Downloads

• pdf: How much does a web designer make?
• gif: How much does a web designer make?

References

• The Creative Group
• Adventure Quest
• Evony
• Lego
• Khan Academy
• First Lutheran Christian School
• SEOmoz (the page we originally referenced our data from has been redirected)

We type in our search: “used car”. The results we see vary depending on where and who we are. There will be a number of ads displayed, whether we’re actively aware of it or not. On a Google SERP, you’re probably used to seeing ads displayed at the top and to the right of the search results. They look a lot like regular search results. Marketers are paying for these ad placements and the ability to send clicks to a landing page of their choosing. (See google.com/adwords for more information.) In SERPs, the ads you see are related to what you typed as a search (known as “keywords”).

Here’s where it gets interesting. It’s one thing to pay for clicks to your website; it’s another thing to create and measure an SEM campaign with a specific goal in mind. Let’s say you’re placing an ad for a particular search keyword. By designing a landing page specific to your customer’s needs, and then specifying an action those customers can take to support your marketing objectives, you can measure how effective your ad dollars are.

The goal of this hypothetical SEM campaign is to build a list of leads in an effort to sell more of our products.  Since we know what kind of ads our potential customers clicked on, we can take them to a page that cuts right to the chase: “Here’s an offer relevant to what you’re looking for, please provide your contact info so we can follow up with you”. As an example, here’s a lead capture page we helped develop for our client BigSteelBox. The page invites the user to fill out a form to get more information about BigSteelBox’s moving and storage products and services.

Now we’re in business. Between our landing page’s analytics software and the data from our SEM network, we can determine the search keywords and ads that generate leads, and how much it costs to get a lead. If specific ads or keywords aren’t producing business, we can discontinue or refine them.

Now we know exactly when marketing dollars are an expense or an investment. And that, fellow businesspeople, is some comforting (and profitable) knowledge to have.

Sam Turri is Artistech’s Internet Strategist.

What are your experiences with SEM? Which SEM services and techniques work best for you? Hit the comments and let us know!

With the evolution of the terrain park, Big White wanted to have a tool that skiers and boarders would find useful and engaging with in depth information on park builds, information about the TELUS Park team, local rider profiles, events and much more. From the rails to the ski cross course, every feature will be displayed with unique community-driven content including the latest and greatest local images and videos.

Big White’s roots in snowboarding go back nearly thirty years ago with local pioneer snowboarders hiking the slopes. Since then, Big White has developed some of the industry’s top pro’s including the founder of Stepchild Snowboards, Sean Johnson. The Big White terrain park saw its beginnings in 1988 with a few small features and a hand-shaped half pipe. In 2000, Big White fully committed to the terrain park program installing an 1800-foot long double chair and a dirt work structures. Today, Big White finds itself with a $10,000 investment in rails and boxes, summer grooming and dirt work in the terrain park, as well as host to pumping a local’s scene passionate about their sport.

Skier and riders are invited to enter the TELUS Park contest online at www.bigwhite.com/telus-park/event-calendar/telus-park-contests. The winner of the Big White TELUS Park contest will be drawn on the official opening day of the season for the park.

About Big White Ski Resort

Located in the picturesque Okanagan Valley and a short 55-minute drive from Kelowna International Airport, the award-winning Big White Ski Resort is British Columbia’s second largest resort and boasts the most ski-in, ski-out accommodation in Canada. Blessed with sunny weather, dry powder and a mild average temperature, Big White is best known as a family friendly resort where kids and adults can all have fun. For more information, visit www.bigwhite.com or call 1.800.663.2772 for reservations and bookings. Follow us on Twitter @bigwhite.

For further information contact:

Brad Parsons
Sticky Consulting
brad@stickyconsulting.ca

Flynn Seddon
Director of Terrain Parks & Outdoor Events
Big White Ski Resort
fseddon@bigwhite.com

Giuseppe Simpatico
Co-Owner, Digital Account Director
Artistech Newmedia
sep@artistechnewmedia.com

Sara Andersen

Accounting Generalist

TSN – As an avid sports fan I check TSN daily, sometimes several times a day. It provides up to date information on my favourite players and teams and all of my favourite sports (which is pretty much all sports…except curling, I despise curling!).

TSN is easy to navigate and includes photos, scores, schedules, and highlights of various sports events. I also enjoy reading Chris Schultz (or “Schultzy” as his colleagues refer to him). His approach and descriptions of plays are always entertaining and informative.

I also have the TSN App on my iPhone so that I can keep up with my team’s schedules, scores, and news.

Yup, I’m an avid sports fan!

Julie Anderson

Creative Director, Account Manager

Etsy – Because I love handmade and unique things. They have a great UE and I’m always finding design inspiration there. Word of caution: you can easily become lost for many hours surfing through the millions of products available. With that being said, if you can’t find a product anywhere else you’re certain to find it on Etsy.

Pattern Tap – A designer’s handbag of great design elements for websites. If I’m ever stuck for direction on a particular element I just take a browse through the collections and I find my problem is solved rather quickly. You can also create your own sets to keep track of that growing list of neat sites we all stumble upon on a daily basis.

Jeff Harris

Interactive Developer

Smashing Magazine  – A lot of great articles on anything web design and development related.

Ultimate Guitar – I love playing the guitar. This is my number one resource for learning songs and tabs. Lots of good articles as well. Couldn’t live without it!

Jon Lemon

Project & Maintenance Manager

Google Calendar – This keeps us all on track, including our designers, developers, project managers and account directors. In order to meet our project objectives and not exceed the budget or timeline, Google Calendar is the way to go!

Firebug – For the developer in me, this is probably one of the greatest tools in my toolbox. Using the analogy of a mechanic with a vehicle, Firebug gives a web designer the ability to ‘look under the hood’ of a website and see how it’s running. Definitely could not live without it!

Kitzie Stern’s Kirtan Podcast – Working in a digital agency would not be the same without music. Kitzie Stern’s Kirtan Podcast is what’s playing in my ear-buds while working on the computer. What’s kirtan, you might ask? Kirtan is a very simple and powerful way to meditate. It’s effortless and joyful; the music does the work for you as you flow with the melody and rhythm. This podcast takes the stress out of the day.

Timothy Lynch

Business Development, Digital Account Director

 One of the great things that I enjoy about the Internet is the accessibility to information. Reading multiple news sites online quickly replaced the one newspaper I used to peruse over my morning coffee.

Mashable is one site that I find myself frequently visiting. It follows the continually-evolving space of social media and the digital culture.

Brad Marshall

Co-Owner, Digital Account Director

I’m a self-confessed newbie travel-hacker. I don’t even travel that often, yet I’m always looking for airfare and hotel bargains. When the opportunity does arise I want to make sure I’m getting the best deal possible.

To travel-hack effectively you can’t rely on just one site.  My inbox is often filled with travel notifications from the likes of TripAdvisor, KAYAK, Expedia, SPG, Lonely Planet, Alaska Air, WestJet, FareCompare, HomeAway, Momondo, SkyScanner, AirFareWatchDog, Jetsetter, AirBnB, Living Social Escapes, Groupon Getaways, and more. Of these, in terms of beauty and usability, I’d have pick Jetsetter as my favourite.

Nicolas Morin

Technical Director, Mobile Developer

Any developer will reach the point of replacing the dated textbook with finding programming resources online (love copy/paste).  Sites I can’t program without are:

stackoverflow – For all my iPhone development.

Google Maps v3 API - Seems like all I’m going these days are Google Maps mashups.

php and javascript – ‘Cause I’m too lazy to remember basic, trivial string and date functions.

But SoundCloud tuned in to Sasha makes programming rad!

Giuseppe Simpatico

Co-Owner, Digital Account Director

YouTube is becoming one of my most used web resources. Sometimes I use it for watching funny clips here and there, but I mainly use it as my personal collection of music and movies; I’ve created playlists featuring both. With YouTube Movies in full swing you can enjoy a classic Jean-Claude Van Damme movie without a subscription!

Vivian Turgeon

Account Director

I used to spend hours at Chapters browsing the various sections. Now I go to Great Group Reads at Booklist Online and browse right from home. Being an avid reader and belonging to a book club, I’m always on the lookout for a great escape. From there I go to Indigo to check more reviews. Then, yes, I may walk down to the library to borrow something or drop by Mosaic Books on Bernard to purchase it (if they have stock). I like supporting local.

My next favourite spot is YouTube for its music videos.  Having a “Smart TV” allows me to view on the big screen while I study, work or relax. Thank you, YouTube!

Sam Turri

Internet Strategist, Project Manager

Rotten Tomatoes entertains and informs me. The informing part involves boiling the opinions of movie critics down to a single data point, a percentage that tells you how much a film is liked or disliked. The entertaining part comes from the excerpts of specific film reviews; I love seeing the ways folks like Peter Travers or Roger Ebert can tear a crappy film apart (I’m thinking of you, Transformers: Dark of the Moon).

Okay, so that’s the stuff we love. What about you? What entertains and inspires you? Which tools make your life measurably better? Enlighten us in the comments below!

Look, we’re real happy for you (and we’re going to let you finish), but we need you to know three things:

1. Digital marketing is never done. Actually, make that just marketing (thanks Scott!).
2. For better or for worse, the brand/corporate web site has legitimate online competition for eyeballs in the form of social media.
3. Just like your website, you need a strategy for your social media activities (thanks Jay!).

Social media is not for trendsetters anymore. It’s simply a part of how we communicate, business included. And while there’s an endless supply of social media services fighting for your ad impressions and clicks, Facebook is certainly king.

“Yeah,” you say. “I made a Facebook business Page. It took me 5 minutes.” Okay, it’s true that a Facebook Page can be made with little effort or skill. But so can websites. What brand wants a second (or third)-rate website? You put all sorts of resources into your kick ass website. We encourage you to translate some of that over to your Facebook page and make it stand out. It won’t magically make you a social media star, but it will help.

So what does that look like? We’ll use some of Artistech’s work as examples. Here are three brands that have added value to their Facebook Pages.

include() Wine

include() is a hobby for Artistech’s executives Brad Marshall and Giuseppe Simpatico…as long as you’re willing to permit the word “hobby” to mean “creating large amounts of additional work outside of work.” There’s a lot of Okanagan wine out there, but the include() brand is built to stand out. Part of how that’s communicated is in graphic design.

Every time somebody says, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” half a bazillion people do exactly that. Nothing was stopping Brad and Sep from creating a tab that communicated this product info in regular text on a white background. But then the content would look just like a bunch of other stuff on Facebook. Information with appealing packaging is more likely to be noticed.

Of course, you don’t just want customers to hear something; you want them to act as a result of hearing it. include() isn’t formally open for business yet, but there’s no need to wait to build a list of potential customers.

It’s a small victory to simply have a prospective customer checking out your Facebook page. You can take your relationship a step further by giving them a fast and easy way to signal interest in what you have to offer. Once you have an email address or phone number and a bit of supporting information, you can focus marketing efforts on people who want to hear what you have to say.

Best Buy Canada

We’ve worked with Best Buy Canada on some of their Facebook promotional campaigns, including Facebook apps like their Back to School contest. Note the visual relationship between their contest website and Facebook Page. An element as simple as color helps to create brand consistency between media channels, and in the case of Facebook it helps you stand out from the pack.

With their Facebook Instant Win game, Best Buy Canada incentivized targeted customers to enter their online contest. It’s a clear example of using a Facebook tab to support a broader objective.

The Takeaways

• Consumer brands need to take Facebook seriously as a marketing and communications channel.
• Ask your graphic designer to translate your website’s look over to your company’s Facebook page. Standardize the visuals that promote your brands across marketing channels.
• Jay Baer says your social media activity should have an objective. He’s right of course. Just like your website, your Facebook Page should have an objective. Do you want to increase your reach via word of mouth? Do you want to generate leads for your sales team? Know what you want to achieve and have a plan to make it happen.

What do you think is important in a quality Facebook presence? What brands have you connected with on Facebook? What are the downsides to using Facebook as a marketing channel? Hit the comments and give us the scoop!

Sam Turri is Artistech’s Internet Strategist.