The Web Design Brief

Taylor Preston are a modern meat export processing plant in Wellington, New Zealand. Synonomous with quality meats and excellent customer service they required a new responsive website to advertise their products and services, and provide regular updates to their customers.

The Strategy

After planning and consultation with Taylor Preston it was clear we needed a site that could grow with the company and be easily updated. For this reason a clean website design was selected. The design is highlighted with Taylor Preston’s brand colours and bright New Zealand photography.

A number of different photoshoots were overseen and organised by Eloquence World Design at various location throughout the North Island and at Taylor Preston’s processing plant. The photos were taken by Brett Stanley Photography, providing Taylor Preston with a library of images they could use not only within the site but also future advertising and marketing promotions.

The website was coded with the help of the team at Plastic Studio using Silverstripe as the framework.

View the full Taylor Preston website design

About Page

Farmers Page

Contact Page

World Clock App

View this web design project on Behance

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While it’s important to make your website easy to find online, you also want to ensure you’re meeting your audience’s needs and giving them the information they want once they arrive. A website can be very expensive to build upfront, so it needs to work.

Here are 6 of the most common problems I’ve found with small business websites along with some practical tips for addressing them.

1. Overlooking your target audience

 
Rule number 1 of any successful business is to know your audience. If your website is going to have any level of success it needs to be designed with your customer in mind. Your business might have multiple audiences; but being too broad, and saying that your product is for everyone, will weaken your message. By profiling certain types of customer you can better address the benefits of your product or service that they’re looking for.

If your website isn’t targeting specific kinds of people then you might want to rethink it’s content and design.

For example: the website of a dentist might have a target audience of mother’s in their 30’s or 40′s who are looking for a dentist for their family. That’s a very specific framework to work within and it allows you to identify the benefits of your service that are relevant to that kind of person.

2. Having a poor design

 
Having a badly designed website is actually more serious than something just not looking pretty. Websites that provide a poor user experience are actually downranked by Google. So you could could be losing valuable placings and therefore potential revenue from a poorly designed website.

A big concern is using clichéd stock images on websites. These types of stock images can actually be very damaging to use because they are widely used on spam sites; to the point where they can actually significantly reduce the level of trust a customer puts in your site and therefore your business.

If you do use stock images try to be selective about the choices you make and avoid the clichés, or hire a professional photographer to take custom images for you.

3. No call to action

 
Every successful piece of marketing needs a call to action. What is the single most important thing you want a user to do when they visit your website? Do you want them to book an appointment? Buy a product? Contact you? Or subscribe to your newsletter? If you don’t have a call to action, you need one and whatever it is it needs to be clear, and immediate, and on every page of your site.

4. Thinking a website is complete and not updating it regularly

 
Websites are never complete. They are always a work in progress. You should constantly be making changes and small upgrades to improve your site and add new content. In fact if you don’t regularly make changes to your site your Google ranking will drop. Google and other search engine robots believe your site is deserted if nothing has been edited for a long time.

Adding sections to your site that you can regularly add new pages to is really important. It’s the single best way to boost search results. These sections might include a blog, latest news, before & after photos, or case studies. These sections allow you to add new content easily and build up your keywords. Meaning your website gets more hits.

5. Not including keywords in your web content

 
Having well written content is important, what’s also important is to identify and use keywords in that content so that search engines will pick up your site.

Here’s a tip:

Write down 5 words or phrases you think people will type into Google when searching for a business in your industry. Imagine they don’t know you, and have never needed your service before. What might they type into Google to find you?

Then read the content on your website and count how many times those exact words and phrases appear.

If your keywords appear less than 10 times in your site you have a serious problem that you should address immediately. Fix the problem by rewriting your content to include your keywords more often – but remember it still needs to make sense to your audience.

6. Not having a mobile friendly website

72% of New Zealanders now have smartphones. This means that there are actually more people surfing the web on their phones than on desktop computers. If a smart phone user visits your website and it isn’t optimised for mobile they will most likely leave and go to your competitor.

A mobile optimized website can result in 67% higher conversion rates. And when you consider that more than 25% of New Zealanders have at one time made a purchase or booking from their smartphone that’s a lot of potential revenue you could be throwing away by not having a mobile optimised site.

If you would like help designing or upgrading a website contact Eloquence World Design now

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Design Brief

TCB Dental Lab are one of the most successful denture clinics in New Zealand. After 19 years in business, the owners, Tom and Amanda, decided it was time to modernize their business’ image and start building an online presence.

Initially they contacted Eloquence World Design to design a website which would be easy to update, allow their patients to book appointments online and be optimized for all devices, including mobile and tablets. After a few discussions with the client it was decided to refresh all marketing and brand touchpoints at the same time, including designing a new logo.

Design strategy

The design strategy was to showcase the business as friendly, modern and gentle, whilst staying true to the brand values that they had built over 19 years. In discussions with the client the name was updated from TCB Dental Labs, which was a little sterile and vague, to TCB Dentures, which is friendlier and more specific to their service offering.

Three logo designs were developed and mockups showing how the logos would be used across the brand were presented to the client. The final brand that was selected had a soft, relaxing colour palette and the logo design has subtle references to Mount Taranaki and dentistry.

The website was built using an Off-the-Shelf Web Design package and customized to the needs of the business and the new brand aesthetic. Along with the visuals, Eloquence World Design worked alongside the client to develop content for the site to improve SEO results. Visit the TCB Dentures website here

Specific design tasks included:

• Brand renaming
• Logo design
• Website design (responsive WordPress site)
• Business cards
• Letterheads
• Appointment cards
• Information sheets
• Newspaper/magazine advertisements
• DL rack cards
• Building signage for interior and exterior

The Outcome

Within weeks of the new website launching TCB Dentures went from having no web presence at all to being ranked second on Google for their key search phrase. Their new print advertisements have been successful in bringing in new business and existing customers have loved the new look and feel of the business.

“After 19 years in business we decided that it was time to improve and modernise our image. Jen from Eloquence World Design was great to work with, she is very intuitive and was able to understand our philosophy and translate that into a total rebranding, from stationery to signage, promotional material to website. This has been an extremely successful and enjoyable process. We have seen increased consumer confidence and sales. We are thrilled with the results and highly recommend Eloquence World Design to any potential clients.”

- Tom & Amanda, Owners, TCB Dentures

View this project on Behance

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Here are 6 simple ways you can create more female appeal and boost your profits:

1. Pay attention to customer service

Research shows that women have higher expectations of customer service than men do. Whether that service is face-to-face, online, or over the phone, women will leave as a result of poor, disrespectful or frustrating service.

In a study polling 5,800 consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, 45 percent of people said they would pay a premium for good customer service. Think about how you can design and integrate customer service touchpoints across all channels to make a more enjoyable experience for her. Are store signs designed to show her the way to specific products and service counters? Can you add an online chat service to your website? Are you advertising delivery options outside of traditional business hours, so she doesn’t have to take a day off work? Can she schedule an appointment immediately without waiting to be called or emailed back? How easy is it for her to find what she needs from you on her mobile phone, in three minutes or less?

2. Pass the Buchanan Test

When targeting women ‘pink’ is not a marketing strategy, nor is motherhood. Try to avoid pigeonholing women into stereotypical groups. The Buchanan Test (inspired by The Bechdel Test) was designed to test stereotyping of women in advertising. Look at your most recent ads featuring women, whether they’re print or digital and see if you can answer “yes” to the following three questions:

1. Do you feature a woman outside of the home?
2. Do you feature a woman in a role other than “mother”?
3. Is she NOT doing yoga?

You’d be surprised by how many ads fail this simple test but when you can break away from the stereotypes that’s when women feel inspired, like in this ad from Under Armour:

 ’Protect this house. I WILL’ / Under Armour

 3. Choose imagery that resonates

Think about how your business can break away from stereotypical images in your ads, brochures and website design. Did you know that most women-owned businesses are run out of a home office and employ fewer than five people? If you’re targeting female business owners it makes you think twice about choosing that stock image of the “business woman” wearing a skirt suit, stiletto heels and crossing her arms, doesn’t it? Luckily, Getty Images and Sheryl Sandberg’s organization, Lean In, have joined forces to release a fantastic new stock photo collection with 2,500 images breaking down stereotypes about gender roles, called the “Lean In Collection.”

Tara Moore / Getty Images

4. Offer women incentives not discounts

Women are savvy shoppers and will look for the best offer, which may not always be price orientated. Providing a memorable experience will ensure women become loyal brand advocates. Take price out of the equation and focus on other benefits you can offer her; then communicate those incentives to her with sophisticated graphics that go straight to her inbox or Facebook feed. 

Can you provide a complementary service or partner with another business for mutual benefit?

Tootsies Boutique in California has 3 pedicure stations right in the middle of it and regularly offers pedicure specials as incentives to come shop for shoes. Take that online shopping! (Tootsies Boutique)

5. Address her ‘Invisible Others’

The real reason women buy more is actually not very exciting. In reality it’s because they purchase for others. In virtually every society around the world, women have primary-caregiving roles and as a result they are constantly evaluating how their shopping decisions will impact those they care about. Bridget Brennan author of Why She Buys says, “women are multiple markets in one. They are the gateway to everybody else.” When selling to a woman try to find out who else might be using the product, be it a new refrigerator, a television or a car; in doing so you will be able to point out specific features of the product that might appeal to their ‘invisible others’ and as a result remove hidden barriers to the sale.

If the product is specific to her, such as lingerie or shoes, create a dedicated entertainment zone in the store for her husband or child so she can shop at her leisure without guilt. Communicate these messages visually in your product brochures and in-store.

6. Surprise and delight her

When it comes to building a reputation for excellent customer service a key element is ‘surprise’. In their study (2001) on anticipation and emotion, Mellers and McGraw found that “surprising outcomes have greater intensity than expected outcomes. Surprise amplifies the emotional experience.” Women in particular are looking for extra, emotional reasons why they should care about a brand based on it caring about them.

Ritz-Carlton are the masters of ‘surprise and delight’. In an approach they call “Radar On – Antenna Up”, Ritz-Carlton employees are trained to anticipate the unexpressed needs of their guests and are empowered to act on them.

For example: “A couple arrives at the hotel, wife is six months pregnant. Normal service would be to observe and do nothing – at best help with the bags. But at Ritz Carlton, antenna up means they get a special pillow for sleeping and alcohol free sparkling cider instead of champagne.”

Empower your sales staff to respond and act on unspoken cues. Have beautiful stationery designed for personal handwritten notes to be sent to customers when a special occasion arises. After all it’s the little things that matter.

Ritz-Carlton – The Employee Promise

Article by Jennifer Crehan, Eloquence World Design
If you would like help designing professional communications and brand marketing for your female audience contact Jennifer at Eloquence World Design:

www.eloquence.co.nz
jennifer@eloquence.co.nz
027 493 1986
Level 1, 14 Blair St, Wellington

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If you’re looking to create a professional marketing brochure for your business, here are five tips that will help you create a brochure with a big impact.

1. Get your content right

Copywriting is one of the most essential elements of any effective marketing campaign. Brochures typically offer a larger canvas on which to pitch your case to prospective customers but selecting the right words that get people to take some form of action can be tricky. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to focus on information instead of persuasion. Brochure copy should begin with your customer not your product. Sell benefits, not features and show them how your product or service makes their life better, easier, or more profitable.

2. Keep it simple

Don’t try to oversell. Keep your content clear and concise. You don’t want to overwhelm your customers with information overload that leaves them unsure of the action they should take. When planning your brochure design work out a simple and clear structure and stick to it! It’s absolutely vital to plan what you want your brochure to do. Is it too inform people of a new service? To increase brand awareness? To showcase your products? Write down your objective and make sure you don’t get sidetracked into including information that isn’t relevant to that goal. Always include a call to action which tells your customers what you want them to do and how they can do it.

3. Be true to your brand

Spielplan Oper Graz 2013/14 season brochure design

As well as the words you use, the look and feel of your brochure needs to promote your company image and communicate who you are. Whether you’re a slick, cloud-based tech venture or an eco-friendly range of skincare products, the images, colours and typefaces you use need to be on brand and consistent with your other marketing collateral. If all of your print and web communications look like a family, you’re well on your way to making a cohesive brand which people can get excited about.

4. Use a clean design

Brochure design for Mareiner Holz, leading wood processor in Central Europe

All companies are different and have different design aesthetics, but whether your businesses brand-style is crisp and white or bold and colourful your brochure design still needs to look fresh and be easy to read. Use empty space to it’s best, make sure headings are clear and images are relevant and pull out key features to make a big statement. Just because you have a lot of content doesn’t mean everything is of equal importance. Pick out your brochure’s key items and show them at their best.

5. Use pictures

The Norwegian Opticians’ Association brochure design

Using pictures is a great way to add visual interest to your brochure design. No one wants to read a textbook! Inspire your customers with enticing photographs or illustrations and use them to draw attention to particular areas of text you want your customers to focus on. For example if using a photograph of a person you can have them looking in the direction of the text and your readers will look there too.

If you’re wanting to design a professional marketing brochure for your business we can help.

Email Eloquence World Design to ask for a FREE consultation

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