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Finding a great graphic designer can be a mission. While it can be tempting to accept the cheapest quote, you have to remember the old adage, “You get what you pay for.” However, that being said, how can you be sure you’re getting your money’s worth from your graphic designer.

A graphic designer worth their weight in gold should be:

1. Able to think outside the square.

A good graphic designer should be able to recommend ideas or avenues you may not have even contemplated. By sharing innovative opinions with you it demonstrates they actually engage their brain to think about what they’re doing rather than pumping the work out exactly to your specifications

2. Attitude-free

While it’s great that a graphic designer cares enough to point out if they think design is going to look hideous, there comes a time when it comes down to it, you’re paying the bills. You don’t want to have to engage in a full-scale argument over fonts.

3. Provide you with options

A great graphic designer will provide you with a number of concepts to select from and explore each option in a variety of colours.

4. Quick turnaround

Obviously you can’t expect great design concepts overnight, but you also don’t want to be waiting for a month or more. Be sure to check when you can expect to get your designs back before signing any contracts.

5. Creative

Designs should be unique to your company, not just plagiarized from another business

Run your current graphic designer past this five-point checklist and if they don’t meet the standards, you’re not getting your money worth. For a graphic design studio that prides themselves on meeting every criteria of this list, contact XDesigns Advertising and find out how they can transform your business branding.

2015 is just around the corner and if you don’t already have a responsive website design, your company could be in big trouble.  B y 2015 all businesses that rely on the internet will need a responsive website, because it really is the way of the future.

What is a responsive website?

It’s a website designed to modify itself to perfectly fit the screen depending on what kind of device a person is accessing it by. Have you ever accessed a website on your smartphone and it’s so large, you have to move it around your small screen with your finger to even access the navigation bar? Then it wasn’t designed as a responsive website.

If a person can’t open your website on a smartphone, iPad, laptop or desktop computer without it looking like it was designed for the device they are accessing it by, and navigation or reading body copy is difficult (i.e.: they have to zoom in or out to read text or it doesn’t look like the same website design they can access via the internet), you’ve lost a potential client in about 2.5 seconds. If it’s all too hard, they’ll go looking somewhere else.
Even if we can’t convince you to upgrade your website, perhaps the fact that everyone else is getting theirs upgraded to being responsive should be motivation enough. After all, do you want to be the only business in the world that hasn’t redesigned their website to be accessible by all devices? If you don’t switch now, you’re going to be left out of the running.

More than 4.3 billion people worldwide use their phones to access the internet which is expected to grow to over 5 billion by 2017. Surely, that’s proof alone that having a multi-device friendly website is the way of the future.

If you’re completely technically-challenged and aren’t sure whether your website is responsive, or you want your website to be responsive ready in time for 2015, it’s time to make your move. Spend the money today and invest in your website future by contacting XDesigns Advertising. Whether it’s a few tweaks or a complete website overhaul, they have the technology and the professional know-how to take your website worldwide.

How to increase the lifespan of your blogs

You’ve just paid an amazing copywriter to create a blog post for you, so now what? How do you get the most out of a blog post?

The majorities of blogs have the lifespan of a goldfish’s memory, but there are strategies you can utilise to inform your social followers the minute it is published and processes to recycle it weeks and months later.

There are 5 easy steps to follow.

In a highly competitive digital world your website needs to stand out to make a difference. It has to look good, be easy to find and simple to navigate. It needs to automatically adjust depending on the device and browser it’s being viewed on, and most importantly, it needs to be working for you after hours.

You can have the world’s most attractive website, but without the essential components to drive your marketing results, convert visitors into customers and generate new leads, it’s basically just a good-looking website.

In an exclusive offer to visitors to XDesigns.com.au, you have to opportunity to gain insight into the must-have website components enabling you to take your business to the next level.

You’ll discover how certain website elements combine to create engagement and highlight your company’s uniqueness, along with discovering ways to turn visitors in repeat customers.

Learn how to make your website work for you while you are taking care of other aspects of your business, even while you are sleeping. Additionally, you’ll find out how to integrate your social media networks and start your own blog.

XDesigns can walk you through this entire process with a complete website review, helping you understand what aspects of your website work well, and areas they feel your site could benefit from improvement. Then if you decide to proceed with their suggested changes, they can work with you to streamline this process.

Ensure your website is digital ready for 2017 and contact XDesigns without delay to book in your website review. Hurry, spaces are strictly limited. Our clients are located throughout Australia, Sydney, Castle Hill, Norwest, Parramatta, Ryde and Seven Hills.

Related Tag: Website Designers Sydney

What is a web spud?

It’s the internet form of a couch potato, a website that sits on the internet doing absolutely nothing. It achieves nothing. It costs you even though it’s sitting in cyber space doing nothing and it never changes. People get bored of visiting and sooner or later, your website is forgotten. Find out if your website has turned into a web spud and whether it’s time you contacted XDesigns for a refresh.

1. Your staff profiles include bios of ex-employees.
2. You haven’t logged on to your website to update it in over a month.
3. You haven’t made any changes to your website since it was built.
4. It features products you no longer stock.
5. You don’t have Google Analytics installed to track how your website is performing.
6. You have Google Analytics installed but number of visitors clicking on your website are staying for 30 seconds and never coming back.
7. It’s hard for visitors to navigate their way around your website.
8. Your page titles don’t reflect the content.
9. The text is hard to read and there’s screeds of it.
10. Poor security makes your website a target for hackers.
11. You haven’t embraced social media.
12. Your website has been set up by a family member or friend as a favour.
13. Your website isn’t mobile friendly.
14. The site is slow to load.
15. You’ve had your website for years but it’s never had a makeover.
16. Search engines don’t know your website exists.

If you’ve answered yes to just one of these questions, contact XDesigns Advertising to get your website back on the cyber highway to success.

Everyone keeps telling you how important brand awareness and positioning are. You know that, what you want is practical advice you can put into action. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Today we’re going to talk about how to create the voice of your brand.

Think of your brand like a person. Every person is a unique creation, the distinctive sound of their voice, the way they speak, the type of language they use, all combines to make them different.

The first question you need to ask yourself is who are you trying to reach?

Who are you trying to reach?

Depending on the type of people you want to communicate depends on how you would speak to them. The way you speak to your grandparents is different to the way you would talk to your best friend. It’s the same with a brand. If you want your brand to reach unemployed school leavers, you wouldn’t use the same language as if your brand was directed at medical professionals.

What are you trying to say?

Pretending that your brand is still a person with its own unique personality, what would it say if it was asked questions? What would your brands response be?

How are you trying to spread your message?

Is the way you are trying to communicate with your target audience going to reach them? For example, elderly people are less likely to get on to the internet, so perhaps a brochure with larger sized print would be better than a website. Gen Y are smartphone savvy so a mobile ready website would be better than a press ad.

Are your clients listening? 

Your brand might be doing a lot of talking, but are your prospective clients listening? If your brand voice isn’t working, don’t be afraid to rework it and try a fresh approach.

If all this brand talk is baffling and you don’t have the time it takes to sit down and develop your brand properly, there’s no harm in asking for help. At XDesigns we specialise in taking your brand to the next level. Give us a call today and we can help steer you in the right direction.

Since the invention of the internet, news websites, social media and the Kindle, word on the street is that print is dead. Some corporations have solely embraced electronic methods of advertising, but it doesn’t mean print is ready for the coffin lid to be lowered. There are distinct benefits for opting using print as a method of communicating with your prospective and regular client So let’s take a look some at the reasons you shouldn’t be putting the print method of marketing out to pasture before its time is up.

Print vs electronic

If you’ve ever received an electronic birthday card from a friend in lieu of printed one they’ve made themselves or purchased from a newsagent, you’ll know the feeling of feeling a bit ripped off. Despite telling yourself it’s the thought that counts, you can’t help but feel like you’ve been cheated. You can’t hold it in your hands, display it on your fridge or mantelpiece. You can’t put it in your shoebox of memories and pull it out years down the track to reminiscence. Print is tangible. You can touch it, hold it, smell it and keep it as a memento. When you think about print advertising for instance, a half page advertisement in Cleo magazine may sit around someone’s bedroom for years, while an advertisement on the internet, may not even be seen unless an individual types exact keyword searches into Google. And on the off chance someone gets your ad popping up on their computer screen, they may not even click on it for fear of inadvertently downloading a virus. You can’t infect your entire computer system by reading a print ad.

Reaching a captive audience

Print is a good way of making sure you reach your intended audience. For example: if you have a business specialising in home décor with magazines like House & Garden and Vogue Living, you have a captive audience. Independent studies have shown people pay more attention when they are reading printed material. The average person spends about 15 seconds scanning website material so unless they are actively seeking information, you’ve may have already lost their attention by the time they see your ad.

Less competition

With more companies moving to electronic forms of advertising can be advantageous to your company. With less businesses vying for print space in publications, it means there is less competition. Your ad will stand out more, and you will find that newspapers and magazines may even offer discount rates for ad space, if they are short of advertisers.

Printing is still alive and well

You can’t hand out a digital ad at a trade show, you can’t pass on an electronic business card for a customer to keep in their wallet. People want printed menus when they go out for dinner, magazines they can flick through on the bus when they don’t have wi-fi signal. You might think print has one foot in the grave, but there are plenty of options when print marketing is superior to electronic methods.

Talk to XDesigns Advertising today to find out how they can transform your business with print advertisements.

You’ve heard how content marketing is the way of the future, and while it sounds good in theory, you’re not too sure how to go about it. If this sounds like you, the XDesigns team have collated a list of practical solutions to revolutionise your content marketing strategies.

1. Be selective in your content

Don’t saturate your webpage or social media with inconsequential updates because you think the more content, the better. Be selective in the process. Ask yourself what will my clients really care about? Less content which is well thought out has more impact

2. Use unique blog posts

Think about features of your products and services or issues within your industry that haven’t been over-exposed and write a series of blogs.

3. Make use of Calls to Action

You don’t want your prospective customers to sit and think about what they’ve just read or heard, you want them to feel compelled to act, so give them a reason to pick up the phone or email. For example: The first 20 callers receive a free e-book.

4. Publish a book

You can’t give away a free e-book unless you’ve written one about your business. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a ‘writer’. You can outsource this work to a professional copywriter. You can always ask XDesigns to recommend someone.

5. Involve your staff

Content marketing is a team effort. If you are stuck for ideas, talk to your employees in sales or administration.

6. Answer questions

Make a detailed list of the top questions you receive from prospective customers. For example; If you are in the beauty industry, your clients might want to know about getting rid of unwanted back hair. This gives you the perfect opportunity to write an article and then post it to your social media sites and blog.

7. Re-evaluate your social media posts

At the end of the week make a point of looking back at your Facebook or Twitter updates to see how they are performing. What prompted your followers to engage? What was shared with friends? What didn’t perform at all? You may need to adjust your content or the times you post new content.

8 Host an event

It could be as simple as a free sausage sizzle outside Mitre 10 or an information night about the best time to sell their home.

9 Upload videos

With smartphones you don’t have to be a brilliant videographer. If you’re a real estate agent film your next auction. Maybe you’re a beautician, why not demonstrate how to pluck your eyebrows. Then upload them to your website and YouTube.

If you need help bringing your content marketing to life with graphic design or copywriting, contact the team at XDesigns Advertising today for a free, no-obligation quote.

How to use social media channels to their full potential with a quick 10-minute assessment.

Are you using social media to its capacity? Probably not, if you’re like most businesses, you don’t have the time or you don’t really understand how to use social media to it’s potential.

There are four main aspects to social media.

1. Engagement – keeping a watchful eye on comments and posts and responding to
these comments in a timely and helpful fashion to ensure your business reputation remains intact.

2. Influence – Being a leading authority in your area of expertise by sharing valuable content. In turn you will create more awareness around your brand

3. Networking – Aligning yourself with leading authorities to earn media mentions and invitations to increase awareness of your brand at events.

4. Sales – Turning followers into leads and converting leads to sales.

You might be great at having social influence, but don’t have the time to follow-up on comments to your timeline. You may have a large number of followers who interact with your social media pages on a daily basis, but you’ve yet to convert the people on your page into valuable sales.

So how do you discover the areas you are lacking and how can you get the most of your social media network?

Try this quick 10-minute social media assessment

First list the goals you hope to achieve through social media. If you are in a bigger company you may already have a social media policy outlining your goals.

1. Take an A4 sheet of paper and divide it into three columns.
2. The first column should be titled Date and Time.
3. The middle column is titled Update Description
4. The last column should be Update Type.

In this exercise you will be looking at the last 10 timeline updates.
In column 1 write the times and dates of the last 10 updates
In column 2 write a brief description of each update. For example: Before and after photos of weight-loss success with information about wait loss.
In column 3 under update type list the type of update it is. For example: Is it encouraging engagement? Is it networking? Is it sales?

Repeat the process for each of your social media channels. Eg; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linked-In.

After you finish this, take each sheet of paper and look at the update types. Is it too
heavily focused on sales, yet networking and engagement updates are vary sparse or
non-existent? Have you wanted to push sales on Facebook, but mainly focus on
influence on Linked-In?

Make this social media assessment part of your monthly routine to help you stay on
track. Our clients are located throughout Australia, Sydney, Castle Hill, Norwest, Parramatta, Ryde and Seven Hills.