• Built in HTML5/CSS3
• Removed the login so viewers can now peruse all pages of the site
• A new larger 1080 HD view of the Live Cam which is now Iphone, Ipad, Droid and Blackberry compatible
• Additional Ad spaces created and managed by Absolute Banner Ad Manager
• New weather modules displaying live weather information on every page
• Larger view of the daily photos
• Tabular view of both WB LiveSurf news and Surfline News

Recently, we were contacted to make minor changes to the look and feel of the website to better match their new marketing materials. Their new marketing materials now include a new logo and some ‘tree leaves’ scattered in the background. To help mimic this look, we did just that on the website. They are also really involved in their social media so we additionally added graphics to promote Twitter, Facebook and their recently developed WordPress blog. You can see below how minor cosmetic changes, though simple, are enough to make a difference to the viewer, ensuring the site’s content and look remain fresh and updated.

2008 Site

2011 Site

While making changes throughout the site, we also transformed the previous Foundation section of the website, into its own ‘mini-site’ complete with a unique design skin (background/look) to make it obvious you are jumping into a new section of the site. Now, when clicking on ‘foundation’ in the primary navigation, you still remain within the site’s domain, but are taken to a section of the site with its own look and feel, dynamic left menu. Another fun thing we did to update the site was to utilize Flickr for the photo gallery, allowing the client the ability to add albums (sets) to Flickr and embed these into the site for ease of viewing and management.

Foundation Section

Built in both ASPDotNetStorefront and WordPress, this site is a beast in itself and includes a wide range of functionality:

• The Home page features a rotating JavaScript, Embedded YouTube video, Blog Feed, Flickr Feed and a Constant Contact Email Opt-in
• The Products section of the site is custom per product category and some product categories include multiple price changing drop down options. Each product contains a Facebook Like and Addthis Share, as well as an overview, installation instructions, features, color options, photos, videos and return policy.
• The Photos section of the site includes a Flickr Embedded thumbnail view of photos in the WordPress platform. It brings up a neat lightbox/ajax when clicking to enlarge the thumbnail.
• The Videos section of the site utilizes a third party tool allowing us to dynamically feed in videos uploaded to SeaDek’s YouTube channel.
• The News section of the site is a WordPress Blog. We imported old posts (3 year’s worth) from client’s old blog (previously Blogger) into WordPress, and skinned this blog to look like the new website.
• The site’s storefront is fully manageable and integrates with a UPS account for shipping calculations

We all came together as a team to make this site possible and it was such a joy working with SeaDek! Overall the client is very pleased with the results thus far and has hit the ground running in editing the site and keeping content and product information up to date. Be sure to check out the new site when you get a chance!

New Site:

Original Site:

Now that everyone has smart phones these days, having a mobile site (not to be confused with a mobile friendly site), is crucial. Seeing how Century 21 is in the real estate industry, it was very important to the client to include a mobile site focusing on the property search. Now, instead of accessing the full site on a smart phone, we jump right into what people want to access: the property search–complete with search options, summary pages and detail pages.

Check out the mobile property search with your smart phone! Keep in mind you will only be redirected to this search if using a smart phone.

‘Twas the night before a site launch, when all through Sage,
The whole production team was working in quite the rage.
The site was designed, and built with care,
In hopes to drive many business leads there.

The meta data was nestled, all snug in the right spot.
While visions of qualified traffic danced as a marketing thought.
And the SEM team had on their thinking caps,
Of just how to bring in qualified traffic, and not traffic crap.

When out in the hosting department arose such a clatter,
The whole team sprang from their chairs to see what was the matter.
Away to Stuart and Brandon they flew in a flash,
Only to find out the server had temporarily crashed.

Not to worry, we were told, it will be fixed A-S-A-P.
Then the site was back up, and everyone jumped with glee!
When, what to our marketing eyes do we see,
But an awesome launched site, functional with J-Query.

Built in a content management system, so lively and slick,
We knew at the moment, our marketing skills did the trick!
More rapid than eagles, the qualified traffic then came,
And Google analytics was tracking, calling keywords by name!

Now Conversions! Now Pageviews! Now Bounce Rate! Now Unique Visits!
On Referring Sites! On Traffic Sources! On Time on Site! And on New Visits!
To the top of organic search! To the top of the search wall!
Now, convert away! Convert away! Convert away all!

And then, in a twinkling moment, we read from our stats,
Our hard work paid off and we were due a “congrats!”.
For the site was truly a success, increasing that ROI,
The client was pleased (and we were, too—we won’t lie).

And we smiled proudly, but went straight back to work.
We filled out our timesheets, then turned with a jerk–
We heard the phone ring, a potentially new client we hear…
Another project to start, with a deadline so near!

So we sprang to our computers, and to our team gave a whistle,
And away we all worked like the down of a thistle.
And you’ll hear us exclaim, as we dove into our new, fun, project task,
“Thank you for your business. If you ever need marketing services, you need to just ask!’

Retractable Banner:

Print Brochure:

Being a long time customer of Sage Island, over the years LinkTech has sought out our design services for both the website and print pieces, as well as our custom programming and internet marketing services. As each year unfolds, we are honored to work with the team at LinkTech to constantly update the website and marketing materials, and proudly this year we took a big step and made some major changes across the board:

Site Reskin:
It was time for a new look! Keeping in line with existing branding, our team came up with a new design that softens the color palette of LinkTech and modernizes the overall look, while not drastically changing the brand recognition.

Database Driven Product Display/Part Number Converter:
When the site first launched a couple years ago, each product was manually entered into the website, which was perfect for then—but over the years LinkTech has expanded products due to rapid growth of new customer orders (read more here on this growth) and therefore needed a simpler solution in keeping products updated on the website and therefore we custom programmed a database for product display.

With all that data already in a database, we then took it a step further and programmed a Part Number Converter where you can enter the competitor’s part number and it will display the LinkTech’s compatible part. You can test it out by entering the competitor’s part: PMC1002.

Engaging Social News Tool (Blog):
With so many changes taking place in LinkTech, we all determined it was time to promote, boast and spread the great news and to do so we created a blog. This blog feeds up to 5 of the latest post to the home page of the website and is skinned to visually match the look and feel of the website for a seamless transition from website to blog platforms.

Tradeshow Graphic:
To gear up for the tradeshows, we created a banner stand that parallels the site and catalog’s new look and feel.

Catalog Revamp:
The 2011 revamp of the catalog was a biggie including a ton of new products, new cover and new technical pages for each product series. The catalog grew from 19 pages to 36!

WordPress Blog:
Breck Gear already had a blog through Blogger in which they frequently updated content, which was awesome, but it was completely hidden and not accessible from the website; it was also at a third party domain rather than the site domain. By being so hidden, this already established blog wasn’t giving Breck Gear a chance to showcase their posts. Our suggestion here was to build a link between the blog and website (as shown in the navigation on the site), reskin the blog in WordPress (to have the blog match the look and feel of the site) and build the blog under a directory in the domain (to ultimately give the site’s domain ‘credit’ for all that blog content).

Facebook:
Here, again, Breck Gear was a step ahead and already had a Facebook page, but we had a few suggestions for improvement. First and foremost, we suggested adjusting the account name from ‘Breck Gear’, to ‘The North Face Breckenridge’ to allow us to capitalize on the North Face association. We then suggested a creative landing page and efforts to get at least 25 ‘likes’ in order to create a vanity URL for the page.

Since our suggestions on the blog and Facebook page, Breck Gear has really taken off and are currently working on building out the photo gallery, adding videos and linking posts from the blog to the Facebook page. In the future, once they have a solid following/community, they can have fun creating a Facebook campaign or contest. I encourage everyone to check out their new blog and Facebook page and leave a comment!

To help jog some ideas on what you can do for your company, below are just a few things to help you stay ahead of the curve in selling:

1.    Loyalty Plan/Incentives:
Although you may not be able to control the price of a product, here you can control incentives—such as free shipping, promotional deals, discounts…etc.

2.    Build Local Loyalty:
If you have the advantage of having a brick and mortar store in addition to an online shop—take advantage of this and help build the loyalty among the locals. You can seek out local resorts, tour companies, hard goods stores…etc. and have them help promote both your physical store and online store.

3.    Exclusive Products/Cobranded products:
Depending on the agreement with your manufacturer, you may carry exclusive products not available on their store, or you may be able to cobrand the products for your location—play up on this if you are able to benefit from exclusivity. Promote this on your website, blog, Facebook page…etc.

4.    Website Enhancement:
Now is the time you can beef up your website and make it have that ‘cool’ factor that the manufacturer’s site may not. You can add comparison tools, rating feature, testimonials on people who purchased a product from your site and how they rave about your customer service…etc.

5.    Ramp up Social Media:
There is so much you can do here! First thing’s first, if you have a Facebook page, make sure it is promoted on your site. Add  ‘addthis.com’ and additionally add the Facebook ‘likes’ to each product page to help boast and promote your site through social media. You can make your Facebook and site more interactive—offering a purchase discount when ‘liking’ or a Facebook contest to help boost your likes. Once you get a ton of likes established, you can consider selling your products on Facebook. You may even consider Facebook Ads to help generate likes or conversions/transactions.

6.    Online Outlets:
Perhaps in addition to selling on your website, you can look into selling utilizing different outlets, such as Amazon that already reaches a huge amount of interested buyers.

7.    Email Marketing:
Reach out to those that have previously purchased from you—collect email addresses via online store opt-in/purchases, physical store and Facebook and use these emails to send new product updates, discounts and specials.

The above just barely scrapes the service on things you can do as a company, especially with the upcoming holiday season. If you are interested, contact us and we are happy to take a look at your company, consult further and help with implementing any of the above ideas.