Goals for Treats In A Box

My ultimate goal for my thesis project is “to develop a set of design goals for a bakery website, and evaluate the extent to which WordPress allows me to match design goals to implementation.”

The subgoals are as follows:

◊ Can WordPress be customized via html?

This can be determined by whether or not I can implement the design requested by the client. This includes a slideshow, a particular typeface, a crisp clean background, a mailing list, and additional pages.

◊ Will Search Engine Optimization of client website dramatically increase site visits?

This can be tracked using WordPress’ site views per hour, or through viewing site stats.

◊ Will Search Engine Optimization dramatically increase sales?

This can be proven by asking client for sales figures once new website goes live.

◊ Can marketing via social media increase sales?

Can be answered in the affirmative if sales increase, as well as likes/followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Posts to these sites should be regularly scheduled, at least once per week.

Ultimately, the website will help the client meet her goals of increasing sales and her web presence, and eventually her hopes of opening a storefront for special events, while increasing production in a bigger kitchen, will be realized.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing refers to the process of gaining website traffic or attention through social media sites. A marketing program structured around social media will make efforts to create content that garners attention and encourages readers to share the content on their social networking platform. The message is spread from one person to another–this form of marketing is driven by word-of-mouth, which means it results in earned media rather than paid media. Social media is a platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, that is easily accessible via the internet.

Social media marketing may not be for every business–you must determine whether your business is “intuitively social” and if your customers will be comfortable interacting with you publicly. Will the interaction come naturally or will it be a “forced fit.”? Even if the answer is no, that doesn’t mean you can’t use social media to your advantage, such as using LinkedIn “to target prospects and network with colleagues, or using Twitter to showcase leadership by commenting and offering a point of view on news, trends, and events, separate from any customer interaction.” See http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226887 for more information.

Entrepreneur.com has several tips for those considering social media as part of their marketing strategy: Create a social media voice people would want to hang out with, and don’t simply have the brand post for itself, because “self-serving, one-sided spiels work no better in social media networks than in personal conversations.” Feature the names and photos of the people behind your social media and blog posts in order to become more visible to the public. Choose wisely because they can easily ruin the company’s reputation in a single tweet. Give credit where credit is due–provide links to source material. Lay off the hashtag–stop hashtagging every word, and quit using it in places it wasn’t intended, like Facebook. Birthday cards. And the specials chalkboard. For more tips, read on here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226891

Increased communication fosters brand awareness and improved customer service, plus social media is a relatively cheap way to implement marketing campaigns. How often should one spend marketing on social media?  “In whatever amount of time you spend, be human. Be authentic. Be civil. Be relevant. Be useful and interactive.”

Web Design and Development

To create a quality website, one would first need to understand what a “quality website” means, by visiting other sites, and determining which elements work, don’t work, and why. One would need to consult with authorities on the matter, by referencing books, journals, and websites. Refrain from simply rushing into designing a site, because without proper planning, doing so would be a waste of time and money.

Design communicates ideas, concepts and functions to a specific audience, such as age groups, income levels, and gender. Color choices depend on what the client wishes to convey, and should support the site’s overall purpose, and to reinforce a desirable image.  The composition of the pages should be balanced, and elements should lead the viewer’s eye through the page–there should be a clear hierarchy. Choosing the appropriate typeface for the project is necessary for readability, particularly in smaller sizes if it’s going to be used for the body text, and should match the tone of the site. Accessibility must be factored in when designing a website, so that all visitors, disabled or not, can “view” it.

There are several sites that talk about best practices for web design. In addition to what I have mentioned, one site talks about usability in terms of navigation, precedence and text, as well as adhering to standards and what people expect. For instance, text with an underline is expected to be a link. Doing otherwise would not be good usability practice. You should think about how the user might use your site and make it easier for them. Other aspects to keep in mind include, clarity, simplicity, and consistency, Another website suggests that the designer should not be afraid of white space because it makes it easier for the visitor to scan the page, and digest the information.

For more information, visit Tutsplus.com and SmashingMagazine.com. If you are interested in learning to code a webpage, I would suggest w3schools.com, because it was helpful to me when I was taking my web design course. Tutsplus.com and CodeAcademy.com also offer tutorials.

E-Commerce

E-Commerce or electronic commerce refers to the buying and selling of goods and services via electronic means, primarily the Internet. Online retail is convenient because of its 24-hr availability and global reach. According to networksolutions.com, e-commerce is a “term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations.” The boundaries between conventional and electronic commerce will be increasingly blurred as more businesses move parts of their operations onto the internet.

To start an online business, one must have a product or service that customers may have a hard time finding in a brick-and-mortar store, and one must take into account the shipping costs of that said item. Then, one must have an e-commerce enabled website–this can be a site developed from scratch or an existing site with e-commerce capabilities added to it.

To have an online store, one must also have shopping cart software, which is an operating system used to allow customers to purchase goods and services, track customers, and ties together the online experience. The invisible shopping cart is used to hold items the customer wishes to purchase, and once they have finished browsing, they click on the checkout button, and fill in their payment information. Next, an online business needs the ability to accept online payments. This entails opening a merchant account, and accepting credit cards through a secured online gateway, or choosing a simpler method by accepting payments through Paypal.

In the end, one must have marketing strategies in place to drive new business to the site, maybe through social networking sites and through the community, as well as the ability to “entice” repeat customers, perhaps with discounts or a loyalty program.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is the process of affecting how early and often a website or webpage appears in a search engine’s natural and organic search results. Natural or organic meaning un-paid. If you pay to have your website appear in a search result, it will be featured above the natural search results as “sponsored links” such as Google AdWords. The higher your webpage is ranked on the search results page, and the more frequently it appears, the more visitors your page will receive.

Google put together a Search Optimization Starter Guide which walks through the best practices for your webpage. It can be found here
(It was listed second on the search results page after Wikipedia’s definition of Search Engine Optimization)

Some “best practices” include: Accurately describing the page’s content in the title tag of each webpage, and making use of the “description” meta tag. By using the the page’s description meta tag, it gives search engines a summary of what the page is about, and Google may use the information as “snippets” for your pages. A snippet is the text displayed beneath the title of a corresponding web page on the search results pages of a search engine. Words in a snippet are bolded when they appear in the user’s query. Use words with URLs that are relevant to your webpage’s content and structure because visitors are more likely to remember them, and might be willing to link to them. Avoid generic names like Page1.html and excessive keywords. Make your site easier to navigate, by planning out how visitors will go from a general page to a page containing more specific content.

This Google guide is wonderful, and I plan to read it through just for my information…