one.

Another year gone, another year of successful web hosting accomplished! TheeDesign Studio is extremely proud of all that our clients and friends have achieved this year, whether it be in web design, internet marketing, or simply creating a new website altogether.

This holiday, we are especially thankful for all of the support that we have received. As a special thank you, we have created a new referral program just for YOU!

Anyone who refers a friend that becomes a SEO, internet marketing, or web design client will receive one FREE year of web hosting or a complimentary green screen video.

What is the benefit of this program, you may ask? We have provided some of the most renowned benefits of web hosting that can help you understand what we do:

• Support: One of the largest benefits of web hosting is the support you will receive. If you run into an issue, TheeDesign will be there to aid you in whatever you may need. As a company, we will support you until you no longer require our services.
• Differentiating Your Brand: Our goal is to make your web page stand out. We want to drive more people to your site as much as you do, and that means taking the attention away from your competitors.
• Quality: TheeDesign Studio promises quality customer service as well as superior web hosting services. We understand that “half the fun is getting there” and we want to make sure you enjoy the ride as well.
• Peace of Mind: Our objective is to make web hosting simple as well as fun. We want to give our customers the peace of mind about their website that they deserve.

This year, TheeDesign Studio wants only to give a gift and get a gift in return: your partnership. After all, Christmas is about giving, and we promise to give you all we’ve got.

Blog articles can provide useful information that lends value to the success of your law practice. Well written articles describing the value of working with your practice can help spread your prestige and influence.

Blogs Lend Value

Law Offices build their reputation on the clients they have served and the cases they have won. Telling the story of these victories can help potential clients decide to hire your practice. Establishing and actively using a blog for your website can ensure that new content is always present. Telling the stories of your victories can provide supplemental information, and can help convince others that you are the right office for the job.

The purpose of a blog is to tell the story of you brand. Frequently releasing blog posts with relevant information about your industry can broaden your presence and outreach. Each post can tell a different story, and ultimately provide value to the success of your Law Practice. It is possible to paint a vivid image that shows exactly how successful your brand actually is. Expanding the story through additional posts can also work to add culture and prestige to your website.

Use Google Authorship to Spread Influence

Google Authorship is an additional attribute that is designed to help companies spread their influence. Simply by tying a blog post to an author through Google+, your profile picture can begin showing up next to the article title in the search results. Placing a smiling face next to your search results can provide the “human” element to establish a clear path amongst the maze of search results.

Blog posts should be an extension of your business and should allow for active participation among your target audience. It is important for your message to promote the value of your brand, and to drive traffic to your website. Content should remain useful and engaging, allowing for a discussion to arise from your audience. Engagement through blog posts will often lead to the discussion expanding and eventually getting shared through social media by individuals with similar interests.

Blogging isn’t just about stay-at-home moms posting recipes. Thoughtfully crafted company blogs are actually a viable, modern-day form of business advertising.

We put together this roundup of most visited articles on our blog in 2013 as a great way to review the year and see what was (2013’s posts) and still is (most visited overall) important to web design, internet marketing and SEO.

We ran the numbers, and thanks to YOU, our readers, we had an outstanding year with visits to our blog. Here are the top 10 written this year as well as the top 10 from all-time.

Top 2013 Blogs in 2013

1. Facebook Responsive Web Design Photo Contest
2. 2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party & Halloween Open House
3. Google AdWords in 2013 (Infographic)
4. Social Media Marketing Tips from Gary Vaynerchuk
5. Snapchat: How to Incorporate it in Your Business Marketing Strategy
6. Original Designs of World’s Biggest Websites
7. How to Show Up #1 in Google
8. Twitter Tips to Engage Your Audience
9. iPad Air and the Importance of Responsive Design
10. 5 Brands You Didn’t Know Use WordPress

Top All Time Blogs for 2013

1. Creative & Effective Contact Pages
2. Evolution and Rumors About the Apple Logo
3. What Is a Vector Logo?
4. Setting Up Magento with USPS
5. How Did We Spend Our Fourth of July?
6. Setting Up Users and User Roles in Magento
7. The Difference Between Hexadecimal and Pantone Colors
8. The Most Common WordPress Functions
9. Facebook Responsive Web Design Photo Contest
10. The Three Layers of Web Design

TheeDesign Studio is off to a great start in 2014 – We are excited to share with the world that we have won TWO new awards for web design, one Gold and one Platinum!

The AVA Digital Awards, an international competition that recognizes creative professionals, recently announced their list of winners for the 2014 international awards competition. We were pleased to see that we were picked among thousands of incredible companies, not once, but twice! We were honored with a Gold award for our website responsive redesign work on TheeDesign’s site, as well as a Platinum award for S&ME.

This past year, the AVA Digital Awards received approximately 2,100 entries from throughout the United States, Canada, and many other countries such as Great Britain, Denmark, and Hong Kong. Around 14% of applicants won AVA’s Platinum award, while 16% received a Gold award, one percent less than last year.

More Information on the AVA Digital Awards

The AVA Digital Awards is an global competition in which companies submit entries for their work on planning, concept, direction, design and production of digital communication. AVA receives a myriad of different work entries to consider for awards, such as website design, social media work, mobile marketing, responsive design, campaign work, and audio and video production.

The AVA’s started in 1994 as a celebration of the audio-visual arts and has grown to appreciate all forms of website and design creativity. The AVA Awards is judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), which is comprised of marketing and communications experts.

The Pieces of the Puzzle: How to Create an Award Winning Website

TheeDesign Studio prides itself in working hard to create user-friendly, easy-to-navigate websites. TheeDesign has created and built websites through a WordPress platform with custom plug-ins for the company’s needs. We focus on creating search engine optimized websites; we also create responsive designed websites for those who want their sites to be easily viewed on phones and tablets.

What started as a modest Tweet for National Pet Day, turned into a great example of Twitter marketing done well.

One of TheeTeam members, Heather Curtis, tweeted from her personal account about #NationalPetDay and it caught the pet food brand Purina’s attention.

They were clearly monitoring the #NationalPetDay hashtag for opportunities to chat with people and they found a good person to talk to! Heather pulled TheeDesign into the conversation which gave us an opportunity to share a photo of our office Chihuahua, Micki, sporting a branded t-shirt.

Well, Purina may or may not have thought the lil Chihuahua was a cat… regardless, their response to our image had the entire office roaring in laughter!

Well, not everyone on TheeTeam was in chuckles. Some of the dog lovers decided to up the ante and have the puppy Sam step in…

…which led to more witty responses from Purina.

Alas, once our social media team saw the tweet come through from Purina about a conference call, it was near the end of the work day and time to wrap up the fun.

All of this is great but what does this mean for your business?

It can mean a lot of things! Who would of thought that a Raleigh web design agency would be having an engaging conversation with a pet food company on Twitter?

If you are a business owner we suggest that you take a look at the following tips from our conversation with Purina and find out how people are marketing in today’s social media world.

Claim your branded account early.

TheeDesign has been active on Twitter since 2009 and Purina since 2011. By claiming your social media accounts early, you not only prevent someone from using your brand name (i.e. the 100s of Justin Beiber Twitter accounts out there) but you also get the opportunity to engage with your customers early on before anyone else gets to them.

Monitor brand mentions and relevant keywords.

There are a variety of ways to track keywords using tools like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or more powerful tools like Radian 6. You want to always be aware of brand or product mentions so that you can respond appropriately and handle customer service issues if needed.

Engage with your audience on topics that are important to THEM.

Purina doesn’t rely on income from your pet going to work… they just want to sell more pet food! But the savvy social media managers for Purina understand that #PetsAtWork is important to their target market.

By monitoring and joining conversations related to #PetsAtWork and #NationalPetDay, they are able to find opportunities for engagement. And by joining those topics of conversation in meaningful and creative ways, they gain trust and valuable brand recognition from potential pet food buyers.

Use great images!

Images and videos are powerful in social media no matter if you’re using Twitter, Facebook, or G+. Purina’s team knows this and created funny captions on cute pictures of pets in office settings. They are relatable, funny and thus, sharable!

Remember: Social media is about relationships and NOT asking for sales.

Long term social media success is about being engaging, which is why Purina focused the conversation on pets and not on products.

Major Takeaway:

There are opportunities to engage with potential customers ALL around. It simply takes a little creativity (and sometimes dog treats)!

As Uncle Ben once said, “With great power comes great responsibility, especially when picking the right location for your business”. Ok, he might not have said those exact words to Peter Parker before becoming Spiderman, but they still ring true for business owners looking to set up shop.

Choosing a location for a new business is a huge responsibility and one of the most important decisions a business owner will make. Location can affect how a business markets itself, how it operates, its sales, and its plans for future growth. And we know this firsthand, as our web design office in Raleigh has only added to our success, allowing us to empower small businesses for 10 years.

To help local Raleigh businesses reach the same success, we’re offering tips for determining the right location. Keep the following factors in mind:

Competition

A business’s location can affect the competition it faces. What is your competition like and where are they located? Setting up shop in an area with few direct competitors can help increase the chances of attracting customers and clients.

Also see what your competitors are doing online. Just because they aren’t physically located in your city doesn’t mean they aren’t marketing to people who live in it.

Marketing

Your location should complement your marketing campaign, both on the street and online. Is your store/office visible from the street? Do you have a sign or other marketing materials outside promoting your business? These are key marketing materials that can get you noticed by potential customers and clients.

A well-designed, responsive website, that is consistent with your brand, should also include your physical address and phone number. This will help customers find you online and get them into your store or office. Local SEO can also help make sure you’re visible online, promoting your business through both organic search results and PPC.

Plans for Future Growth

When looking at locations for your business, think about where you want to be in 10 years. How many employees will you need? How much storage space, store-front space, parking, etc. Preparing for the future can save you time and money further down the road.

Also keep in mind up and coming neighborhoods and cities. Neighborhoods and cities that are being developed or even re-developed can be great starting points for getting your brand/company noticed.

Other factors to keep in mind are:

• Local Labor Market
• Proximity to Suppliers
• Zoning
• Safety
• Taxes

Use your “spider-sense” or business-intuition when picking your location. After all, you know your industry and customers better than anyone else.

Soon you’ll be the next friendly neighborhood Spiderman… err business!

Join the Celebration!

Our 10 part series leads up to an exciting celebration: “TheeDesign Studio’s Marvel-ous 10 Year Anniversary Party”

When: 6-9pm Thurs June 19th, 2014
Where: The Hive bar/restaurant downtown Raleigh

Won’t you join us and our cast of local superheroes?
Register now! It’s free.

One way to succeed in business is to make productive use of your time. Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1748, “Remember that time is money.” He went on to explain that if you spend time being idle, then your wages during that time are wasted. That excellent business advice is even more relevant today considering how fast the business world moves.

Businesses that don’t run smoothly and make valuable use of their time will inevitably get left behind. The good news is, there are many tools available that superheros can use to move their business ahead of the competition in a flash!

Time Management Tools

Since we’re a web design and internet marketing company, it’s probably no surprise that we like to use web applications to keep our work flowing. These are some of our favorites…

Basecamp

Basecamp is the project management tool that helps us stay on top of all our projects here at TheeDesign. It’s web-based, easy-to-use, and very reliable.  Our President can get a big picture view of what’s going on across the company, and the project managers can manage all the details. We can even share files and communicate with our clients and the whole team through the app. Basecamp is a big reason why our projects run smoothly and efficiently.

Harvest

Harvest is pretty new to our arsenal of tools, and so far we’re happy with it. It’s an online time tracking application that integrates with Basecamp and QuickBooks. Our projects and tasks are recorded in Basecamp, then the time is entered and the invoices are created in Harvest. We use the Harvest Chrome extension so we can enter the time directly in Basecamp and it magically appears in Harvest. The invoice data is imported in QuickBooks for our accounting records. This has been an efficient work flow for us and it limits the need for a huge accounting department.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is the #1 small business accounting software that handles our accounting and payroll and prepares TheeDesign’s owner for tax time. Its apps for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices allows us to take photos of receipts, email customers, and send invoices on the go. QuickBooks integrates with Harvest, SalesForce, and many popular shipping, eCommerce, payroll, and scheduling tools.

Google Calendar & Google Docs

Google Calendar keeps all of our schedules in one place so we can quickly see who is available, which conference rooms are booked, and who is out of the office. Google Docs is another web application that helps to keep us organized and share files with each other.

Evernote

If you’re a business superhero, you probably have a ton of valuable information you need to store and access quickly and Evernote is here to save the day. Evernote is not used company wide at TheeDesign, but I personally love it and some of my coworkers do, too. Evernote stores and organizes all of my notes, business cards, web clips, files, and images in the cloud and makes them available on all of my computers and devices. That’s really helpful when I’m off-site for a meeting or doing a little work at home. You can take pictures of your handwritten notes and store them with tags so you can search for them later, and if you have a premium account, even the text in photos is searchable! Now that Evernote has added tasks with reminders and notifications, it’s also handy for tasks so I don’t need a separate to-do app anymore. Holy Organized, Batman!

Desk.com

We use Desk.com to provide customer service to our existing customers. We ask all of our clients to send support requests to support@theedesign.com and they’re automatically logged in Desk.com and we’re notified. All communication about the request is done in the app and we log the tasks and time in Basecamp and Harvest.

The Desk.com website describes their product as a customer service application that combines all your channels into one über accessible location and provides powerful tools so you can deliver heroic support with ease. It’s like it was made for  Superheroes!

Salesforce

Salesforce is another important tool for superheroes to use to grow their businesses. TheeDesign uses this customer relation management (CRM) tool to manage contacts, gather leads, and manage sales deals.

Easy Clocking

The Easy Clocking time clock is a state-of-the-art fingerprint authentication technology that we use to track employee’s time and attendance with the touch of a finger. It integrates with QuickBooks and it has many time and attendance reports that can be easily exported to Excel, Word, PDF and to many payroll provider applications.  So even if your Spidey-sense is off, Superheros can still know who’s in the office, who’s on break, and who might need to be rescued and returned to the office.

Flame On!

We know being a business Superhero isn’t easy, so we hope this peek into our work flow and processes at TheeDesign was helpful. Please share this with your fellow heroes, and tell us about your favorite time management tools in the comments. We hope to see you at the party! Up, Up, and Away!!

Join the Celebration!

Our 10 part series leads up to an exciting celebration: “TheeDesign Studio’s Marvel-ous 10 Year Anniversary Party”

When: 6-9pm Thurs June 19th, 2014
Where: The Hive bar/restaurant downtown Raleigh

Won’t you join us and our cast of local superheroes?
Register now! It’s free.

Being a business owner is hard in today’s world, but being a networker is even harder. After you craft your mission statement and finalize what products you will be selling, it’s important that you start reaching out to your target market. Afterall, what is a superhero without his friends?

Having a website is great but if you’re a new business and aren’t ranking in the search engine pages, it’s important that you network and let you friends know about it.

Networking Like a Super Hero

As a team of Raleigh internet marketing specialists, we understand it’s important to target the events that are important you. Here in the Triangle there are a variety of networking events depending on what your interests are. You can often find networking events on Meetup.com, Eventbrite.com, and even your local entertainment newspapers.

Once you have chosen the events that you want to go to, it’s important that you take your business cards in your pocket and actually attend them. If you show up sooner you can often network with many of the early birds before anyone else is away.

Sit down beside people you want to meet. It’s often important if you target key people before you even leave. Many websites will have the names of people before you leave.

During the event sit and listen. Be Comfortable, walk up to people you don’t know, and greet them and shake their hands. Talk to them and let them know what you think is best. Never forget to smile and nod, that will earn you major points even if you are not listening.

Once you’re done with the event don’t forget to look the person up on LinkedIn! We often suggest waiting 24-48 hrs before you add someone, you don’t want to be too needy. Find the person up with them on LinkedIn and don’t forget to follow up on their skills or whatever you have to follow. Remember ask what you can do, not what you can sell.

Networking on Social Media

Networking in live events is great but it’s important that you know how to understand how to network using social media. No matter if you are using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, or Google+ it’s important that you understand how the networking etiquette using the platform. Each platform has its best networking capabilities, but you might want to stay away from using Facebook as it’s considered a closed network.

Social Media offers great opportunities to network. If you’re a Twitter User Moz’s FollowerWonk is a great tool for to use to find people who are relevant to you and your audience. If you don’t have the capabilities in mind, that’s find. We suggest that you find people in your space and find out who they are talking too.

Most importantly don’t forget to engage. Engage with your audience and engage with people who you want to know.

Join the Celebration!

Our 10 part series leads up to an exciting celebration: “TheeDesign Studio’s Marvel-ous 10 Year Anniversary Party”

When: 6-9pm Thurs June 19th, 2014
Where: The Hive bar/restaurant downtown Raleigh

Won’t you join us and our cast of local superheroes?
Register now! It’s free.

Many superheroes excel because of the awesome work they do to benefit the community. Once the local community believes in you, they will rally behind your business and strengthen your position as a leader. Establishing and maintaining an email list of local citizens will establish your brand and keep people interested!

Successful branding and effective business exposure can appear daunting for those that are unfamiliar with email and internet marketing. The first step towards successful community outreach should be to measure the effectiveness of your brand as a leading voice in the community.

Actively Pursue Contact Information

It is important to maintain open lines of communication with your clients and customers by staying in contact with those you meet. Your employees, website, and social media accounts are valuable tools that can help facilitate the gathering of email addresses.

Contact information from customers can be difficult to receive, but it is extremely rewarding.The better your employees are trained to think beyond today’s sales, the better equipped your business will be to succeed tomorrow!

Contests held at trade shows and local events can be an extremely effective way to gather business cards, phone numbers, emails and home addresses.

Search for Referrals

Consistently reaching out to your customers is a great way to spread your influence. Newsletters will keep your business name relevant and allow for referral opportunities from people on your email marketing list. This is why it is extremely important to actively develop and maintain a list of email contacts in order to maintain contact with those in your community.

Newsletters are a valuable resource to utilize once your email list has been compiled. Weekly and monthly newsletter publications allow for your business to reach out to prospects and customers and remind them of the good your business is doing for the community.

Keep Their Attention

The more engaged your brand is with customers, the more likely they will respond to your outreach. Interactions with the community should help build a customer base over time, and once your business is established, the outreach should lead to your growth for many years.

Once you have actively established an email list, remember to contact your loyal customers about upcoming news, deals, events and sales. This will help to keep your outreach affordable and effective at driving traffic!

Join the Celebration!

Our 10 part series leads up to an exciting celebration: “TheeDesign Studio’s Marvel-ous 10 Year Anniversary Party”

When: 6-9pm Thurs June 19th, 2014
Where: The Hive bar/restaurant downtown Raleigh

Won’t you join us and our cast of local superheroes?
Register now! It’s free.

I have attended several business networking events and educational management seminars during the years I run my own web design and internet marketing agency. On these events, I discussed a lot of different things with my fellow business owners.

All of us were talking about different industry specific challenges but in most cases, business owners shared one thought: it’s hard to find good people and even more difficult to keep the super ones. I have been fortunate enough to have built TheeTeam of superheroes over the past 10 years now.

I asked myself and my fellow business owners, why do we think finding good people is difficult? How do you describe a good employee? What can we do to transform our average employee to good, then from good to SUPER?

Lead by Example

One of the first ways to get top performance from your employees is to lead by example. Be one of the first ones in the office every day and one of the last ones to leave. This lets your people know you have strong work ethics and you are not asking more from them that you are willing to give for yourself.

Exhibit a Positive Attitude

Most small and medium size businesses experience challenges and growing pains especially in their early years. Always be open and honest to talk about these difficulties with your people but you also need to talk positively about the opportunities to be able to solve the challenges that your business is facing. Having a good business plan and sharing it with your people can be a great way to keep everyone on track and moving the business in the same direction.

Reward Good Performance

Monetary bonuses are not necessarily the best ways to reward people. It can help but employees also appreciate a few nice words or a “bonus day off” after a large but successfully executed project. The method of rewards can be vary but the result should be motivated employees.

Empower Your Employees to Satisfy Your Customers

If your front line employees can’t take care of your customers, who can? Your people should have the power and the authority to make things right within a reasonable dollar amount and know who to take the problem if the situation can’t be resolved within a reasonable budget. Establish processes for your most common scenarios and handle all unique situations on a case by case basis with a supervisor.

Seek Employee Feedback

Good business owners seek for ways to encourage their people to communicate with them. You should look for feedback on ways to improve operations, internal processes, sales methods, and generally how to do things better. One way to do this is to maintain easy access to you. So, your people can feel free to communicate their ideas with you. It’s another important rule that I learned on my own, “praise in public and criticize in private.”

Train and Cross Train Your People

I truly agree with this old adage: It’s bad if you train your people but they leave but it’s even worse if you don’t train them and they stay!

It’s a good idea to cross training your people to be able to make them to perform a variety of job functions. This helps employees feel they are more important for the company and keeps them from getting board. It also gives them a sense of job security. Cross training employees also helps the business to be more flexible if someone is out due illness or an employee leaves the company.

In short, the skills, attitude and productivity of your employees can make or break your company. Hire the right people, train them well, listen to what they have to say, and reward your best performing employees. Never forget that, great people are the greatest assets of all successful businesses.

Join the Celebration!

Our 10 part series leads up to an exciting celebration: “TheeDesign Studio’s Marvel-ous 10 Year Anniversary Party”

When: 6-9pm Thurs June 19th, 2014
Where: The Hive bar/restaurant downtown Raleigh

Won’t you join us and our cast of local superheroes?
Register now! It’s free.