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Website Design Best Practices: The Homepage Experience

Anyone with a driver’s license can get from point A to point B in a car. But to excel as a professional in NASCAR or Formula One racing, you’ve go to have some serious skills that have been attained by many years of study and real-world experience. Website design is the same way. Although you, or someone you know, may be able to put together a website, calling upon the expertise of a professional can go a long way in getting you to the “finish line” ahead of your competitors. There’s an art and craft to the process of website design — not only in creating an attractive aesthetic, but […]

Posted in Website Design

The Best Way to Set Up Your Blog: Subpage vs. Subdomain

In our previous series, Blogging 101, we talked extensively about many of the best practices associated with writing a blog. But what about the hierarchy of how your blog is set up? In other words, is it set up as a subpage or a subdomain of your website? If you’re not a web designer or copywriter, you’re probably scratching your head wondering what the difference is between the two. Have no fear! Tingalls Graphic Design is going to define each of them, as well as let you know which one is the better choice when you have a blog associated with a website. Your Blog as a Subdomain In a […]

Posted in Copywriting & Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Tips

The Problem with “Bargain-priced” Services

No matter what type of business you have, or type of work you do, you may be faced with a critical question: do you discount? Whether it’s a discount house like Groupon, 99Designs, or simply running a “special” on your website, discounting services or products is something that requires much consideration. Why? Because it can have negative long-term affects on your business, your bottom line — and your reputation. Let’s examine when a discount may be a good idea, and when it should absolutely be avoided. In a retail environment, sales are part of the natural selling cycle. But even here, retail shops have undermined themselves by starting sales earlier […]

Posted in Graphic Design, Print & Package Design, Website Design

How to Create a Successful Email Campaign

Does your business utilize email campaigns? Whether you’re an old pro at putting campaigns together, or your company is just embarking into the territory of email marketing, making sure you’re following these best practices can help ensure each email you deliver to a customer or potential customer is crafted for success — right down to the character count of your subject line … Email Frequency The amount of emails businesses receive these days is often astronomical. Keeping yours to a minimum — 1 or 2 per month — is a good way of ensuring the recipients on your email list don’t unsubscribe. At Tingalls Graphic Design, we’ve found that one […]

Posted in Copywriting & Blogging, Marketing, Tips

Is an Exhausted Brain More Creative?

I recently stumbled upon an article at Inc.com called 6 Surprising Ways to Become More Creative. It got me thinking about how the creative process is affected by internal and external influences. One thing the article suggests is that exhaustion is a catalyst to creativity. But does exhaustion really get your creative juices flowing? Or is the research behind this statement all fluff? According to the article, optimal productivity is attained when you’re most awake and alert. Morning people do best at dawn, while night owls do better after the sun goes down. “But when it comes to creativity, you should just throw this conventional wisdom out the window.” Research […]

Posted in Tips

Tracking Your Networking Success (or Lack Thereof)

In our recent blog post, Networking is Still a Viable Way to Grow a Business, we talked about five tips to help determine what types of networking groups are best for you to join. But once you find groups that are a good fit for you and your business, how do you track the actual effectiveness of the group to see if it’s generating business leads, or business insights, on a regular basis? Assuming that you are a regular attendee of the group, is it really worth your while? To answer these questions, you’ll first need to determine your intention for joining the group in the first place (which hopefully […]

Posted in Networking, Tips

The Value of Outsourcing

Does your business outsource? Depending on the size of your company, you may outsource lots work to or you might currently have no partners you outsource to. Either way, we’ve got a question for you: what is your perceived value of outsourcing? Outsourcing can have an immense impact on the quality of your products or services, as well as the overall success of your company. When you alleviate difficult, time-consuming tasks that you might not be the best at (I have an immense shortcoming with accounting myself), you free up time to build your business. Being able to spend more time on improving sales, products or services means your company […]

Posted in Search Engine Optimization, Website Design

Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?

People are using their mobile devices more and more to search the web, which beckons the question: is your website mobile friendly? If you’re not sure, the easiest way to answer this question is to simply view your website on a mobile device. If all the sections on your homepage load properly, you should be in good shape. If you’re finding that your site has overlapping boxes, is missing text areas, or you’re unable to access all the pages in your drop down menu, your website might need to be recoded or enhanced for mobile devices. There are a few options when it comes to making your site mobile friendly, including creating a “parallel” […]

Posted in Website Design

Networking is Still a Viable Way to Grow a Business

There was a time when a handshake was our social media. Live conversation, awkward pauses, and the exchange of business cards were our means of disseminating information to each other. And although the Internet has permanently changed the business landscape, networking is still an excellent way for many businesses to be more involved in the community, and grow their business. That being said, you may not want to join the very first association or group you stumble upon. Doing some research to find a networking group that offers value to you and your business — either with educational opportunities, or potential to meet customers in your niche — can go […]

Posted in Marketing, Networking, Tips

Are Native Ads a Good Solution for Your Website?

One of the current trends in marketing & web design is something called native ads, which is defined as “a form of paid media where the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience in which it is placed.” This definition comes from Sharethrough, the world’s largest in-feed advertising exchange. What this means, in essence, is that native ads live within the content of a web page, as opposed to off to the side (usually in a right-side banner area) as we’ve grown accustomed to in web design over the years. Sharethrough’s opinion is that “native ads are more visually engaging than banner ads.” At Tingalls […]

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Website Design

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