Koa Media - Out Of Our Mouths

Art Man!

2008-07-25T14:08:00.002-04:00

Stephen Roth is not your typical artist. He is the Art Man! That says it all. We just launched his new site this week. One thing a little unusual is that we didn't acutally fill up every page with content before the launch. Why not? Probably because Stephen is selling paintings as fast as he can make them, and right now is the season on Cape Cod!

Check out the new site, and come back in the dead of winter when, hopefully, Stephen will have a few minutes to write up a bit more about his great paintings...

Stephen Roth's Paletteworks Web Site

Great Things Happen by Design

2008-06-12T16:35:00.001-04:00

The people at SouthField know that, and that's why they chose to work with Koa Media. Planned to become the premier live/work/shop experience in Massachusetts, SouthField represents an enormous undertaking to provide housing for everyone.

With ambition like this, of course one would come to Koa Media to build the web site. Come see this wonder...

Southfield.com

Cape Cod Networking Events

2008-06-10T21:26:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Tracy McCarthy for compiling these Cape Cod Networking opportunities!

Need a Vineyard?

2008-06-10T16:42:00.001-04:00

We're drunk with power, and wine not? We've just published our second site of the day! Elise Currey, Napa Valley's premier real estate agent now has her beautiful Dick Danne designed web site live.

Looking for a cozy ranch complete with award-winning Cabernet vines? Elise has what you need.

naparealtor-elise.com

A Willingness To Wander...

2008-06-10T15:07:00.002-04:00

We have just launched a brand new web site for Cape artist Anne Boucher. Anne's watercolor and acrylic paintings, "draw upon the unique beauty of Cape Cod and the New England Coastal region".

Her work is exquisite, and you should immediately click on over to see it in all it's glory...

anneboucherfineart.com

The ABCs of Web Strategic Planning

2008-06-08T21:28:00.000-04:00

Thinking about a new web site? What pages do you need? What kind of content? Most web sites are built with an educated guess as to the content that will best suit their target audience. Sometimes this works out fine, and for smaller web sites, a “seat of your pants” approach might even be somewhat effective.

But if you have established some business goals for your web site (after all, your web site is part of your overall business system, having some expectations is crucial for web success) it helps to have a model for looking at how that web site is going to funnel traffic.

Introducing the ABC method. That’s Access, Behavior and Conversion. Let’s look at each.

Access
What’s the plan for visitors to find your site? Unlike a Field of Dreams, if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. Naturally everyone wants to be in top position with search engines. If that is part of your strategy, then look at what is necessary to achieve that. In some cases, following best practices during site development, along with a little patience, will produce satisfactory results. In more competitive situations, the services of a SEO specialist may be necessary, which involves not only keyword research and content planning during development, but ongoing monitoring and tactical adjustments. Naturally this approach requires an investment in order to obtain results.

So we may look to other tactics to drive traffic. Advertising may be placed on other directory web sites; visitors may be directed to the site by other advertising and branding; the site may act as support for sales staff and other on-the-ground networking efforts.

Behavior
So you’ve made the effort and you have visitors coming to your site. Congratulations! What will they do now that they have arrived? If we think about the needs for each visitor type within your target audience, content can be developed and organized to maximize results. If we think about a new prospect for example, we might want to be sure that they see our products pages, how to order, company information (to build credibility) and end on a contact or shopping cart page. An existing customer may follow a different critical path, perhaps needing product support or specific contact information. For each type of visitor in your audience, if you can map out a critical path through the site you will have a much better chance at…

Conversion
For each visitor you want to have a call to action. You have made the effort to get them to your site, now let’s have them act on their visit. In some cases, the call to action is passive, providing technical support information on the site, for example. But im many cases you want to convert them. Conversion can include filling out a contact form, clicking an email link, making a phone call, signing up for a newsletter, registering to receive white papers, making a reservation, or completing a sale on an e-commerce site. It is critical to have a game plan for your conversions, both as an end point for your critical pathways, and also as a component in your overall business systems. So many web site owners lose out on potential prospects or sales because they don’t have a system in place to follow up the points of contact provided by the web site.

Conclusion
Being mindful of your ABCs can result in web site that is built with intent, rather than guesswork. You have better opportunities to convert your traffic into business, resulting in an increased return on investment.

New ATM Scam

2008-06-03T13:01:00.002-04:00

We are so focussed in our industry on web and email scams we tend to forget the good, old-fashioned analog scam artist. Our favorite banker at Cape Cod Five sent me this slide show about a new scam happening at ATMs.

We've Given Birth...

2008-05-23T15:28:00.002-04:00

to the new web site for Peapod Fitness! Dara Zall's professional fitness business for new and expectant parents is a great place for young and younger.

Remember, we're like the parents of a newborn... we KNOW how cute the site is, and you better not tell us different. Kudos to Nancy Bellantone for a great design.

ppodfitness.com

Web Analytics Talk for CCHMA

2008-05-23T15:17:00.003-04:00

I was honored to be the guest speaker for the Cape Cod Hospitality Marketing Association's monthly event. We discussed web metrics, those stats about your web traffic you know you should be watching but never do. We reviewed the basics of web stat analysis and presented helpful ideas on how to interpret this data. Web stats expert Avinash Kaushik says running a web site without looking at your metrics is like playing the Super Bowl with your hands tied behind your back.

The talk at the Heritage House Hotel in Hyannis was well attended and the audience participated with great questions. We talked about the ABCs of web analysis: Access, Behavior and Conversion. The terms used in web stats were defined, we explored how to interpret the data available, and we covered the popular up and coming web analysis tool Google Analytics.

For those who would like to learn more about interpreting their web stats, please contact me.

Here's a shot of our host Betsy Koch of Hy-line Cruises and yours truly.

Destination: Nantucket!

2008-05-23T15:07:00.002-04:00

Traveling to Nantucket this summer? We have launched two great web sites from the team at the Nantucket Inquirer & Mirror:

Discover Nantucket: Resources for lodging, dining, things to do, events, socials and more! Regular blogs from the staff plus other great insider tips.

Nantucket Today: The online component for the magazine of record of the Nantucket lifestyle.

Follow The Money!

2008-05-22T15:59:00.002-04:00

We just launched a nice little site for an accountant, Bob Coval. You know he's going to spend his money wisely, now don't you?

Go check out his site...

BobCovalCPA.com

Global Companies is Live!

2008-05-16T16:02:00.004-04:00

We have been working on the redesign of the web site for Global Companies for a year. It has finally gone live this week!

Thank you to everyone at Global, and everyone on our team for pulling together on this. It was quite a lot of work, with quite a few moving parts, and I think we're all very happy it has come out looking so good. I just heard from a friend who works as a financial analyst who looks at sites like this day in and day out, and he says it's top notch!

If you are a big time oil company, or even just a run of the mill oil company, drop by for a web site any time!

Globalp.com

There Will Be Nardozzi

2008-04-18T16:44:00.003-04:00

Nardozzi Consulting launched yesterday late in the day. Yet another example of our prowess...

For more than 25 years John Nardozzi has been an innovative, driving force in the oilheat and petroleum industry. As “The Oilman’s Accountant,” John has helped retail oil dealers of all sizes to run their businesses more efficiently and profitably.

NardozziConsulting.com

EPpy Awards

2008-04-13T23:58:00.002-04:00

We've been honored to be selected as a judge for the upcoming EPpy Awards, given in recognition to outstanding news and media web sites by Editor & Publisher. E&P is the national journal of the newspaper industry. We've been reviewing dozens of sites, ranking them on design, application of content, ease of use and more. There have been some real winners and some real dogs, even amongst some of the most popular news sites. We can't tell about the details, but watch for the EPpy Awards to be announced at the Interactive Media Conference and Trade Show in Las Vegas May 14-15, 2008..

Penikese Island School Site Goes Live

2008-03-27T12:49:00.002-04:00

It's been a long road, but we finally launched the Penikese Island Schools's redesigned web site this week. This site went through numerous iterations through the design phase until we struck the balance we were looking for between an upgrade to the site look and feel, and adhering to the tradition of the School's mission.

This site is the first I've worked on for Koa Media that incorporates some of my photography created on assignment for the client. You can see my work most prominently on the Home page in the Flash panel. All the images in that slideshow/movie are mine. I also have many images sprinkled throughout the site on various interior pages, but many images were made by others as well.

www.penikese.org

Light Speed - Blogger Widget

2008-03-17T14:53:00.002-04:00

Hello everybody,

We've been super busy getting some projects wrapped up, along with the usual website maintenance, and starting new projects.

We spend about half of our time working on contract jobs that involve developing design/redesign jobs. We spend about a quarter of our time maintaining sites that we have either launched or taken over at a client's request. We spend the rest of the time on various in house projects, and other kinds of related support.

With just three people, and a lot of business, we're pretty busy all the time!

One of my functions here is to bring in new technology for us and our clients to use. The Blogger Widget for the Mac is the tool of the day. I am using it to write this blog entry, and I am finding it to be the difference between maybe thinking about doing a blog entry some day, to actually getting it done.

Gotta go, cg

Welcome to the new Koa

2008-02-19T10:48:00.000-05:00

After months of planning and weeks of effort we have launched the Koa Media web site. It’s more than just a new site; it reflects our new identity as well as more accurately depicts where we are as a company and how we service our clients. The entire process has certainly been a reminder to us about the need for client involvement in the development of the site. While much of the development of the new Koa site was similar to the process we follow with all of our projects, we had the additional burden of facing one of our toughest clients, ourselves.

At the beginning of the process I said to myself, “This will go smoothly. After all, we know the process intimately.” Hah. I watched myself be picky and indecisive and second-guess decisions during development of the logo. We argued about design components and what best represented where we are now and where we are going. We reviewed and re-edited copy.

Finally, thanks to everyone’s hard work both internally at Koa and externally with our participating associates, we have a site that will take us through the next phase of our business.

I’d especially like to thank Dave and Chris at Koa for their input in the design phase and their blood, sweat and tears during development; Ken Silvia for a great new logo that looks wonderful and tells a story; Bill McDonough for not only inspired copywriting, but helping to develop the message.

And thanks to all of our clients and vendors who have supported Koa.

Bert Jackson