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Freelance Guide to Building Customer Loyalty

Michael Frankland — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:40:58 +0000

Customer loyalty can never be mis-underestimated but it often is. It is a proven fact that it is much cheaper to re-market to your current customers and costs less in time and money to resell to them than to find new customers. Why do you think the blue chips bend over backwards with discounts when you are threatening to leave them. Cell phone providers for example suddenly offer amazing tariffs when you are showing that you are about to go to their rivals.

But how do you keep customers and keep them keen. Here’s a few tips that might help you…

1. Communications

If you keep communications hot with customers then they will more likely be in a position to buy from you in the future. This could be through a blog, email marketing campaigns or even printed newsletters. Keeping in touch is key as the buyer (customer) goes through different buying cycles and decisions. By giving them information on the latest skills you’ve acquired (hired) or latest technologies applied to your recent website creation in your portfolio, they may just want that upgrade too.

2. Add value

Be there for your customers and deliver a good quality product. It’s not all about how cheap it is, there are more important things for customers. Are you there to answer phone calls or emails when they need support? Are you active on your support forum? Do you do extra work such as logo design or brochures on top of website design? Can you SEO the site for when it launches? Do you throw in a couple of email marketing templates too? There are lots of things you can do to add extra value to the purchase a customer makes other than just a discount.

3. Loyalty schemes

A successful loyalty scheme can encourage frequent purchases from customers over time. Ideas might include yearly discounts on hosting over the monthly price; buy 5 hours of changes for the price of 4 and even a yearly refresh in design for a % off the usual design price you charge. Be creative, reward loyal customers and they’ll keep coming back for more and even turn into your advocates. When that happens, you won’t be able to handle the work that comes your way.

4. Customers are God

In Japan, there’s a well know proverb that says that “customers are God”. Customer service is very important for your brand, business and customer loyalty. Make sure you handle complaints effectively, manage their expectations and answer any questions promptly. The biggest problems for designers can often be managing expectations with the design brief. My advice is to always under promise and over deliver and you’ll do just fine.

5. Listen to your customers

The more you know and learn about your customers, the easier it is to shape your business’ and its direction to meet your customers’ needs and desires. Yes, add getsatifaction.com’s feedback widget to your site, ask customers for feedback through surveys and referrals, call customers and find out how they are doing if you’ve not heard from them and listen to what they have to say. Then, act on it. There’s no good hearing and disagreeing. Remember, customers are gods and although they don’t know what a CMS system or an H1 tag necessarily is, they know what they want and you have to give it to them for your design business to succeed.

Whether you think your customer is a God or have a strict policy to answer all support emails within 48 hours, there are lots of things we can all do to improve our customer relations and ultimately our bottom line. Happy customers equals loyal customers. And, loyal customers equals healthy business. Good luck and don’t forget to share your customer loyalty ideas below.

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What’s your web personality?

Madhavi — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:44:56 +0000

We all want to make a mark on the world – some of us want to be famous, some just want our voices and ideas to be heard. Today we have access to several avenues that make it extremely easy to be seen and heard, especially on the web. Each one of us has an online identity these days, be it on a social networking site like twitter, facebook, myspace or linkedin or on our own little piece of the web – our personal website.

Social networking sites allow one to express their opinions, tastes, likes and dislikes, albeit within a structured framework. Having said that, these are very important outlets to formulate one’s online “personality” and establish one’s virtual social milieu. Sites like Second Life take this even further where one can assume an avatar, or online personality, which of course, can be vastly different from one’s identity in the real world…

The biggest advantage of expressing oneself through a unique web presence is the freedom to say anything (within reasonable limits of web etiquette of course) in any way imaginable. The ability to express one’s thoughts and opinions, present one’s capabilities, and engage with an online audience in new and refreshing ways is paramount to creating a strong and independent online identity. This identity can then be propagated, and the audience can be expanded through social networks and participation in online forums, etc. One thing to remember is that anything said online reflects on the character of the author, and therefore one must exercise a bit of caution while expressing one’s views.

There are many ways to achieve a unique personality on the web. The first step is to discover your passion, and then find a way to communicate that passion to the rest of the world. And do it in a way that will grab people’s attention and keep them coming back for more. The second step is to sustain that passion, and find newer and more interesting ways to present your ideas. Sites that constantly reinvent themselves in both design and content are the most intriguing – this means the person behind the site is also constantly evolving. Sometimes, what’s unique is your personality itself which finds its way to the web through ideas and content.
The web is a wonderful medium to experiment and play, it doesn’t cost you to change the design of your site ten times a day if you like (unless of course you’ve engaged an expensive designer!), and with the reduced costs of webhosting, there is really no limit to how much you can say these days. There is also the wonderful component of instant feedback in the form of comments – something invaluable in a world where people have limited time and even more limited attention spans.

Unique personalities are not reserved for individuals alone. These days companies and even large organizations have unique online identities, twitter accounts and quirky websites.

Below are a few examples of websites that vividly showcase the creator’s personalities, be it an individual or a company – some through the design and others through the content.

Dustin Curtis: His site is a quirky collection of interesting anecdotes, each designed in a unique manner that make them very easy to read.

Johnny Cupcakes: This t-shirt company is named after the guy who started selling t-shirts out of the trunk of his car, and has now evolved into a successful business. A huge factor towards this success: the name and personality of the founder.

Where the hell is Matt?: Matt has made it big by dancing badly. He now gets paid to travel around the world and dance badly, which he archives on his website.

Martin Venezky/Appetite Engineers: Martin’s site showcases his quirky design sensibility. The cat on the homepage was his pet tabby, and has made appearances in a lot of his work.

Hungry&Foolish: A design firm based in Bangalore, India. Their website is funny and intelligent and presents the members of the studio and their work in a candid and unique way.

Pranav Mistry: An engineer at MIT, his site showcases his educational achievements andalso gives us a glimpse into his life’s journey in an unassuming and friendly manner.

Of course, if you are already a celebrity, then you probably have more followers on twitter and friends on facebook than you can handle! These words are for those who are yet to make their mark on the world, and the world wide web.

Please add the websites of people you think should be included in the comments so we can help them get famous.

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Creative Design Portfolio : Hello Monday

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:22:01 +0000

Today, we are showing off some awesome creative designs from a cool new design studio in New York called Hello Monday. Aarhus, the owner of the studio from Denmark, specializes in graphic design and flash websites that are very visually appealing. In their own words – “Our practice is built on the premise that it is possible to build a creative playground rather than a production factory. We know this is not an easy endeavor but we also know that this is an absolute necessity to keep creativity alive and avoid becoming indifferent towards the result. Our clients are ambitious and visionary, and they want to create something that is unique and memorable. We do too.”

So here’s a showcase of unique creative design work including inspiration for web design, typography, colors, ad designs and more.. Enjoy!

DermaNova : Packaging Design

Drive By Sandwich : Visual brand universe

Gudrun & Gudrun : Website Design

David Lindsey Wade : Website Design

Navlestreng: Ad Campaign

Red Issue : Website Design

rw2 : Visual Identity and Website

T2 : Website Design

Working Element : Website Design

Yellow Deli : Visual brand universe

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15 Cool, New and Free Wordpress Themes

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:40:02 +0000

Have a look at the amazing growing number of WordPress 2.8 downloads in Worpress Download Counter and compare it with available free and premium wordpress themes. We have only few hundreds or thousands of good free and premium themes which are definitely not sufficient for this gworing number of wordpress lovers but still we have great designers and developers out there helping wordpress with their continous contributions in terms of free and premium theme.. Contribution of these designers and developers is all waste if not reaching its target audience so in this post we tried to showcase a few awesome free theme which will be surely useful for all wordpress users around the wordl.

So here’s the list of 15 cool, new and free wordpress themes. Hope you like then all!

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New Photoshop Tutorials : October 2009

admin — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:09:15 +0000

Learning Photoshop is fun and is also the main earning source for thousands of designers out there, so creative online photoshop tutorials are always in demand. Everyday we are on a search for new great tutorials by best designers. Yes we have number of web design blogs and tutorials submission sites we subscribed for new tutorials and tips but its very much possible we can miss some desired ones because of our busy schedules or anything but don’t worry if you have missed something this month.

Here I have tried to showcase some of the best photoshop tutorials released in October 2009 which will definitely be helpful for all photoshop lovers out there. So please have a look and mention in comments if I have missed something. Thanks!

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[Re]Encoded.com

Freelance Guide to Building Customer Loyalty

1. Communications

2. Add value

3. Loyalty schemes

4. Customers are God

5. Listen to your customers

What’s your web personality?

Creative Design Portfolio : Hello Monday

15 Cool, New and Free Wordpress Themes

1. Genesis Red Wordpress Theme

2. Channel Wordpress Theme

3. Zeoal Wordpress Theme

4. Furvious Wordpress Theme

5. Techified Wordpress Theme

6. Jero Wordpress Theme

7. BusinessXpand_Multicol Wordpress Theme

8. Regal Wordpress Theme

9. Newsworthy Wordpress Theme

10. Vinica Wordpress Theme

11. Mistique Wordpress Theme

12. Spooky Wordpress Theme

13. MoiMagazine Wordpress Theme

14. Brain Stroming Wordpress Theme

15. Brain Stroming Wordpress Theme

New Photoshop Tutorials : October 2009

1. Colorful Light Effect in Photoshop

2. Design Blue Corporate Website in Photoshop

3. Build a Slick Rich User Interface in Photoshop

4. Create a Transparent Text Effect with Fresh Grass Texture and Custom Brushset

5. How to Create a Vintage Radio Poster in Photoshop

6. Create a Realistic Space Scene from Scratch with Photoshop

7. How to Create a Basic House Icon in Photoshop

8. How to Create 3D Text Blocks in Photoshop

9. Super Cool Retro Poster in 10 Steps in Photoshop

10. Make yourself an Amazing Typographic Portrait

11. Create a Realistic and Worn-Out Movie Ticket in Photoshop

12. How to Get that Anime Look in Photoshop Using a Flexible Workflow

13. How To Make A Digital Painting Of A Rose From Scratch

14. Create a New Retro Text Effect in Photoshop

15. Create an Old Fantasy Space City

16. Making of Eastern Dragon Rider

17. Design a Realistic 3D Baseball Cap in Photoshop

18. Create a Clean Business Web Template Design in Photoshop

19. How to Enhance Photos With a Pen Tablet

20. Design a Vintage Radio Icon in Photoshop

21. How to Make a Creative Blog Layout in Photoshop

22. How to Create Remarkable 3D Text in Photoshop

23. Create a Magnifying Glass Icon in Photoshop CS4

24. How to Create a Chilling Photo Manipulation in Photoshop

25. How to Create a Rusty Texture in Photoshop

26. How to Create an Ice Text Effect with Photoshop

27. Create a Promotional iPhone App Site in Photoshop

28. Creative Color Effects Photoshop Tutorial

29. Create a Shiny Earth with Photoshop 3D Layers

30. How to Create a Traditional, Chinese Ink Painting Based on a Scenic Photo

31. Grungy Rusted Carbon Fiber Text Effect

32. Cool Unusual Text Effect

33. Photoshop Fake 3D Text

34. Glowing Neon Effects

35. Create a techno blog theme in Photoshop

36. Create a realistic Credit Card in Photoshop

37. Bamboo Fun tablet Photoshop tutorial