When people think of a brand often the first image that comes to mind is the logo. Companies like Nike, Apple, and Starbucks can be identified if you only see the logo – the name is not even necessary. In today’s digital world, branding is way more than just a logo. A consistent identity must go very deep within company collateral. It needs to communicate not only the values of the company, but also the careful precision and attention to detail.
Have you been hearing Google’s drum roll these past few days? Google announced earlier this year that it will be using mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, and this update rolled out yesterday. If your website already provides an optimized mobile experience, you should be benefiting from it immediately. Google has clearly stated that it’s in favor of a responsive design approach, yet two in eight websites are not mobile responsive. If you website doesn’t provide an optimized experience for mobile users it’s safe to say that Google will take this into consideration and your site will be listed lower in the mobile search results.
To get started, we would suggest testing your web pages to see if they are currently mobile friendly. Also, visit Google.com using your mobile device and search for your business. Google search should come back with your website near the top and with a “mobile friendly” tag next to the link, if your site is compliant.
We’re here to help! If you have questions about how this update affects your organic search ranking and/or what can be done to make your current website mobile friendly/responsive please let us know.
It’s hard to put into words the excitement we had about being apart of Please Be Kind to Cyclists’ new project, DriveKind RideKind. If you don’t already know, DriveKind RideKind is an initiative of Please Be Kind to Cyclists that works with bicyclists, motorists, policy-makers, and community members to educate, raise awareness, and promote mutual respect between drivers and cyclists on the road. Their hopes are to create a global social change in the behaviors of motorists and cyclists so both may use the roads safely.
In order to spread all of the wonderful things this initiative had to offer, Please Be Kind to Cyclists partnered with numerous local agencies. One of the most important things they felt they needed was a user friendly website to provide up to date information for all of their audience about sharing the road. That’s where we came in. We collaborated closely with Please Be Kind to Cyclists as well as TX-DOT to create a new and user friendly responsive website to tell their story. From start to finish, we have been inspired by this mission and are very excited to share it with the world.
We were very excited to get an opportunity to collaborate alongside Cox Media to tackle a website redesign for Career Point College. At first glance, we knew this website needed a makeover, and we were full of ideas on how to revamp their site and promote further success for Career Point College. To begin with, they were managing multiple websites that essentially had the same information on them. So right off the bat, we knew we needed to not only develop an updated website, but also to create a way for students and prospectives to access information in a single location.
The State Bar of Texas sought out help from our team here at HMG to revamp its online presence towards its members (lawyers) and public citizens. The site has always strived to serve as a community resource: the first place that bar members and the public go for information about Texas lawyers, the State Bar and laws in Texas. With that in mind, the goal for the redesign was to enhance the overall user experience, simplify the current web offerings and enrich the member/public value.
We began the project with a thorough discovery phase where the requirements of the project were defined in greater detail and then the initial strategic and creative direction was established. This phase also involved an analysis across the existing platforms and performance of the State Bar of Texas website. We preformed a complete review across all available site traffic reports, dashboards, heat maps, and log files.
We also focused on the analytics of two primary factors: visitor site behavior and demographics. This analysis brought to life how users are finding the right bits of information and how we can make that process smoother and more efficient. The demographics told us who our core audience is, thus allowing us to take this into consideration as we approached the redesign.
As part of the discovery phase, we preformed an analysis of which ad placements and approaches had and had not worked in the past for the previous site. Later on in the project we balanced our findings against the user experience and visual design of the site to create the best possible ad placements without jeopardizing the consumer’s usage of the site. Continue…
Branding is often discussed everyday by individuals in the marketing, advertising and design industries, but rarely is it defined with a simple answer. In brief, branding is one of the most important tools a company can utilize to reach their target market, build recognition and develop customer relationships. It includes a wide range of factors such as logos, colors, patterns, typefaces, imagery, packaging, taglines, wording and more, all of which combine to create your company’s image.
Why Do Consumers Need Consistency?
In order to build a strong brand, you must stay consistent throughout all of your selected mediums. This strategy creates the opportunity to gain brand recognition among your target audience when done correctly. On top of that, consistency brings clarity and purpose that consumers then buy into. In turn, consumers become loyal to a brand. However, building this kind of trust takes time and effort.
Most consumers have to be exposed to a brand many times before they are loyal to it. So a consistent brand message has to be established so that consumers will immediately distinguish it from a competing brand. This means a business potentially loses customers, and may even help its competitors, if a consistent “look” and tone is not achieved. Continue…
The importance of making a good first impression, especially on the web cannot be understated – especially when it comes to nonprofit organizations. Did you know that 60% of people report the first thing they do before deciding to make a donation is check out an organization’s website? To build the most effective and informative site for potential donors and the general public alike, HMG Creative recommends nonprofits consider the following features when thinking about creating or redesigning their website.
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We can’t say enough how thrilled we were to take on this website redesign project for Texas A&M University. For the TAMU Student Activities website, we got our hands dirty right away by putting ourselves in the shoes of the site’s primary audience: the students, particularly – TAMU undergrads. These students needed an intuitive one-stop-shop to quickly gather information, sign-up, and manage the sections they were involved in. Apart from utility, a goal of ours was to update the overall aesthetic appeal of the site showcasing vibrant student life and activities in a way that would make students want to get involved and stay involved.
Primarily due to the ever-present nature of mobile tablets and smartphones, adaptive vs. responsive design has been a hot debate in the last few years. Because companies now need to build websites to work on smartphones, tablets, and standard laptops and desktops, understanding adaptive vs. responsible design is incredibly important.
Per Stirling Capital Management is an S.E.C.-registered investment advisory firm specializing in holistic financial planning, investment portfolio management, and other comprehensive wealth management services that are as unique and varied as are its clients. However, the cool part about the company is that it’s not for everyone. Driven by the idea of “Common Interests. Uncommon Results,” the company recognizes that “As strange as it may sound, Per Stirling is not for everyone.” It is when clients hit a financial point of success or wealth that it becomes time to find the right partner to help preserve and conscientiously manage these financial affairs – and that is when Per Sterling comes to the rescue.
