#10) Long, clunky websites URLs
“There are more than 108 million websites.” That sentence was posted in 2007. It should be obvious that a Web address must be easy to remember as to not get lost in the haystack of URLs on the web today. Your website should be short, unique, easy to spell, and easy to remember. If your website is www.greatdealsatthebestpricescurrentlyavailable.com, it’s time to head back to the drawing board. Try no more than 3 syllables as a rule of thumb.
#9) Using wordy, industry-related jargon
Nobody likes a vocabulosaurus. If users want to be impressed by big, unfamiliar words, they’ll visit Dictionary.com, not your company’s website. In today’s cluttered market, the best way to stand out is to clear the clutter around you. Lose the fancy sales pitches and buzz words. Today’s consumer is no longer inspired by being told that your product or service is “the best” or “in high demand.” Instead, you will find more response to telling it like it is. Be honest, sincere, and candid. It’s a more trustworthy approach.
#8) Overuse/Unnecessary use of animation.
Animation is best used in small doses. Used improperly, it can be distracting, unprofessional, and counterproductive to the overall goal of your business. Animation (Flash, Gifs etc.) is best used in small advertising spaces where more than one message is required. If it isn’t absolutely necessary, think twice before adding it to the equation. For new visitors to your site, you have a limited times to get your message across. Users do not want to be forced to watch your bells and whistles unfold for 2 minutes just to read a few sentences that could have been read in 10 seconds. You may favor the excitement of moving images on the web, but this doesn’t mean your audience will. In fact, it may turn them away and hurt your company’s credibility. (Unless of course, you sell bells and whistles)
#7) Making the logo bigger.
We know you paid a pretty penny for you logo. This doesn’t mean it should be 1/4 the size of the page. If users are visiting your site, odds are they know the name of your company. After-all, it should be in the URL. Big logos are like black holes on a webpage. They are distracting, hypnotizing and take attention away from necessary information on the site. Website logos should be like a tag on clothing, not a mustache on a billboard.
#6) Confusing links and navigation
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Users are familiar with “Home”, “About”, and “Contact”. Rewriting traditional language is confusing for your audience, no matter how “creative” you want to be.
#5) Bombarding the user with cavernous, catacombs of information
People like to breath. In fact they have to in order to stay alive. Don’t kill your visitors by stuffing your website full of content, leaving no room for air. It’s a common misconception that this gives off the appearance of “big business.” All it really gives off is the sour stench of “big clutter.” You don’t have to be Macintosh to keep it simple. Just minimalize your content to 100% perservative-free fact. The more breathing room the easier your site will communicate.
#4) Making everything “prominent”
We know you want to really push your Spring Sale, the phone number, your contact link, the daily special, your recommended items, and gift cards. Pick one, not 78! In order for your site to provide a user-friendly experience, there needs to be a sense of informational hierarchy. Everything can’t be #1. It’s important to prioritize.
#3) Copying another company’s website.
Not only is this a shameless move in the world of branding, it’s border-line suicidal in the world of business. It can be illegal and users will raise an eyebrow to your lack of creativity and nerves of steel. Be unique and stand out for your originality, rather than your lack of it. Most likely, the business whose website you want to copy, stands out because they refrained from the same temptation.
#2) Being average
If everyone is using pink, use blue. Don’t be average. In real life, blending into the crowd is a matter of comfort and personal choice. Online, blending into the crowd means getting lost and losing business. Don’t be afraid to stand out and be different. It’s what will separate you from…well…everyone else.
#1) Playing the role of Project Director
When making the decision to hire an agency to design and develop your online brand, it is important to choose an agency that you can trust. You should work with the agency to reach the goals of the project and allow them to do what they do best. It can be stifling to a creative team if there are constant interruptions to the process due to changes in design elements and aesthetics based on personal opinion. You will find that the end result will be more successful if each player in the project is allowed to play their position.
Posted in Education | 1 Comment »
Uncle Chet dominates at Pac-Man. He’s a regular ghost-glutton on the joystick. In fact, he once tore the left toggle right off of the arcade console during a heated match. Chet’s a legend in bowling joints and dive bars across tornado alley.  Rumor has it, he once made world record-holder Billy Mitchell cry after a high-scoring blowout.
While Uncle Chet may seem like the wave of the future to his pac-fans, he really just likes to play it safe. What he doesn’t want anyone to know is that he rules at Pac-Man because it’s the only game he knows. XBox and Nintendo Wii are foreign and frightening to Chet.
At Keylex, we know the future is now. (We stopped playing Pac-Mac competitively, back in ’86….which was right about the time we got rid of our long hair and mustaches)
When it comes to pellet pounding, ghost-gobbling hobbies of yesteryear, Chet knows best. When it comes to designing sites that will stand the test of time and devour the competition, Keylex knows best.
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If you’re company hasn’t secured a Youtube account then you could be taking an unnecessary risk. As you can imagine, during the .com boom of the 90′s, many companies were faced with having their website name already taken when it came time to join the World Wide Web. Today, the rise of social media websites now means that major brands are at risk of “cyber squatters” or those looking to beat companies to the internet punch, stealing their URL again before they have the chance to attain it. Here are 10 major brands that weren’t quick enough to secure their own Youtube page:
#10: McDonalds
#9: David Bowie
#8: MTV
#7: Coke
#5: BMW
#4: Disney
#3: IBM
#2: Microsoft
#1: Yahoo
The Youtube Report 2009 tells us that over 40% of users click on the username to discover what’s uploaded in that channel. It is important for a brand to own their username to control the messaging being communicated on their channel. Over 60% of visitors to Yourtube agree with the statement “ If a username is the same as a familiar brand, I would expect the brand to be behind the channel”.
In plain English, what this means is that regardless of whether or not you plan to use Social Media for business related reasons, your company should acquire social media accounts on sites such as Twitter, Digg, Youtube, Facebook, etc. under its name for future potential. Otherwise, you run the risk of having to either:
A.) Purchase your own name for what will most likely be a hefty fee.
B.) Choose a long, clunky, hard-to-remember, easy-to-misspell name.
Here are 10 brands that took advantage before being taken advantage of:
#10: Ford
#9: Walmart
#8: Toyota
#7: Barack Obama
#6: HGTV
#5: IKEA
#4: Home Depot
#3: Pepsi
#2: Best Buy
#1: Nike
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Today we launched our Eichlers.com makeover. Like any makeover, the look was well overdue (and well deserved!) Eichlers has taken on a new look of sophistication that is more contemporary and user friendly. While keeping the architecture of the original site intact, we gave Eichlers more muted tones and a cleaner, more streamlined navigation. The result is a faster, more visually appealing experience that’s easier for customers to search and find what they’re looking for. Up-to-date, mature, and elegant, Eichlers.com is now better than ever as the World’s Judaica Store.
See below for screen shots of the transformation:
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 When Post-it notes were invented in the early 70′s by 3M, it was a marketing disaster. By 1977, test-marketing showed that consumers had no interest in the product. Most companies would have killed the product at that point, but not 3M. They launched a massive consumer sampling campaign where they sent free samples to millions of offices. When people had it on their desk day after day, they eventually began using it and the rest is history.
If you have a great product or service that is not catching on, and unbiased research shows that the only flaw is consumer education, take a cue from 3M. Persistence pays off.
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 The worldwide recession is actually fueling a use for more and more online shopping for goods and services. During this slowdown, people are staying home in order to save money, however this excellerates their use of the internet to shop for bargains and finds the best deals and sales online. Many users are found to be changing their minds about which brands to buy and where to shop due to research on the web. If you’re not there when consumers are looking for you, you risk losing out.
Last year 220,141,969 users in the United States alone were reported to be using the internet. That’s over 73% of our population shopping for goods, services and entertainment. Now people are even creating and sharing their own content. The amount of time Americans spend online per week has doubled in the past 8 years from 7 hours to 14 hours each day. This makes up for about 30% of their leisure time. In 2009, due to the recession, an even greater increase in the number of hours Americans spend on the web is expected.
If your company’s marketing and sales approaches haven’t caught up with recent trends in consumer behavior, you may be missing out. Consider ecommerce a malleable investment for growth. It’s an inexpensive way to pull ahead of your more traditional brick and mortar competitors and to reach more consumers in this economic slowdown.
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Chet loves his 1987 Chevy Camaro 3rd Generation 5.0 IROC-Z. On cool summer nights he can be found cruising the open road, rocking out to “Dude looks like a Lady” and “Another One Bites the Dust” on repeat with the t-tops off and the treble cranked all the way up. Chet’s been known to claim that he once raced a freight train on along-side interstate 80 and won by a landslide. A likely story, indeed.
Just like Uncle Chet, some of the greatest things we do are things you will never see. We guess you’ll just have to take our word for it.
When it comes to supercharging your ‘maro, Chet knows best. When it comes to beefing up your website’s security, Keylex knows best.
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“Rules are good. Break them.” -Tibor Kalman
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 IncentiveXT is a turn-key website platform designed to run online incentive-based fundraising campaigns. Whether the incentive is one prize, or a full-scale auction, IncentiveXT makes it simple to setup the campaign, and even easier for visitors to participate. It’s the secure and reliable way to accept year-round donations, and now it’s getting a full scale makeover!
To make it even easier for users to understand, IncentiveXt.com is breaking it down and streamlining their site. Powered by Keylex, it’s sure to be a knockout…not that we’re here to brag ;)
Check out the original site here before the new launch and check back here for new information on the introduction of the all new IncentiveXT.
Posted in All Keylex News, Fundraising/Auctions | No Comments »
The mainstream media loves injecting fear into the already crippling economy. The article below, which appeared in the NY Times Bits blog, is no exception. I simply don’t buy it. Granted the largest e-tailers who have reached market saturation will be affected by a significant decrease in sales, but the average small to medium online business can grow exponentially – even in these troubled times. Most online business have only a fraction of the market share in their respectve industries. Instead of moping about a drop in sales, what they should be doing is using every method possible to get a bigger piece of the pie. At a time when many online etailers are choosing to join the parade and wait out the recession, smart business owners can use this opportunity to gain traction while the “proverbial rabbit” sits on the sidelines.
Don’t live the recession. Turn off your television, close the newspaper, and imagine a thriving economy. For most businesses, there’s no gloomy forecast for e-commerce sites, there’s a gloomy forecast for those that go with the flow.
Gloomy Forecast for E-Commerce Sites
By Claire Cain Miller
Annual e-commerce sales will shrink for the first time this year, according to eMarketer. The research firm issued its revised e-commerce forecast Thursday, predicting that shoppers will spend 0.4 percent less online this year than last year.
“We’re seeing a very sober picture — it’s going to be rough this year,” said Jeffrey Grau, a senior analyst at eMarketer. “However, maybe as early as next year, things will begin to pick up where they left off.”
Until last year, e-commerce sales had posted double-digit increases every year since people started buying things online. In 2007, consumers spent $123 billion on Web sites, up 21 percent from 2006 and up from $42 billion in 2002, according to comScore.
The double-digit growth rates continued in the first half of 2008, but by the fourth quarter, sales dipped despite holiday shopping. In 2008, shoppers spent $133.6 billion online, and that will fall to $133.1 billion this year, eMarketer predicted.
Of course, people are not shopping offline either, and in February, the offline retail industry had only a 0.7 percent sales gain, buoyed by strong sales at Wal-Mart.
“The fundamental trend is that consumers are shifting a greater share of their discretionary income from stores to the Internet,” Mr. Grau said. Though people are not spending much discretionary income these days, Web sites will most likely benefit once they start shopping again. “The core Internet shopper is an affluent consumer. They’re being hit now like everybody else, but we think once the economy improves, there will be a lot of pent-up demand and we’ll see more spending,” he said.
Until 2003, most of the growth in e-commerce sales came from new shoppers migrating online. Now, most people who intend to shop online are already doing so, Mr. Grau said, and when growth resumes, it will come from people shifting more of their spending from malls to the Web.
“Consumers are more comfortable now buying big-ticket and bulky items online — a refrigerator or a sofa or jewelry,” he said. That is in part because Web sites have been offering more research materials for online shoppers, such as shopping guides and user product reviews, he said.
EMarketer thinks spending will recover in 2010. “Our forecast is optimistic, because there are some economists saying it could be a lot worse this year,” Mr. Grau said.
Only about 6 percent of consumers’ total spending is now online, he said, and it will probably top out at 15 to 20 percent. Still, the Web will drive retail spending in another way: “The real contribution of the Internet may be people who research online and make store purchases that are influenced by their online research,” he said.
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