Check out Entice’s interaction with Mayor Wharton in this Commercial Appeal article http://bit.ly/dkBvzi

Every day there are headlines in the news telling us about the bad economy. Remember this “fear sells” and the media markets by sensationalizing everything. Things are rarely as good or as bad as they are reported. Don’t allow yourself to give in to the news. Determine your own destiny.

This being said, everyone is looking to cut expenses, and advertising and marketing are usually the first to go under the knife. This will only take a bad situation and make it worse. So how do you market in a bad economy?

First utilize your most valuable asset – past and present customers. Everyone says they love their customers, but what are you doing to build a relationship with your customers. People who have done business with you already like and trust you and will do business with you again. Past customers will also bring you more customers if they are appreciated and rewarded…and asked.

Second think like your customer. What will get the customers attention? Definitely not another one size fits all, looks like everyone else’s mailer for an event or sale. Be creative. You need marketing that will bring you the highest ROI.

And finally, “do you want fries with that?”. If a customer has bought from you once they will again. New customers are great, but reselling a past customer is an easier conquest.

So choose not to participate in the bad economy. If you don’t market your business how are customers going to know your doors are open? You can’t afford to wait on “things to get better” before you try to turn your business around.

On almost a daily basis I am met with the challenge of explaining WHY you need to understand the VALUE of the web design and development you are being quoted.

YES, you can get something cheaper and YES, it will be cheap.

YES, you can get a website done in two days and YES, it will look like a million others out there already.

Will it be designed well – odds are it will not. Is the html code optimized for the search engines – probably not. Was the template built with Flash – probably. Is Flash SEO (search engine) friendly…no.  If it is a template site and soooo generic that it can be applied to ANY type of business – just put in your logo and your words… you can bet the farm that it will be equally generic and sterile to the consumer.

Now, let’s think about this for a minute. To WHOM are the template sellers trying to sell?  Your customers?  No, they’re trying to sell to YOU. They were designed to sell you the cheapness and ease of having this 3 step website up and running in 5 minutes for five dollars. (did I forget to mention what you will have to continue paying each month AND that you won’t own the site anyway?)

Are you thinking about this…go ahead, I’ll wait…

Did you just realize the trap you fell for? YOUR customer is going to be looking at something that you bought for YOU and not for them? The site that you now have your brand on is something you bought because it was cheap and easy…NOT because it was designed and developed with your customers or audience in mind. You are asking your customers to get a sense of you and your business or organization from something that is created to be generic?

As far as the customer support that goes along with these…I don’t even have to go down that road do I?

I’ve often won­dered why it is that peo­ple don’t under­stand the axiom, “You get what you pay for.” Peo­ple who don’t under­stand a process uni­ver­sally seem drawn to the low­est price. There is a difference between buying something like a new car – from dealer to dealer they will all be exactly the same. So YES! Go for the lowest price you can. That is a “known quantity” and has an absolute cost and value.

But, what about an “unknown quantity?” What if your house needs painting? Now we come to the issue. You can go with the place that offers the low­est price, and you may get lucky. Odds are, how­ever, that you will get what you paid for. Write this down too…

Price is only an issue in the absence of value.

I myself fell victim to this same trap not two months ago. After the ice storm this winter I had 2 trees that needed to be cut down. Instead of going with a reputable firm that would have charged me $2800 to fell these tress and haul them off I picked someone off of Craigslist because he was…cheap. I did my homework. I asked for proof of his insurance. I had him give me a quote. We made a deal and he went to work. To keep this painful story short, he hit the side of my house with a crane! He will not fix it. I called his insurance company only to find he had defaulted and had no coverage! So now I have to pay for the repair as well.

It was an expensive reminder that you do get what you pay for and you also get what you deserve for going the cheap route!

I found this list that I think is a good guide for folks shopping for a website – maybe it will help you.

“Here’s a quick list of things to help you avoid this problem.

1. Do your home­work: Ask them if they are actually a DESIGNER! There are many “brokers” out there that will sell anything. Ask to see THEIR port­fo­lio. Ask them their point of view on design and website architecture…If there is no port­fo­lio, don’t hire that designer. If the port­fo­lio looks like it con­tains a bunch of work from the late 90’s, don’t hire. If you don’t like what you see in the port­fo­lio, don’t hire. Ask for ref­er­ences. No ref­er­ences… Well, you get the point.
2. Expect good com­mu­ni­ca­tion: If you don’t get a return call or e-mail within a rea­son­able time, assume this will be the norm. If you value com­mu­ni­ca­tion, hold out for a good com­mu­ni­ca­tor. Some techies have bad peo­ple skills. This should be pretty easy to spot.
3. Sign a con­tract: Would you let a builder start con­struc­tion on a house with­out one? So why wouldn’t you do the same for a HUGE part of your busi­ness? If you don’t sign a con­tract, you’re deal­ing with an ama­teur (on both sides).
4. If you see a design menu with prices, run: Pre-pub­lished price lists may seem like a good idea, but you get the same results as walk­ing into a tat­too stu­dio and pick­ing a tat­too off the wall. It isn’t yours, and it isn’t unique to your business.
5. Ask ques­tions, expect hon­est answers: No one knows how to do every­thing. If you find a designer who can’t do every­thing you want, odds are he can sub-contract the parts he’s not good at. It shouldn’t mat­ter to you, but dis­clo­sure should. Find out what your designer’s strengths and weak­nesses are. We all have them. If we didn’t, you wouldn’t need a designer. Remem­ber, if the answers you get sound like something is not quite right, they prob­a­bly aren’t.
6. Know the dif­fer­ence between Design and Devel­op­ment: Design­ers typ­i­cally do the visual part. Devel­op­ers typ­i­cally make the site do things. Don’t hire one to do the other. Again, ask for the one you really need.
7. Don’t hire a rel­a­tive: Ever… Even if it’s free… Enough said.
8. Tables are dead: No mod­ern designer worth his salt uses tables. If your designer doesn’t use CSS for lay­out, you’ll need to redesign very soon anyway.
9. Expect to pay for ser­vices ren­dered: Ask­ing a designer to “whip some­thing up” and let you take a look so you can decide is like ask­ing a restau­rant to make you a meal and let you pay for it if you like it. What would you expect the waiter to tell you if you asked a ques­tion like that?
10. Don’t make hasty deci­sions: The state­ment, “Poor plan­ning on your part does not con­sti­tute an emer­gency on mine” should be taken to heart. Think things through and real­ize that there is time to do it right. If there isn’t, you’ll invari­ably have to do it again.

You don’t have to hire us but please, hire some­one com­pe­tent. There are too many folks out there getting burned on a daily basis.

Myth #1 – It all starts with a great web site.

Actually, the place where it starts is with a well-defined service. If you don’t have a crystal clear picture of whom you are marketing to and exactly what you’re selling them, the best web site in the world won’t get you clients.

Myth #2 – Killer copy is the secret to sales.

“Not one, not two, but three valuable bonuses!!” does not inspire trust. Your Internet marketing persona should reflect the same professionalism as the work you do with your clients. If writing marketing materials isn’t your forte, give us a call! The copy on your web site should inspire feelings of confidence about your abilities, and communicate your reliability and solid qualifications quickly.

Myth #3 – Just follow the winning formula and you will get rich.

There seems to be an infinite number of buyers for every new get-rich-on-the-net scheme that is invented, but very few people are actually making money on the web. The secret to landing clients is what it always has been — build relationships and get people to know, like, and trust you.

“Effectively marketing your business means some hard work on your part. You must makes decisions on how to best represent your message to your target audience. That also means you have to decide WHAT business you are really in, WHY you are different from others in your industry and WHO is your ideal customer or prospect.”

Entice has the technical expertise and the design skills to build a website for you that will maximize your web presence and turn browsers into buyers.

Every morning on my way to work I pass the Shelby Farms Dog Park with its acres of open fields, three lakes, and trails through wooded areas. It’s a magical place where dogs can run off-leash, socialize and just be dogs. You can always tell which cars are headed to the dog park by the canine ears flapping in the wind from the window or sunroof. This morning it was a pooch psychotically turning circles and barking in the back of the SUV in front of me. I thought to myself, I know how they must feel.

Yes, routine is safe and secure with familiar smells, people you love, your favorite comfy spot and an ordered schedule. But at the dog park there are no leashes. There are new smells, new friends and new experiences. If you feel like chasing your tail you are free to run in circles until you can’t stand. You can express yourself with a woof, yelp or a deep long bay. Or maybe you’re the silent type and enjoy a swim or a relaxing roll in the grass. At the dog park you are free to express yourself and just be you.

What can we learn from our canine companions? Everyone has responsibilities and commitments. It’s just part of life. But we also all have something inside us churning to be said, danced, shared, drawn…a self-expression of our creativity. Sharing your inner self is essential to being your own individual and fully knowing yourself. We all need to lose the leash from time to time and indulgently express ourselves. Everyone may not understand or even “”, but if they care they will appreciate the real you. After all being a remarkable person begins with being different.

Don’t get me wrong, leashes are important but sometimes you just need to be off leash.

When I tell people I am a graphic designer I usually get a puzzled look and then they ask again, ” what do you do though?” So then I say we can do everything from web design and development to collateral material…(you wouldn’t believe how many many business people don’t understand what collateral marketing material is…) So then I go into my list of things that we actually produce and the fog start to clear.

Funny how all our lives we are surrounded by graphic design and never notice it or give thought to what it took to design it. Every web page you look at was designed, the coffee cup from Starbucks, the box of dog biscuits you reach into for your pets favorite treat, the icons you touch on your phone, the magazine you flip through and the billboards on the interstate…all graphic design.

Below is the definition of graphic design from the American Institute for Graphic Design

What is graphic design?

“Suppose you want to announce or sell something, amuse or persuade someone, explain a complicated system or demonstrate a process. In other words, you have a message you want to communicate. How do you “send” it? You could tell people one by one or broadcast by radio or loudspeaker. That’s verbal communication. But if you use any visual medium at all—if you make a poster; type a letter; create a business logo, a magazine ad, or an album cover; even make a computer printout—you are using a form of visual communication called graphic design.”

Designers create, choose, and organize these elements—typography, images, and the so-called “white space” around them—to communicate a message. Graphic design is a part of your daily life. From humble things like gum wrappers to huge things like billboards to the T-shirt you’re wearing, graphic design informs, persuades, organizes, stimulates, locates, identifies, attracts attention and provides pleasure. “

In a nutshell – we are VISUAL COMMUNICATORS – we choose the right typeface, with the right treatment, the right colors for the design based on the audience and the desired response, the right images, whether it is illustrated or photography, we lay it out in a particular way and we position all that with just the right message and information to ENGAGE the viewer and COMMUNICATE a message.

We DO NOT use Microsoft Word, Front Page or Publisher – we use design software specially created to allow us the freedom and creativity to give our clients the best performing communications that we can.

Ok – now we all know what graphic design really is…any questions?

There are many fantabulous things in this world that have no explanation…the Nazca lines, crop circles, why when you put a pair of socks in the dryer only one comes back out. The kind of things that for the sane and logical mind, no matter how hard you try, have no rational explanation.

Well, I have one more to add to the list of the great mysteries of this world – the dog with the shrinking head! Now, I know what you are thinking…obviously this writer has had way to many malted milk balls and is functioning in some hallucinogenic state, induced by way too much chocolate. But here is the proof:

After a visit to the vet last month, River, (The Boykin Spaniel with the shrinking head) was observed to have a head that was…how to put this delicately…her head was no longer in proper proportion to her body! I mentioned this to the vet who became quite amused. She regaled me with the story of a similar patient, whose owner presented her at the vet with “ a shrinking head.”  She seemed quite amazed and in a state of wonder that her dog, while seemingly quite healthy, had a head that was getting smaller and smaller. Offering photos as evidence, she proudly showed her pictures in which her head was in correct proportion to her finely tuned frame.

As the vet giggled a little more, she explained to me that this was a common problem resulting from a Dancing With the Stars addiction (it’s one of River’s favorites), squirrel watching from the back of the couch and creating a worn spot in the ceramic tile in front of the treat cabinet. I assured the vet that there was no way that River was opening the cabinet and treating herself to yummy granola-crusted chew treats and Better Than Ears treats  – who knows what’s in those things, but at least they don’t have little hairs on them!

We agreed that we would not assign blame to River since we had no proof of her thievery and other interested parties all plead no contest to the accusations. Nevertheless, River has agreed to chase her Frisbee a little more, spend less time trying to coerce Jumbo milkbones from parties, which shall remain nameless, and give up Reality TV for Lent. We conceded that if there was a summer version of Dancing With The Stars that she could indulge if she promised to dance along with them.

So, short of a voodoo priestess showing up in a foggy mist, smelling of swampy bayou water and Spanish moss and sprinkling zombie dust on her head, the condition should reverse itself shortly.

In general, the number zero did not have its own Roman numeral, but the concept of zero as a number was known by medieval computists (responsible for calculating the date of Easter). They included zero (via the Latin word nullus meaning none) as one of nineteen epacts, or the age of the moon on March 22. The first three epacts were nullae, xi, and xxii (written in minuscule or lower case). The first known computist to use zero was Dionysius Exiguus in 525. Only one instance of a Roman numeral for zero is known. About 725, Bede or one of his colleagues used the letter N, the initial of nullae, in a table of epacts, all written in Roman numerals.

A notation for the value zero is quite distinct from the role of the digit zero in a positional notation system. The lack of a zero digit prevented Roman numerals from developing into a positional notation, and led to their gradual replacement by Hindu-Arabic numerals in the early second millennium. On the other hand, the lack of positional notation may have prevented the Romans from developing a “zero”.

Zero is the great numerical invention of the Arabs and the Maya. The Maya and related peoples had zero as an independant discovery.   The Arabs use of zero created a revolution in mathematics that the Romans, and even the early christians, didn’t know about. Europe was a zero-free zone until the Arab culture crossed paths with the Hebrew and Chrstian cultures in the melting pot of Spain.

Silent Monks Singing Halleluia

by Darlene Cook