Website
The Challenge
The current website was begging for a facelift. The ‘net has been around long enough that even the most basic user can judge a modern, professional website from an outdated, dated site. Aesthetics matter; people do judge a book, or in this case, a website, by it’s cover. It’s imperative that you put your best foot forward. In addition to spiffing it up to look shiny and modern, the information architecture left something to be desired. You wanted to enter the coffee mug contest? Great, but where is that?
The Solution
We sat down and discussed all of the information they needed to get across to their followers. With that info in hand, I re-organized pages, navigation, and links to build an intuitive site, with an information hierarchy that let visitors quickly find what they sought, while presenting the most important information front and center.
Special Features
Google Calendar Embed
One of the free offerings that Coffee News Maryland is known for is a comprehensive collection of monthly networking events being held in the local area. Visitors to the site must first scroll through the home page and take in all about Coffee News Maryland, but the networking calendar is easily found in the footer. That calendar links to a full page, where again the calendar is embedded, at a larger size. Utilizing calendar embed allows the team at Coffee News Maryland to take advantage of Google’s fabulous calendar features, while more importantly, keeping website visitors on the site.
Google Map Embed
Again, the embedding allows for the use of Google’s awesome features while keeping the website visitor on-site. In this case, we used Google maps individually to show specific distribution of Coffee News at each of their area editions. Consumers of Coffee News know where to pick one up in their local area; advertisers can see the vast number of places that Coffee News, and thus their ad, has the potential to be seen.
Custom Post Type
This allows us to separate blog posts from advertiser posts. All of the blog content that Coffee News Maryland shares, resides on their BLOG page. Categorizing posts as ADVERTISERS, allows Coffee News Maryland to offer their advertisers an additional bonus: more Internet exposure. Each of their advertisers is given its own page — to talk up their business, to offer specials, to showcase images … whatever they wish. It’s just one more place on the Internet that they could possibly be discovered by a new client and it’s included, no additional charge, with their advertising package with Coffee News Maryland.
Website Design
Your digital presence should always start with a great website. After all, there’s no point in sending traffic to a site that doesn’t convert.
Digital Marketing
An awesome website is a tragedy if no one knows about it. Digital marketing tells the world wide web that you exist and that your brand and website can solve problems.
Graphic Design
Everything that goes into making your digital presence look great. A clean, uniform, branded look makes your business look polished and professional, and inspires confidence in your ability to solve problems.
