What's New?

• A drastic change in design, as SODE desired to combine the branding of the larger national organization with their own updated, unique look.
• Mega drop-down menu navigation that clearly organizes the site for users.
• Built-in features, including an application that facilitates volunteer education.
• A highly-customized CMS that allows members to easily manage content like news and events.

And much more! As user-focused web designers, we truly appreciate how involved the SODE members were in helping us create a positive user experience on their site.

Check out SODE's new site today!

Read about SODE's experience working with Bright Orange Thread.

Why did we choose SODE?

The non-profit's year-round sports training and athletic competitions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities are just a few reasons why we are honored to work with SODE. Their programs alone have brought joy into the lives of more than 20,000 individuals in the Delaware region.

We thank SODE for their dedication and work in the community!

Google is designed to fetch results that seem most likely to meet the searcher's needs. Under some results, Google displays expanded listings—specific links from the website that might interest a user. The expanded links often direct users to the information they want, allowing them to bypass a site's home page.

But while Google's listings provide an express lane for users looking for specific answers, they lack the individuality home pages use to persuade and educate potential clients.

The Home Page is where the heart is.

By offering a condensed list of site links, Google is exchanging individuality for readability. But you don't have to choose one over the other for your site. The best home pages will:

• Help visitors understand your business and pull them deeper into your site.
• Showcase other products that users didn't know they were looking for.
• Create a hierarchy of information so key sales messages get noticed first.
• Offer timely, relevant content that builds customer relationships.

The Curious Case of BroadPoint Technologies

An example of how Google Analytics may reveal surprising statistics is that of BroadPoint Technologies. When the company's name is searched on Google, 3 expanded links come up, ranked from most to least popular: Careers, Client Services, and Consulting Services.

BroadPoints specialty—Consulting—is ranked only 3rd among its highest Analytics traffic. Why? More people are concerned with getting hired by BroadPoint than hiring the company for consulting services.

Using this information, BroadPoint can re-focus its efforts on improving SEO results for consulting, which will increase sales and leads further down the road.

The Verdict?

When designed correctly, a home page can be just as user-friendly as Google's listings. While usability may seem like an added commodity, Google Analytics prove that it’s now a requirement for sites to stay afloat. Take BroadPoint's case as a lesson and don’t let your site's statistics surprise you!

Key recommendations for building a site include:

• Structuring page content with Semantic HTML or XHTML
• Formatting page design with CSS
• Following common semantic, accessibility, and validation practices

Why standardize your site? Following current web standards helps:

• Ensure that your site loads properly across compliant browsers
• Create simplified, well-structured and properly-formatted code for search engines to digest

What it boils down to is this: sites created with web standards in mind cost less to design and maintain, reach more users, load faster, and last longer.

Humble Beginnings

If asked a year ago what SEO, SEM, ROI, or even BOT stood for, I probably would have stared blankly. I can happily say such is not the case anymore. As my first month interning at Bright Orange Thread draws to a close, I can’t help but compare where I am now with where I was only one month ago.

A Fresh New Face at BOT

After only minutes into my first day at BOT, I recognized the high quality of work issued daily, and that I’d be expected to emulate this work ethos. Gone were the lazy summer days in which products such as “Orange Fresh” sounded like something I’d sip poolside!

Though I have been a proud BOT teammate for only a month, I’ve already had the opportunity to showcase my writing on the company’s sites as well as sit in on client consultations! Doing so has helped me convert the hypothetical marketing and usability strategies I’ve learned in classes into actual assignments tailored for the task or client at hand.

Looking back on my time here, generating one-hundred catchy tweets for the company’s Twitter account seemed a daunting first-assignment, but I was and am incredibly thankful for the opportunity to dive right in and make the most of my time here at BOT.

A Bright Orange Future

As a newly-declared Interactive Media Minor at the University of Delaware, my courses have given me a basic mastery of web-writing and content development. Though I learned how to write and manage my time, my internship with BOT allows me to use these skills on a daily basis.

It’s difficult to really fathom all of the bits of valuable information I pick up on a daily basis, but I can tell I’ve already come a long way. For that, I am incredibly appreciative. Here’s to another great month!

Neither did our clients who took part in our new web training session, Writing for the Web. In fact, they were surprised by a lot of the information and research we presented about the way users are consuming their content.

The Training Session

We provide customized training in which members of your company or organization learn valuable writing techniques and apply them to specific examples from your website.

Includes:

• Developing a greater understanding of user behavior on your website.
• Identifying problem areas in messaging and structure.
• Examining your site's existing copy and generating more user-focused marketing messages.

Memorable, Forward-Thinking Discussions

By the end of the sessions we could really see the pieces falling into place for people. And from their responses, we imagine there must be a lot of other businesses out there in need of a content makeover.

If you'd like to learn more about the training, please drop us a line!

We are pleased to announce Julia Nollen as the newest addition to the BOT team. Julia is a rising senior at the University of Delaware where she studies English, Film, and Interactive Media. Through her media courses, Julia has learned that web writing and content development are her two newest passions. With plans of pursuing a career in publishing, Julia is excited to gain valuable experience in web content development through the lens of Bright Orange Thread. Appointed as our newest writing and editing intern, Julia will focus her efforts on maintaining our blog and ……???

She will surely become an asset to the BOT team!

Focus on the right customers.

Most email campaigns are permission based, which means your subscribers have asked to be on your mailing list. You can be sure your business is focusing its money and efforts on the right group of people—people who might actually use your services.

These subscribers are often previous customers too. And every good businessperson knows it’s less expensive to sell to existing customers than it is to sell to new customers, which is exactly why your business should develop an Email Marketing plan.

Promote what's important to you and your customers.

With a substantial mailing list built, you are ready to spread the word about your services, products, news, or events. Maybe a subscriber was unaware that your business did event planning and catering. Or maybe they were unaware of your organization's annual fundraiser. With a simple email, you can change that.

For businesses that have frequent sales, deals, or coupons, you can put them directly in the hands of your subscribers so they’ll be more likely to use them.

(And it's easy to send the emails, especially if you sync your campaign with your content management system.)

Get subscribers clicking with Best Practices.

As experts in email marketing, we know all the best practices that help subscribers start clicking. Here's just a few best practices you can use to get the most from email marketing:

• Write attractive and descriptive subject lines
• Include links for easy forwarding
• Add personalized information like the recipient’s name

You should always give subscribers the option to unsubscribe to your emails too. It helps keep the customer happy with you and it may prevent them from reporting your email as spam.

Check out more best practices of email marketing.

We're now a member of the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce (DCCC)—one of five chambers participating in this year's networking event. Last year's showcase saw over 250 attendees with just two chambers of commerce. Needless to say, we're very excited to attend the showcase and spread the word about Bright Orange Thread.

Event Information

For more information, please visit the event page on the DCCC's website.

PMA needed the sites to feature important information, as well as generate excitement, for attendees and exhibitors. Visitors can now countdown the days in style, as each site has its own unique look. Take a look for yourself!

“It looks weird on my computer!”

As designers and developers, we rely on our test machines to verify our code base renders consistently. Still, at times our clients see a difference on their computer that did not show on our test configurations. When this happens, we typically ask the client to send us a screen grab from their computer. Screen grabs are a great tool to get a visual idea of those differences, but they’re only half the battle.

The other half is knowing exactly which browser on which operating system is displaying the website inconsistently. We go through a lot of trouble trying to find the browser name, browser version number, flash version number, Javascript… Well, you get the point—it’s a lot of questions and something no client enjoys doing. Fortunately, there is an easy way to find out all of that information without a series of back and forth emails.

An Answer to (One of) Our Troubleshooting Prayers

The folks over at SupportDetails.com have developed a nice little web tool to combat this communication problem. Their tool sniffs out the versions of the browser, operating system, flash version, monitor size, etc. and sends the information via email. All our client needs to do is go to the site and fill out their name, email, and submit, voila, the information is sent to us. And just like that, we’ve asked the client only one question (and a simple one at that) instead of five.

Asking a client to fill out a simple form is so much easier than asking them to look up information they might not even know how to find. Thanks to Support Details, we get all the information we need and no longer have to worry about taking up our client’s time or wasting extra energy on this problem. (And with the endless number of troubleshooting problems out there, any help is welcomed.)