EJ Communications Freelance Graphic Design

Marketing Communications for Companies with Ambition

Marketing Communications
for Companies with Ambition

OFM New Website Redesign

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OFM home page OFM services panel OFM what clients sayYou know the saying about the cobbler’s children having no shoes… this was the case with a computer technology company that helps clients manage all manner of computers, servers and software. When it came to their own website, they had not paid attention to it for many, many years. For businesses that rely on, and succeed from, word of mouth, it is easy to let web presence slide. And sometimes it is difficult to know how to put yourself out there when you try to do the work yourself. OFM Computer Systems contracted with EJ Communications to provide a fresh and updated website for their company. It can be helpful to have an independent, outside professional help craft the image and messaging for your company. Being in a technical business, and too close to your subject, makes it difficult to know how to present your messaging to the world without confusing the potential client with a lot of industry jargon.

OFM’s existing website was a few pages programmed with plain html, like in the early days of company websites (we’re talking 1990’s). It was not even mobile-responsive. For this new site, they wanted a WordPress website so company staff could maintain updates and potentially publish blog posts. They also wanted dynamic elements to “jazz things up a bit”. I worry a bit when I hear that request, because I think gratuitous graphics and animations are annoying for the average website visitor. But I was able to find a nifty plug-in with simple animation options using shortcodes. And I found a cool stock video clip to install in one of the home page panels as a background to client testimonials.

OFM was a great client to collaborate with on this project. They now have a modern, mobile-responsive site programmed with WordPress running on the secure https protocol. All these changes should help them move up in the search results, and hopefully bring them new clients to add to their word-of-mouth marketing.

8 Myths of Marketing in a Down Economy

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In an ideal world, marketing activity would be self supporting, always pay back multi-fold what it costs to execute, and be effective in reaching every potential buyer in the appropriate sector all the time. But in the world where the sky is blue, marketing activities are driven by several factors, including perceptions of the company and the head marketer there, economic forces that drive consumer behavior of all types and factors beyond your control.

As a result of these factors, marketing budgets are at the mercy of the reactions of the company to these perceptions. Many of these perceptions are flawed, skewed, marred by history, personal experiences of senior management, and most have no historical precedent or foundation.

Myth #1—“Our brand is strong enough not to need support for the duration of the downturn.”
Fact: Few brands are strong enough to survive without advertising, product promotion and customer service support. Brands are like delicate houseplants – they need attention, support, bolstering, and polishing, (the marketing equivalent of nutrients, light and water) – or they will wither and shrivel to a shadow of their former self. This is not a position you want your corporate brand to be in when the growth engine for the economy revs back up. [Read more…]

A Pain-Free Website Redesign

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Pain Free Performance
When my long-time client, Pain Free Performance, contacted me and asked if I could redesign their website to be one of those scrolling-style sites, I said “sure”. That style of site has become popular, as everything online shifts to accommodate the mobile experience. I had created a website for Pain Free 6 years prior, but as I say, website years and human years are a 10:1 ration, so their 2012 site was about 60 years old! I do think it is important for businesses to keep their web presence up to date visually, particularly if they are marketing to consumers. Website design styles change rapidly, and you can tell when a website starts to look dated. On the other hand, it is not necessary to redesign your site every year or two just because you are tired of looking at it.

Quality Photography Matters

As we began the development of the project, the owner wanted to have new photos, especially since their studio had had a make-over since our last time building their website. I always counsel my clients to get good professional photos for their website and other marketing materials. As ubiquitous as cell phone photography is, and as tempting as it is to just shoot some photographs on your own phone, I don’t recommend it. Having a professional photographer who can control the lighting and understands photo composition makes a huge difference in the look and feel of a website. The other thing I counsel is to coordinate the colors of the clothing of the people being photographed, so it is compatible with the colors of the space, and the colors of the website. So Pain Free Performance did use a professional photographer, and they got some really nice new shots showing their therapists working with clients, as well as individual portraits of their staff. We used some of the best shots to create a nice image slider in first panel of the site.

Tell Your Story

The nice thing about this style of site, is that each panel gets to tell part of the story. The hard thing is figuring out exactly how to break that down into panels and move the viewer visually through the sections. Although this home page changed completely from their previous site, most of the rich informative content on the interior pages of the site remained—it just is now placed in a refreshed container.

Website projects are always collaborative efforts. Working with my clients’ creativity and their ideas always improves the end result. I am very pleased with how this site turned out. It has given Pain Free Performance a fresh new look to their site and they have received many compliments. They were kind enough to even post a Google Review for me:

“Elizabeth is amazing! She just finished updating our Pain Free Performance website and we couldn’t be more pleased. Her expertise and direction have been invaluable as we strive to provide the best on line access to information about our services to the community. Her knowledge of design, color, content and technology while interpreting who we are is incredible. Elizabeth is a pleasure to work with and has become a friend to us as well as our expert guide to our web presence.” —Cindy Meyers, Pain Free Performance.

You can view the Pain Free Performance new site here.

New Website Launch—FPW Architects

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FPW ArchitectsEJ Communications just completed a new web redesign for FPW Architects, Charlottesville, Virginia. The new live site, features a robust portfolio section with 14 image slideshows to showcase the work and capabilities of the firm. In addition, the site includes a dynamic “latest news” feature that FPW will be able to upload information about awards, projects, job openings, etc.  The site is mobile-responsive.

Sailing Websites

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Coastal Marine Deltaville, VA

The beauty of being a website designer and a sailor, is that sometimes you get to create websites related to sailing.  Two websites I have done recently are for Coastal Marine and Fishing Bay Marina, allowing me to combine my two passions. Coastal Marine is a small boatyard in Deltaville, Virginia on the Chesapeake Bay. The owner, Reid Conley had not previously had a website, and I worked with him to create an online presence, including a Website and Facebook page. Coastal Marine is a small boatyard, but differentiates itself from other bigger competitors, by offering outstanding service and personal attention. Since most boat owners are really picky about who takes care of their boat, we tried to communicate the personal relationship and attention to detail that Reid gives his customers. I wrote the copy and even took photographs to help build this site. It incorporates a blog feature to allow Reid and his crew to post photos and stories about different boat repair and restoration projects they might be working on.

Fishing Bay MarinaFishing Bay Marina was under new ownership and the new owners approached EJ Communications to create a new web site. They wanted to position Fishing Bay Marina to be a Chesapeake Bay cruising boater’s destination of choice. Fishing Bay really caters to the transient boater, and so showing lots of photos of the nice amenities offered was important. One of the fun special features of this site is a map of the facilities with a magnifying glass to allow users to see all the details easily. Both sites are, of course, Mobile Responsive.

 

stingraypointmarina.comStingray Point Marina is one of the “Best of the Bay” Marinas, it has many features and an active community of sailors. We wanted to show the beauty of the Marina as well as give a sense of the activity and vibrance.