You’ve been spoiled lately.  You don’t know code, and you don’t want to learn it.  But you’re pretty adept at updating your Facebook page, maybe Tweeting a bit, posting photos from the family ski trip on Flickr, and even writing clever blog posts.  All this and you’re just typing.  No programming required!  Pretty sweet. But when it comes to your company’s website, updating or adding content seems impossible unless the web designers step in and do it for you.

Not anymore.  Sites built in one of a variety of Content Management Systems (CMS) let you the client update, add and remove your own content at will, and easily.  We’re developing more and more CMS-based sites for many of our diverse clients, including international companies, federal agencies, nonprofits and even small churches.

Our in-house CMS guru, Gary Banga, has some strong thoughts about the list of CMS products from which we make our recommendations to clients. “There are three major platforms that we suggest to our clients, and each has its benefits and limitations,” he says.

WordPress is a simple and very easy to use choice.  Yes, it’s from the same folks whose product you may be using for your blog.  It’s free – that’s a plus.  And it’s got powerful search engine tools built in that make WordPress sites especially findable on the web.  Once TDG has built your site in WordPress, you’re good to go.

But, says Gary, WordPress has limited capabilities for companies with e-commerce needs, and its security features may not be the best.  A very large website may push the limits of the WordPress environment, so it may not be the best option for sites that are expected to grow.

Then there’s Drupal, an open-source (free) platform that is constantly being refined through an active community of contributors.  Broadly customizable to the needs of each user, a Drupal-built site could easily handle 2,000 pages.  (Wow, we’d like to talk to you if you need a site like that!)  There are loads of free, downloadable themes and modules that can work right out of the box or are very easy to customize.

The only downside to Drupal is that for smaller clients it’s usually a little too much and for larger clients it’s sometimes not quite enough. But for a lot of our mid-sized clients Drupal is, you guessed it, just right.

Finally there’s ExpressionEngine, which Gary describes as “the most powerful and flexible commercial CMS out there.”  With excellent security systems built in, ExpressionEngine comes standard with a robust file manager, commenting ability, search functionality and lots of additional features.  It’s nicely scalable to thousands of pages and can handle the demands of very high traffic.  Best of all, its editing and administrative tools (that’s the part you’ll be using) are very intuitive and user friendly.

The downside to ExpressionEngine is the cost.  It’s the only CMS listed here that isn’t free, with license fees starting at $99.  Additional costs for any of these CMS solutions may be incurred if your site needs features powered by add-on modules, but virtually all ExpressionEngine modules are available at low-cost, and WordPress and Drupal even have many modules available for free.

So if you’re looking for a way to take charge of your website without breaking the bank, a Content Management System is right for you.  Gary says it best: “A site you can maintain yourself that’s built faster and for less money makes you happy.  And if you’re happy, we’re happy.”

No longer, we tell our friends and clients, can you put content out there in the web-world and wait for customers or supporters to come to you.  Your brand has to be interactive.  You have to build two-way trust with your prospects and clients, have something interesting to say and show the impact of what you’re offering.  And – just like when you’re chatting up a stranger you fancy at a party – in order to build that trust, you have to be yourself and listen as much as you speak.
One of the marketing strategists we follow, Scott Stratten @unmarketing, says it really simply: “If you believe business is built on relationships, then make building relationships your business.”

The good news is you can create a content strategy with many different ways to engage with your audience.  The not so great news is that this takes some time and effort every day, and may also require monitoring how people discuss your brand in online spaces you don’t control.  But chances are you’re already connected to the social media world in some way.
One of our content strategists at TDG was a self-described social media skeptic not very long ago. Then he embraced the power Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Now, he helps our clients develop plans for using all the tools out there to keep our clients connected to their customers and followers.  So applying your personal social media experience to your business or nonprofit engagement strategy shouldn’t be too painful.

Most pundits agree the most powerful and effective communication channel is still e-mail.  If received from a trusted source (that’s you!), an e-mail is personal and paid attention to.  There are great e-mail marketing tools you can use to make your messages simple and impactful.  We can help you choose a package and design a unique template that will help you develop lasting relationships by providing your customers and supporters with information they can use.

What should I include in my e-mails, you ask?  The answer is:  good information, but not too much of it.  You may be a trusted source (no, you are a trusted source).  But a long, overly detailed e-mail just won’t get read.  What you can do is offer news headlines and brief updates, with links to more detailed content on your website.  You’ll want to link to your other communications channels, too, starting with your blog.

The blog is where you can tell your story – a new product launch, an enhanced service, a new member of staff, a recent success – in a longer form.  Include other media – lots of images or videos.  It gives your audience an easy way to react, respond, relate, reply and comment.  Plus, you’ll learn more about them.  Now you’re starting to engage.

Stimulate meaningful discussions that invite participation from your readers.  Ask for feedback on your latest project.  Provoke comments.

Then respond.  And don’t forget to thank your commenter for their ideas, thoughts and suggestions.  Remember how your grandmother constantly reminded you to write thank you notes?  She was right.

There’s lots more to this engagement stuff.  We haven’t even started talking about Facebook, Foursquare, or Twitter.  And before you groan too loudly, think about this:  450,000 new Twitter accounts are created every day.  That’s a lot of potential customers you may be missing.  We’ll post more info in the coming weeks about Engagement, so stay engaged.  Meanwhile, let’s hear from you.   What are the barriers keeping you from using some of these tools to engage in relationship-building, two-way communication with your clients and customers?   

Our work with our clients to build brands, sell products and get out messages means we have to work together to create high-quality content that is unique, personalized to the relevant audience, and attracts, engages, retains, and converts visitors into consumers or supporters.

Tactile Design offers our expertise in helping to craft and shape our clients’ content to make the maximum impact on website visitors.  But we rely on the client’s thoughtful creation of content that clearly explains their mission, motivation and merchandise. Someone once noted that “just because you know what you’re all about, doesn’t mean your visitors know what you’re all about” – until you give them the information they need to know.

If somebody has found your site through a Google or other search, chances are they don’t want to click through lots of navigation or graphics to find what they’re searching for.  “Delighting customers doesn’t build loyalty,” according to a recent Harvard Business Review article. “Reducing their effort—the work they must do to get their problem solved—does. ”

There’s a debate that’s raging now in the blogosphere and elsewhere about the relative importance of website content versus design.  As tech blogger Gina Trapani says, “On the internet, you are what you write.” And, since we’re designers, we like creating great looking sites that get and keep visitors’ attention.   So really, there’s no tension here.  We think everyone needs both:  great design and compelling content.

We’ve just launched our latest website for a pair of young architects, North Street Design, and we’re really excited about it. We’ve looked at a LOT of architect’s websites while we’ve been designing and developing Juliet and Gavin’s site and we’ve been struck by how ubiquitous the use of Flash is for homepages. There’s nothing more annoying than landing on that often overly-animated Flash-driven page on a non-entertainment, business site and have to wait while it loads, plays and finally gives us the chance to get out of it and on to the information we want!

And then we recently saw the stats about Apple iOS device use worldwide: 125 million iPhones and iPads have been sold in the last couple of years. Another great argument for staying far away from Flash on architects’ sites – or anybody else’s for that matter. No business wants to leave that many potential clients unaware of their work.

The North Street Design site, like the architects’ own terrific design aesthetic, is clean, contemporary, and literally, well… tactile. Their design practice not only focuses on new construction, renovation and adaptive use, but also sustainable technology in building environments, like rainwater harvesting systems. Appropriately, images of ground textures – stone, plants, water – infuse all their graphic branding tools, as we’ve designed business cards, social media and related materials to seamlessly integrate with the website.

Gavin and Juliet and their North Street Design practice are on the front edge of creative, sustainable and beautiful design, and TDG is pleased to have helped them create a website and related materials that the world will appreciate. Including those 125 million iOS users.

Marc speaks with Dr. Carolyne Johnson at the Teens Take Control and Philadelphia Freedom Condom Launch

We’ve just walked back to the TDG office from the always-spectacular Mayors Reception Room at historic Philadelphia City Hall, where Mayor Michael Nutter launched the Philadelphia Freedom Condom. This is a key part of the campaign we designed for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health – Take Control Philly (http://www.takecontrolphilly.org) – aimed at teaching sexual safety to high-risk teens. We have designed the web, print and social elements of the campaign so far, with radio and print ads and lots of other material yet to come. We’ve been working with the Health Department’s developer on the website and enjoying the collaboration with him and all the great people at the Department of Public Health.

TDG’s commitment to our community and our city is really getting energized on this project. Teens aged 11 – 19 in Philadelphia are at frighteningly high risk, compared to lots of other major cities, for the whole range of STDs, from gonorrhea to HIV-AIDS. So we are honored to have been selected to partner with the city on the project. Federal funds are underwriting much of the cost, which includes the one million uniquely branded free condoms the Health Department intends to give out through the website we’ve designed plus the other outlets that the site’s mapping feature (?) points to.

Our design process for creating the graphic images for the campaign included an online survey and in-person focus group among local teenagers to get their reactions to and ideas about Zelda, our spokesperson for Take Control Philly. Zelda is going to have a lot to say in the coming months, and we wanted to be sure she was a voice that young people would be willing to hear. So far the reaction has been great, and the first online order for condoms came 15 minutes after the site launched this morning. What a great feeling, knowing our work is stimulating education, discussion and most importantly action on this really important issue.

But we like helping our clients to stretch their limits, and we really appreciate working with Deloitte US’s Multi-Media manager, who’s knowledge and creative vision matches perfectly with our enthusiasm to design and build communication products that are beautiful, effective and exceed our clients’ expectations. Now, on to make more of them.

One of our favorite client websites is now featured on Show-EE.com. Show-EE is the official ExpressionEngine showcase gallery for the best designed and built ExpressionEngine sites on the internet. If you like it, please click the Heart! http://show-ee.com/gallery/details/preservation_new_jersey/

When their antiquated website began to suffer critical failures on a regular basis, Preservation New Jersey called us in to insure their continued online presence while implementing a completely redesigned site with advanced database interactivity, PayPal integration and content management system. We were assigned the task of rebuilding their websites (Preservation New Jersey and 10 Most Endangered Sites). We designed and developed these sites and integrated both into the same instance of Expression Engine so they could manage each site from the same back-end, seamlessly. It was fun working on this project and our client was pleased with the results.

Exciting times!

Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel is a dynamic community located in the heart of Rittenhouse Square in downtown Philadelphia. For their new site they wanted to keep their existing design, but expand it to include new features such as an event calendar, photo and video galleries, online donation forms, a wikipedia-like dictionary, and a secure section with a member directory and discussion forums. Little Red Fish put a fresh spin on their original site design, and Tactile Design Group implemented the design in a secure and flexible system that will support the congregation’s marketing, communications and community building needs for years to come.

Congregation Kol Ami is a small, intimate community located in Elkins Park, just north of Philadelphia. For their new web site they wanted a brand new design that reflected the vibrancy of their members, coupled with comprehensive administrative tools that let them update the site entirely on their own. To achieve this goal Tactile Design Group partnered with our colleagues and neighbors at Masters Group Design. MGD provided the design and managed the project while Tactile Design Group built the framework that resulted in a robust, multi-layered and stunning new web site.

Even a record breaking heat wave can’t slow us down. We have even more projects in the pipeline right now that we can’t wait to show you, but you’ll just have to be patient and wait for their big debuts!

When we started out, we never dreamed we be doing work for huge multinational corporations. However, we’re doing just that. We’ve just finished designing and developing a pretty cool, graphics-rich Powerpoint presentation for Nestlé.

Nestle will be using this piece to help recruit talented recent grads for job openings in this global company.  It had to help attract attention and represent Nestlé as a fun and exciting place to work. We were instructed to push the limits of their brand guidelines without overstepping them.

We loved putting it together but were reminded that doing work for big, enterprise companies comes with certain constraints.  We had to dial back some original ideas to make sure that the presentation ran smoothly on Powerpoint 2007, which claims to be able to handle video, but in reality, not so much.

It’s a big investment for a big company to upgrade, we know, but the marketing and communications world both pushes and is pulled by technology.  We thrive on leaping hurdles like this one to create a great product for our clients, but we like to urge them to stretch, too.  Just don’t get us started on Internet Explorer 6…

We’ve been working at helping folks to promote heritage, too. We’ve recently launched a new site for Heritage Consulting Inc., whose principal, Donna Ann Harris, is a nonprofit management trainer and historic preservation program designer extraordinaire. An author (her site promotes her book and other publications) and a downtown management guru (towns all across the country reach her through the web to book lectures, training programs and other consultancies), Donna does interesting and worthy stuff all over the country. We’re glad to help get the word out, and have just re-designed her e-mail marketing package, too.

Speaking of worthy stuff, Preservation New Jersey’s online communications program keeps getting kudos – and flattering imitations. The little nonprofit in Trenton helps people in the Garden State to protect the surprisingly huge number of historic places there (we didn’t know that there are more American Revolutionary War historic sites and battlefields in New Jersey than in all the other original 13 colonies/states combined!). Their big, content management-based website, built by TDG and maintained mostly by the group’s staff, includes a cool interactive photo-sharing program, “Someplace … not anyplace,” that has been mimicked by other colleague organizations nationally. We’ve also been teaching them the finer points of social media communications; it’s satisfying to see self-identified historians Tweeting!