It is Space Chimp Media’s goal to make the internet a safe place with web design that converts. If we had our way you would never have to stumble upon an all-black website with lime green text and a picture of the owners dog ever again. Here’s our list of the essential stuff to help you design an attractive and effective landing page. Think of this as the waiting room where your customers can learn everything about your company in one simple read page which compels users to take action.

Pitch Graphic

It’s difficult to know what to pay attention to when you land on a page with multiple competing graphics and information. The eye needs to be drawn in to one focal point, this is easy to accomplish with an image that will communicate to the user what it is you do.

Main Feature

The pitch graphic will prep the user for your main feature–you, your business, your product, basically the reason they came to your site in the first place.

Benefits

What are the benefits of your product or service over that of another company, or just compared to not having them at all? Use your website to communicate to your potential customers the benefits of your product or service, but keep it brief. The landing page is a map that the user can look at and instantly see how to get from where they are to where they want to go via the roads you’ve outlined. Your products and services likely have their own pages, but those pages should be easy to find and introduced in such a way that people want to click through.

How It Works

Do people know what you do, or are they always asking you what, exactly, a “Cloud-based Application Interface Designer” does? Or maybe your product isn’t self-explanatory, either; this can especially be true with new mobile technologies that are not yet house-hold names. It’s important to explain to your potential customer how your product or service works, so they know if it’s right for them.

Pricing Tables

When you go to a new restaurant, open the menu, and realize there are no prices what is your first reaction? To kick the person you’re with under the table and try to invent a graceful way of leaving? Most people, when they don’t see a price tag, imagine the worst. You don’t have to post prices on your landing page, but let people know that they can find your prices without calling and then feeling embarrassed to admit you’re out of their price range. Just making the price list available may make you look more affordable because you’re not trying to hide anything.

Credibility

Why should someone choose your business over another? Now that your customer has been familiarized with your product, take a moment to introduce yourself. Should they buy because you’re a small mom and pop shop that has been trusted in your local community for over 50 years? Or should they trust you because you’ve been backed by celebrities? Because your product has become an industry standard? Because … it smells good?

Contact Forms

There’s an annoying phrase that comes up a lot in marketing: Keep It Simple Stupid. Keeping your forms simple removes barriers between your potential customer and a conversion. It’s a lot easier for someone to fill out a contact form, or hit “add to cart” than it is for them to pick up the phone and call. The form is there to make the sale easy, don’t undo all the work it’s doing for you by over-complicating it.

Secondary Call to Action

Okay, they acted, they came to your site, they clicked around and now you want them to DO something. Maybe it’s to call you for a consultation, or to buy a pair of pants, or even just to like a pair of pants and share it on Facebook. In any case, there needs to be a next step, and you need to make it EASY for them to make.

Did we miss something? Leave a comment below.

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | 8 Fundamental Parts of a Great Landing Page

With our clean, classy, established logo, why would Space Chimp Media (APPSPIRE.me’s parent company) pay anything for the trash you see (and hear) here? We’ve gotta tell you the truth, we did it for the links. Not just the click-through that we hope to get from other people browsing HorribleLogos.com, but for the increased traffic we get to our site from higher search rankings.

More links to your site means higher search rankings. You can also think of backlinks as votes to your site. The more votes the better. The higher the quality the vote, the bigger the impact will be on your site. This is a great example of how to buy links without getting in trouble with Google or Bing.

Did you get a horrible logo or jingle? Share it here or on our Facebook page.

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | Our Horrible Jingle and Logo

Leisure has a value of its own. It is not a mere handmaid of labor; it is something we should know how to cultivate, to use, and to enjoy. – Agnes Repplier, “Leisure”

At the end of most yoga practices there’s a segment called “Savasana,” this posture involves laying on your back. Really, just laying there. These few moments of rest are meant to help all the postures that came before it be integrated into the muscles, to let the effect of the practice take hold. Recently, authors Connie May Fowler and Patrick Madden gave a lecture that suggested a similar idea, but for the brain. The lecture is titled, “The Importance of Wasting Time“, and was performed online, through Facebook, of all places. The general idea: How can we come up with new, innovative ideas, if we’re constantly focused on what’s already going on?

A lot of us pride ourselves on being workaholics, multitaskers, and do-it-ourselfers, all of which have their merits–but what ever happened to quality over quantity?

Now, this idea of doing too much doesn’t just apply to your brain or your body, but also to the health of your company, and it call comes down to budgeting. Budgeting time, money, and resources. Running a business is like running a marathon, not a sprint, so it’s key to make sure that you’re budgeting your resources to be there for you over time. Resources include employees (there’s the age-old saying that you can treat employees well and pay them badly, or you can treat them badly and pay them well, but you can’t treat them badly and pay them badly), industry contacts (don’t wear out your favors), and of course cold hard cash (don’t blow it all in one place, pace yourself and diversify).

Of course each company is different, some small businesses don’t have the funds to hire employees, others are in the hectic phase of trying to find their niche and establish their brand. There are certainly reasons to be busy and reasons why a strong work-ethic has long been admired–no one is suggesting you shirk your responsibilities, rather, I’m suggesting that you stop feeling guilty when you sneak away from your to do list to get a sandwich.

So, now that you’re ready to make the most of your wasted time, just don’t try too hard.

What do you think? When do you get your best ideas?

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | Are You Doing too Much?

Let’s look at it from the other side.

We all want to feel like we’re best friends with our favorite brands—that Justin Timberlake and The New Yorker like us as much as we like them—but that doesn’t mean we want to know when the intern who is running their facebook account wants a sandwich. If you’re a restaurant, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to be posting updates about your favorite sports team. Every brand is an authority, or striving to portray themselves as such, and what we—the fans–want to know is: how did they get so cool? What do they have that made us want to follow them in the first place?

So how do you share your authority and coolness with your fans? Go off on tangents. And by tangents, I mean, of course, topics that are tangentially related to your business. You have a shoe store specializing in athletic footwear? An interesting article about your favorite runner could make a great relevant post.

Remember, also, that people sign into facebook to see if the guy or girl they have a crush on has liked their new profile picture, and that noticing your post at all is a gift of their attention. Keep it brief, keep it relevant, and at least try to keep it interesting.

Do you have other suggestions for brands running social media accounts? Leave a comment below.

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | Toeing the Line in Social Media

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | How to Make A Successful App!

Here is the official description from the FOX website

Each week, Chef Ramsay will visit a new establishment with myriad problems. He will delve deep into the inner workings of each eatery and explore everything from unsanitary refrigerators to lazy and inexperienced staff to diagnose the real problems. Whether he changes the restaurant’s operations, updates the menu or gives the establishment a complete makeover, Chef Ramsay will do whatever it takes to try and turn these restaurants into popular, successful and, most importantly, money-making businesses. It’s up to the restaurant owners to take his advice and use it, or face closure [FOX].

What You Can Learn

The great thing about the show no matter how wacky or fake you think it is (there definitely are some questionable moments), is that you can actually learn some valuable business lessons. You don’t have to be a restaurant owner to take away some valuable lessons from the show. I’ve probably watched almost every episode they have ever produced and what I have come to learn is that the lessons these restaurant business owners learn is actually universal wisdom that all business owners should understand.

From my uber obsession with the show I have brainstormed about 10 things your business should do in order to help ensure your success.

1. Hire an Outsider

Sometimes business owners get tunnel vision and can’t recognize what is ailing their business. Therefore its important to hire an outsider you trust to give you a fresh outlook on your business and industry.

2. Focus on Making a Good Product

The number one problem with businesses on Kitchen Nightmares is that there food is horrible. From my experience, this tends to be the number one problem of all other failing businesses. If your product or service sucks nobody is going to buy it. Focus on ensuring your product or service is the best it can be first and foremost.

3. Clear the Air

Its important for internal communication. This not only means regular weekly or monthly meetings but also means you need to be candid with your employees. Ask them how they feel, how they would grow the company or what issues they see with the business. Promote openness and collaboration and your business will soar above the rest as you essentially are promoting innovation and forward thought.

4. Identify Problem Areas

Your business is never perfect. Identify areas where you can improve and innovate at all times. Make sure you stay humble and stay hungry for growth and success or your competition will eat you alive.

5. Embrace Change

The older you get the harder it is to change. However, its important that you embrace possible ways to shake things up especially if your sales are shrinking. Its important to note however too much change too often will simply confuse your customers as to what the real value of your business.

6. Shed The Dead-weight

Don’t become attached to your employees. Give business separate from pleasure as much as possible. This doesn’t mean you need to be a cold-hearted snake as Paula Abdul would say. It simply means your business should come first. You can’t afford to let a single employee or group of employees risk the well fair of your company in the wellbeing of your other employees.

7. Simplify Your Business

This is a common problem. Business owners may be good at alot of things and want to provide all those services or products at once. However, a confusing business model will simply confuse your customer base as to what you actually do. If you do a little of everything people will simply think your only a little bit good at alot of things even if it isn’t the case. Even large conglomerates like General Electric break off individual business segments into unified brands.

8. Always be Learning

You’re never too good to learn from another. The smartest and most talented individuals are always trying to learn more. Seek out other thought leaders in your industry and create working relationships so that you can continue to to stay at the forefront of your industry. Stay on your toes and always remember, there’s always someone out that may be just a little better than you.

9. Reach Out to The Community

Word-of-Mouth referrals are the best customers to have because that person trusts that they were given accurate information from someone they trust. The best way to increase word-of-mouth business is to reach out to your local community. If your a new business, customers outside your front door are alot easier to get to than customers thousands of miles away.

10. Stay the Course

Now that you’ve learned all these important business lessons its important that you keep it all together. Creating a successful business or turning a business around is only half the battle. Now you have to stay the course and keep your business on track on a daily basis. It may not seem that hard but when you have phone calls, emails, meetings, and family all to juggle at once it can be easy to lower your standards and let things slip.

All in all, remember to keep your standards high, stay focused, and stay hungry and you will succeed in the end.

Did I leave anything out? Leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts.

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | 10 Important Lessons any Business Can Learn from The Hit TV Series Kitchen Nightmares

1.  Keep it clean!  Websites that are over-crowded and stuffed full of photos, graphics, and teeny-tiny text are hard on the eye and give a “cheap” impression.
2. Organize it!  Ensure that the layout of your site makes sense and that similar products are grouped together so that your visitors don’t have to jump around looking for things.
3. Maintain it!  Broken links are one of the primary reasons that visitors will navigate away from your site.  They will figure that if you cannot keep your website running properly, then they will be unable to expect proper service from you.  Also ensure that your pages load quickly; when forced to wait too long for a page to load, your customers will simply “x” out and go to your competitor’s site.
4. Stimulate the eye!  While you want to avoid too many photos, people love to see pictures, so make sure you have quality photos that show all angles of your product.  Include call-outs that allow the customer to zoom in on larger and different views, as well as to see alternate color choices, if offered.
5. Describe it!  In addition to including quality photos, you will need to provide accurate, detailed descriptions of your products.  Anticipate what customers will want to know about the product and include that information.  If the product is something that requires a size or measurements, make sure you list that information.
6. Proof it!  One of the biggest turn-offs for most people is to try to read copy on a webpage that is full of grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors, so make sure you proofread and spell-check your site.  If this is not your strong point, enlist the help of someone who is good at it.
7. Be up front!  Post your shipping charges where your customers can see them before they reach the end of the checkout process.  Sales and return customers can be lost when you force your clientele to navigate all the way through check-out in order to see what their total cost will be.  Additionally, include a return policy that is easy to find on your site, easy to understand, and easy (read no hassle) to use.
8. Be reasonable!  Offer sensible shipping and handling fees – there’s a reason that those annoying infomercials put the shipping and handling fees in microscopic print, and that’s because those fees often exceed the cost of the item they want you to buy.  Gouging your customers will cost you repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals.
9. Make it easy!  Ensure that your check out or shopping cart process is easy to use without unnecessary steps.  People do not want to navigate through more than three pages to get to the end of the process, and many will simply give up before they get to the end if they have to jump through too many hoops.
10. Get personal!  Include information about you or your company.  Doing so lends your site a personal touch that makes people more comfortable with buying from you.
11. Anticipate questions!  Include a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page that pulls from questions you have had in the past and those that you can anticipate being asked in the future.  Doing so will also save you some time and effort in responding to the same questions over and over.
12.  Back it up!  Use testimonials from your customers or link to articles that support your product to enhance its value.  Be careful with this however, as too many such testimonials or links can start to make your site appear “cheesy” and will have the opposite effect.
13. Make it irresistible!  When you can, discount your products to provide your customers with a true value.  Of particular importance in today’s economy is making sure that your pricing is competitive enough to attract sales.  If you have unique or hard-to-find items, then higher pricing makes sense, but pricing your product well above your competitors will ultimately cost you sales.
14. Let them find you!  Make sure your contact information is easy to find and avoid forcing your visitors to search all over the site to find out how to ask you a question.
15. Be responsive!  Always respond to questions within a reasonable period of time.  If you make your customers wait too long, they will find another site from which to purchase the product.  Consider using an auto-responder if the volume warrants it, but keep in mind that personal service is always appreciated.
16. Let them know!  Include a method by which your customers can sign up for e-mail alerts for new products and sales.  Use this marketing tool wisely, though, so as not to give your customers the impression of being “spammed” which can be a huge turn-off for them.
17. Keep it safe!  Make sure your site clearly states that your customer’s information is secure and that it is safe to buy from you.
18. Offer choices!  Give your customers as many payment options as possible, including PayPal, credit card payments, and other popular payment methods.
19. Be humble!  There will be times when you make a mistake – it happens.  When it does happen, though, be prepared to handle the situation with a sincere apology and an offer to make it right.  Service recovery can not only correct an issue, but if handled correctly, may win you the loyalty of a customer that you might otherwise have lost.
20. Be creative!  Don’t be afraid to try new ideas, but don’t invest yourself in them to the point where you are unwilling to let them go if they are not working.

Source: .docstoc

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | 20 Things You Can Do to Increase Sales on Your eCommerce Website

Can you find any funny, amusing or shocking Google Suggestions?  Let us know!

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | Fun with Google Suggestions

Facebook
The Occupy Wall Street Facebook page currently has over 160,000 likes, and it’s growing steadily at an alarming rate. The admins of this site aren’t just posting random rants either, they’re effectively pulling on the heart strings of their target audience by posting news about location updates, links to forums, and supply needs of the protesters themselves. Through FB, they are reaching thousands of interested and/or participating U.S. citizens, and painting an overall picture that is much more compelling than a single news article or blog about the event. The Facebook movement has also splintered off into city-specific pages as well, including Occupy Austin and Occupy San Diego.

YouTube
Being that YouTube is the second most popular search engine (just under Google), there’s not a better place online to post videos so the people can see what’s really going on behind the scenes. Just type “Occupy Wall Street” in YouTube’s search box and you’ll find pages and pages of videos flooding the video channel. The vids cover riots, police brutalities, and celebrity interviews about the event; again bringing the whole campaign to a reality for those who are not physically there. And considering that Google ranks web sites by YouTube videos, the massive amount of uploaded videos has only boosted search rankings for www.occupywallst.org.

Twitter
Hashtag “OccupyWallSt” and you’ll find thousands of tweets posted and shared by the minute. Twitter has been the leader in real-time news reports for the protest, where Twitter users can find out the latest news almost instantly about the event. Also, many major news sources such as CNN and ABC are using their Twitter accounts to update their ever-evolving stories covering Occupy Wall Street.

Many people have been comparing the Occupy Wall Street protest to the famous protests of the 1960s, but modern technology has made this one far more advanced and social. During the 1960s you had three sources to discover news about the protests: TV, Radio, and Newspapers. With today’s advancements in social sharing, citizen and traditional news are being shared through thousands of outlets via social media, giving this protest a much larger and more effective outreach.

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | How Occupy Wall Street is Using Social Media

Learn how expert marketers ensure that your brand gets media coverage every time.

Garnering media attention for your business is an important part of establishing a market position and getting customers to recognize your company.  There are two main reasons why you want to get covered in the media. First, the media is often considered to be the “fourth estate” due to its ability to keep politicians and corporations in check. This built in credibility creates trust amongst the publications readership. Secondly, people that buy magazines or newspapers buy it to read the articles not the ads. Therefore, it already has a built in customer base. A high volume of engaged readers (potential customers) plus credibility equals your brands amplification in the market place.

How Much More Success Can I Expect with Media Coverage

Research shows that news articles are 6 times more likely to be read than an advertisement. This is obviously a powerful statistic. If I can get 6 times more success with a news article why should I even advertise? Well, sustaining press coverage overtime is quite a bit more difficult than buying some ad space on a website or billboard. However, driving buzz through media and integrating that with a well thought out advertising plan is like rocket fuel to your bottom line. Capturing the attention of the media is valuable but marketing plus media is priceless.

Knowing what motivates publications to choose one story over the next is the first step to success. The answer is actually quite simple if you think about. Just like you and I we are in business to make money. Publications are no different. They need to sell newspapers or subscriptions so it is understandable that they are going to print stories that move their product off the shelves. Deliver a ready made story that is going to sell newspapers and your on the road to capturing media attention. Below are the five most written storylines written today. Therefore, it should be your goal to provide the media with one of these stories.

The Five Most Frequently Written Stories

1. The David-and-Goliath story
2. The unusual or outrageous story
3. The controversy story
4. The celebrity story
5. What’s already hot in the media

What are some other ways to ensure your story gets picked up in the media?

Share/Bookmark

Space Chimp Media | How to Capture The Attention of The Media