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DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC Re-develops PA Industrial Equipment, Inc.’s Website

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DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC redesigns and creates a new website for PA Industrial Equipment, Inc.

PA Industrial's New Website
The Home page of PA Industrial’s new website.

PA Industrial’s new website emphasizes an improved level of accessibility and internal security as a result of consolidated web hosting services from DaBrian Marketing Group. With the new website, PA Industrial’s team develops online marketing strategies with a degree of transparency that facilitates secure management for the maintenance and growth of the company.

Office Manager, Shelly Arthur gave the following statement: “The team at DaBrian Marketing Group completed our new website weeks earlier than we anticipated. We are pleased to be entering our 40th year of business with one dedicated team managing our website design, hosting and SEO programs.”

PA Industrial Equipment, Inc. specializes in the sale, rental, and repair of forklifts and aerial lifts.  PA Industrial serves numerous counties within Southeastern Pennsylvania – including Berks, Philadelphia, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton. PA Industrial stresses its dedication to high-quality service in the selling and repairing of machinery that is vitally important to manufacturers within the region.

Visit PA Industrial Equipment, Inc.’s new website to learn more about their high-quality repair and sales services as well as the most recent work by DaBrian Marketing Group’s team.

Web Design Without SEO: If You Build It, Will They Come?

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In the film Field of Dreams released in 1989, Kevin Costner is famously told, “If you build it, he will come.” While this may hold true when it comes to attracting Shoeless Joe and the rest of the 1919 Black Sox team to your Baseball field, it does not apply to attracting visitors to your website.
Eh, not so fast there, Ray. Without proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO), not many people are going to come. Designing a website that is aesthetically pleasing is not the be-all and end-all for an effective digital marketing campaign. It’s merely the first step. Without SEO, you have a better chance of Joe Jackson actually wearing shoes than your customers finding your site. Below are five reasons why SEO and Web Design are needed together for your site to perform well.

1. SEO Basics: Tags, Titles, and Descriptions

Sticking with the Field of Dreams theme, let’s say your potential fans that attend your ballpark are equivalent to those using search engines. How are they supposed to find your new park if no one has heard about it or can find it? Tags, Titles, and Descriptions (TTD’s) along with content tell search engines what the pages on your site are about. Below is an example of proper implementation of TTD’s for this blog specifically (blog inception).

The keywords you intend a specific page to rank and draw traffic for should be represented within the TTD’s. For example, this blog’s main points of interest are SEO and Web Design, so those keywords are placed within all aspects of TTD’s and the content naturally (non-spammy). Don’t forget to include any other related sub points (digital marketing, link building, local SEO, and content optimization) wherever you see fit.

2. Content is the Experience

Just as sports venues are judged off of the overall experience they offer, so is your website. The content on your site not only helps people find your site, but it ultimately dictates the user’s experience. Great content means a better chance the user will perform an action beneficial to your business. Whether that means fill out a contact form, share your site via social media, or purchase a product, none of those are likely to happen without the right content for your audience. With that being said, content is not a once-and-done event. In fact, search engines actually prefer sites with fresher and more up-to-date content. That’s why it’s a great idea to start a blog and to write about topics relevant to your audience. Not only with this further establish your business as “in the know” within your industry, but it also allows you to place more of the keywords you wish to rank for on your site.

3. Technical Issues: Take Care of Your Ball Park

When sports teams build new stadiums, they don’t just leave it alone, do they? No, of course not! Constant maintenance is required to ensure everything looks perfect and that it functions properly. This is the same when designing a website. Technical issues are bound to happen. If these aren’t taken care of, it could potentially have a negative impact on your user’s experience. That ultimately translates to a decrease in rankings, leads, and worst of all, sales.

4. Local SEO: Where are you?

What’s the point of having a ball park, or any business for that matter, if no one can find you? This same logic should remain true when dealing with your digital presence. After several algorithm changes, Google’s search results are now heavily personalized. This means they take into account the searcher’s history, social signals, and most of all, locality. If that’s not enough to prove the importance of local, Google’s research on local consumer behavior found that, “50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% who searched on computer/tablet did the same.” So what can your business do to ensure you capitalize on this opportunity? Without proper local SEO, your business could be lost within the metaphorical cornfield that is the search engine results.

5. Link Building: Generating Buzz

Link building or link earning is a huge part of SEO. When search engines evaluate your site to determine where you rank for a specific subject, they don’t only look at your TTD’s or content, but also the other sites linking to you. The more reputable industry related pages linking to you, the better your site will perform. To put it in sports terms, links represent fans and leading figures within the sports realm. Here is how to rank them:

  • Fans: Fans telling other fans about your ballpark represent low level links from either directories or sites with low domain authority.
  • Local Sports reporters: These represent the middle level links. These are trusted sites in your area, such as the Chamber of Commerce or a local business directory.
  • Major league coverage: These represent the top level links from industry leaders. For example, a link from MOZ would be huge for a digital marketing agency such as ourselves

So what’s the best approach to earning these links? Well in the past, many people obtained links via “black hat SEO” methods, all of which now result in a penalty according to Google’s link scheme guidelines. Your best (and safest) bet is by creating great, original content and developing authentic relationships with those within your industry. The goal is to naturally earn high quality links.

Conclusion

An effective digital marketing campaign needs both a well designed website, along with proper SEO. So when it comes to digital marketing, If you build it (and continually optimize it), they will come.

For more information about SEO, Web Design, and the other Digital Marketing Services we have to offer, contact us or leave us a comment below!

By: David McDowell

Welcome our New Summer 2016 Web Design Intern

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Well, would you look at that. DaBrian Marketing Group has a second intern for the summer! (Our first intern, Christian Kline, was announced on social media in May). He was introduced to us through Pennsylvania  CareerLink – Berks County’s work experience program called “A Youth Services Employment Training Program.” Once we learned more about him, we knew he was a perfect fit for DaBrian’s team as Web Design Intern.

The first unique characteristic about our new team member, Mr. Jeremiah Ellis, is that he is going to be a senior at Reading High School in the 2016-2017 school year! As he gets started with his new role as Web Design Intern and we start to teach him about what it’s like to work at a digital marketing agency, let’s all get to know him a little bit better with a brief but fun questionnaire!

Web designer in Reading, Pa - DaBrian Marketing Group
Say Hello to Jeremiah Ellis, Our Web Design Intern

Where is he from?

New York City, NY.

What are his plans upon graduation in 2017?

Attend a local college, possibly Reading Area Community College (RACC), and major in Computer Science.

What are his interests? ...Besides creating websites, of course

Listening to music.. watching movies.. riding bikes.. playing basketball.. Writing stories & poems..

** This young man does it all! **

What’s his happiest high school memory so far?

Simply, finishing 11th grade.

How did he get interested in web design?

Jeremiah learned how to create websites by attending Reading Muhlenberg Career and Technology Center for Information Technology – Web Design. Once he graduates, he will receive an Adobe Certification.

What’s Jeremiah’s favorite sports team?

Our Philadelphia-area football team, the Eagles!
DaBrian Marketing Group’s Web Design Intern
Jeremiah working hard on entering data with our Owner and CEO, Daniel Laws.

If Mr. Ellis were to be a contestant on The Voice, which song would he sing?

He would choose to sing a classic: “What a Wonderful World.”

If he could be famous for anything, what would it be?

He’d be a famous actor in Comedy films.

Jif or Peter Pan Peanut Butter?

Peter Pan

If he were Peter Pan and given a chance to never grow up, would he take it?

He says he would, so he won’t ever get old and he could live forever!

If he could buy any car right now, what color would it be?

Dark Green

If he could be any animal, which would he be and why?

A cheetah because they are fearless and relentless.

Something else he would like to share:

Jeremiah’s family originates from South America.

Now that we all know who Jeremiah is, we need to get back to teaching him about StudioPress and WP Engine, designing our intranet, and entering more data.
Jeremiah’s story could be yours! Learn more about our multiple internships (not just for high schoolers) and we could be writing a blog on you soon!

DaBrian Marketing Redesigns South Mountain YMCA’s Website Pro Bono

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South Mountain YMCA New Website

30 May, 2016 (Reading, PA) – DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC has developed and redesigned South Mountain YMCA’s website, pro bono.

The South Mountain YMCA provides camping experiences as well as educational and outdoor programs that build personal leadership, character, and life skills while developing care, honesty, respect, and responsibility in young people, families, and communities.

Nathan Brant, Chief Executive Officer of South Mountain YMCA, said,

“We cannot begin to express what an incredible gift this is. As a charity serving kids, families, and schools, a good website significantly increases the positive impact we can have on our community. This beautiful online presence will drive awareness of our programs and services, assist families in learning about transformative experiences for their children, and help educators plan for environmental and outdoor education field trips. We cannot thank the team at DaBrian Marketing enough.”  

South Mountain YMCA emphasizes three main goals of their new website: an improved experience for its users, a more effective attraction of their target audience, and the creation of a unique, intuitive aesthetic.  South Mountain YMCA’s satisfaction with the new website speaks to the analysis-based, creative web design that DaBrian Marketing Group produces.

Visit the New South Mountain YMCA  website to learn more about their youth- and family-oriented programs as well as the most recent work by DaBrian Marketing Group’s team.

About DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC

Founded in 2008, DaBrian Marketing Group, LLC is a full-service digital marketing agency, focused on providing original and strategic digital marketing solutions for businesses, that want to create digital awareness, increase return on investment (ROI), and identify insights that not only will help achieve goals but will also help to increase your business’s efficiencies. DaBrian Marketing Group’s services include email marketing, search engine optimization, website design, web analytics, social media marketing and more. Company headquarters are centrally located at 500 Penn Street, Suite 201, Reading, Pennsylvania 19602. For more information about DMG, visit dabrianmarketing.com or call 610.743.5602.

Branded Assets to Consider When Redesigning a Website

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Branded Assets to Consider When Redesigning a Website

When business executives make a decision to redesign, or give their website an updated look, there are other important branded assets or materials that may also need redesign considerations as well. Not taking these other assets or materials into account can cause a disconnect between your brand and potential customers that may want to use your services. Therefore, before beginning your website redesign project there are some important questions that may need some answers.

Is your logo in need of an updated look or redesign?

Now that mobile accounts for over 54% of the devices used to browse the web, it is important that you understand how your logo will be displayed or viewed at these resolutions. Things such as fonts, colors, and taglines can greatly affect how your logo is displayed especially at the smaller sizes required for most mobile or responsive websites. Familiarizing yourself with up-to-date logo design trends will help you decide if it’s time for a logo design overhaul.

What about the rest of your identity package?

Yeah, what about it? Well let’s see…If you did in fact need to update or redesign your logo based on the latest design trends, then your next step in the process would also include updating or revamping your identity package. Identity package materials can range from business cards, letterheads, envelopes, pens, etc. A decision will have to be made on what design elements are going to be carried over from these materials to the new website design to retain consistency, if any at all. However, this is something that should also be addressed.

Is your brand message going to be the same?

Your brand message is definitely one of the most single important aspect of your business. What you are trying to convey to your customers and how you want them to perceive your business is dependent on how effective or strong your brand message is. Brand messages are usually what drives the design process for most businesses, and what they generally rely on to remain brand consistent. If as a business you decide to change your brand message, be prepared to address all other content being used to promote your business.

Are you going to update the design/content on your marketing materials?

Well, if your business decided it is best to change or update its brand message, then it would be a great idea to review your current promo/marketing materials design and content to see if they align with the new brand message. These materials can be anything from a company brochure, catalogs, folders and folder inserts. This may also include social media accounts as well. If the design and content doesn’t align with your new brand message you may have just added another project to your redesign list. Always remember the goal is to create brand consistency.

As you can see there are other branded assets and materials that may need some attention when a business decides to redesign their website. Taking these other assets into consideration will help your business to streamline the redesign process and prevent any issues upstream that may cause a possible disconnect between your brand and potential customers you are trying to engage with. Maintaining a consistent brand is key especially when it comes to establishing healthy, long-term business relationships.

For more information about branded assets to consider when redesigning a website, contact us or leave us a comment below!

5 B2B Web Design Trends to Consider in 2016

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Web Design Trends
created by freepik.com

Introduction:

Back in March 2015 I wrote a blog which covered “Five New Web Design Trends for 2015”. Although several of these trends have managed to survive 2015, there are some additional trends that could affect the usability of your B2B website. In this blog, I will go over five (5) additional trends that can help improve usability, increase website traffic, and help drive conversions.

1. More Unique & Creative Typography

With the emergence of affordable or free web-safe fonts options like Google Fonts and Adobe Typekit, typography is becoming much more unique, and creative. On many B2B websites, headers are becoming much bolder and body text is appearing much larger in size. In addition to latest evolution of the Cascading Style Sheets language, CSS3, styling typography will offer unlimited options on how it’s presented on the web going forward. Sites like StephenCraver utilizes great use of typography to carry the layout of the site.

According to HTTP Archive, the use of custom fonts has increased over the past year. Bolder, more unique typefaces will continue to be used in B2B web design going forward. While designers may still play it safe when it comes to choosing fonts for readable type and body copy, expect to see more unique and experimental font being used for website headers and supporting text.

2. Cards, Cards, and Even More Cards

As you browse the web, you may notice that many B2B companies are leaning more towards a card design look. This web design trend is most common on social media platforms, and most commonly associated with Pinterest, however many companies have adapted this trend and you should see more of it in 2016. Several other notable sites utilizing this trend are ESPN, Dribble, The Guardian, and Amazon.

3. Less Photography, More Illustrations

Before 2016, they were plenty of B2B websites that were overloaded with stock images as means of telling their brand story. If the appropriate images aren’t chosen, this direction could cause a big disconnect between your business and potential clients. In 2016, you will notice that many businesses will move away from stock photography (especially if they are not personable) and rely more on illustration graphics to tell their story.

You will find illustration being implemented in a variety of ways such as, large-scale, hero images and backgrounds, or on much smaller scales such as icons and user interface elements. Two nice examples of websites utilizing illustrations as it’s main source of graphics are McWhopper and Ice & Sky which combine large background illustrations and animation to tell their brand story.

4. Bolder use of color

In 2015, B2B companies who implemented flat design into their website more than likely utilized a color palette which was just a flat as the design itself. With that being said, 2016 promises to be much more colorful than years past.

Color has always been one of the most single important tools for expressing a company’s brand story or message. In prior years, many B2B companies stuck to “web-safe” palettes because of the some technology limitations. If you are looking for color inspiration websites like Adobe Color CC, Paletton, Coolors can help you put together some interesting color palettes. A couple examples of good color implementation on their websites are Bose and History Of Icons.

5. Keep On Scrolling and Less Reloading

To scroll, or not to scroll. This has always been a highly debatable topic for many. It seems that more people are finding it easier to scroll down a page rather than clicking, and loading another page. This is more relevant to smartphones users browsing on slow or limited data networks. Whether on mobile or desktop, scrolling can be a very effective way of telling a company’s brand story. If your B2B website is accustom to getting a high volume of mobile traffic, scrolling would be a much better user experience than a page refresh on any device.

Websites using a Parallax scrolling effect are often implemented as a way to tell a story and make layouts more dynamically appealing. Scrolling allows the content to be incrementally readable, allowing more options and visibility to other Micro Interactions. One of my favorite scrolling or parallax designs is the Lexus website. This website implements an excellent one-page design with sections that lead to other Call To Actions (CTAs) or micro interactions.

Conclusion

While it may not be necessary to implement every new trend into your website, many of them have the potential to improve user experience. Before following new trends, it is best that you have some knowledge of what they are and how they can affect your business. Once you have a strategy in place, implementing new trends and having the ability to test them will help you streamline that process. This will help you adapt to a trend that best reflects you and your business goals.