Insights – Page 2 – ACS Reduc 2022

Why SEO Matters to YOU

October 7, 2019

You want your website to be found… but at what price? PPC advertisements and paid keywords can cost anywhere from a few bucks to a whopping $150 per click! Those rates can be budget-blowing to any organization if a person clicks, and clicks, and clicks and then leaves your site without making a purchase or taking an action. This is why search engine optimization (or “SEO”) matters. SEO is critical for receiving those quality organic clicks — without the additional cost.

What’s the difference between organic and paid? For the most part, organic searches are closely related to a user’s query based on relevance (determined through SEO and various other factors). Compare that to search engine marketing (“SEM”), which is promotion through online advertising.

SEO helps in myriad ways. Optimizing your site’s SEO can increase your efforts to better reach your target audience. It can also help you climb above your competitors. With organic placement, you bring in customers by proving to the search engine algorithms that your site has relevant content and authority on keywords. It’s more valuable to own your destiny through SEO than relying on a third party for paid search.

Here are some interesting facts about organic searches and SEO:

Organic SEO is about five times better than paid search ads. (New Media Campaigns, 2018)
One in 10 blog posts are compounding, meaning organic search increases their traffic over time. (HubSpot, 2016)
Up to 80 percent of search engine users are only focusing on the organic results. (MarTech, 2018)
About 60 percent of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2018)

Plus, SEO is an evergreen solution. Increasing organic traffic through SEO is a much more sustainable model for your strategic plan than paying for each visitor. Through optimizing SEO, you begin to speak to the visitors you’re most interested in engaging with, not the search engine bots.

New content helps accomplish this. And, not just any content, but content that is authentic to you and your business. Fresh content keeps your SEO and website relevant through blogs, new pages, white papers, videos, etc. It’s no longer acceptable to stuff content with keywords for the sake of search engines — this keyword stuffing was quite common before Google cracked down on abusers. Good SEO practice is about adding more organic search-ability with keywords significant to you.

With strategic SEO, you can tap into the perceived benefits to appearing in an organic search — especially on page one. That ranking suggests to users that you’re an authority and leader in the area. It gives you credibility. Your brand gets in front of consumers, which leads to more click-through and potentially more leads.

Everyone’s dream is to spend $0 on advertising their website. But when it comes to being found online, there needs to be a compromise. (Remember, free advertising is only a dream.) A reasonable plan includes balancing SEM spend and bringing traffic in through SEO, which is instrumental to organic searches.

Interested in SEO? Let’s chat! We offer full service of marketing solutions

Giving Tuesday

November 27, 2018

Last week, the nation got together to give thanks. Today, we get together to give back! With another Black Friday and Cyber Monday behind us, there is no better time to take a short breather from the holiday haze of commercialization and consumerism. Don’t get me wrong—a $79 Dyson pet vacuum is certainly something to be excited about, but we hope you’ll look beyond your shopping lists, if only for today. Instead, let’s channel our giving spirit to a bigger cause.

A Global Day of Giving

Giving Tuesday (#givingtuesday) is relatively new to the realm of hashtag activism, but it’s already making a big impact around the world. Conceived in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the U.N. Foundation, this growing movement is credited with moving over $270 million to worthy charities last year alone. During a season known best for early bird bargains, reindeer decorations, and (far too much) pie, it’s refreshing to see a philanthropic initiative like this thrive.

Close to Home Causes

Over the past few years, ACS Creative has been fortunate and honored to work with some truly incredible non-profits. Through the course of these projects, their causes became our own. The passion they exude and belief in their mission is exciting and contagious. We hope after learning more about the organizations below, you will find it in your heart to join us in supporting that passion on this very special Tuesday!

Britepaths
Branding / Collateral
For more than 30 years, Britepaths has been developing innovative, sustainable solutions that stabilize low-income working families.
Donate Now →

Capital Caring
Website / Collateral
Since 1977, Capital Caring has worked tirelessly to improve care for those facing life-limiting illness through direct patient care, family support, public education, and advocacy.
Donate Now →

Fairfax CASA
Website / Collateral
An advocate for abused and neglected children, Fairfax CASA ensures each child’s needs are identified and addressed as they seek a safe and permanent home.
Donate Now →

Your monetary contributions will help these causes continue doing good for our families, our communities, and the world around us. Be sure to spread the word of #GivingTuesday and let’s make TODAY the biggest and best one yet! Tomorrow, we see what that Dyson can do…

Infinite Marketing Loop: Outbound Marketing

September 4, 2018

For those of you following along, we have been diving into our Infinite Marketing Loop strategy here on the ACS Creative blog. So far, Website Optimization and Inbound Marketing have been covered. Today, we’re wrapping-up this series with a discussion about Outbound Marketing—the third and final phase of the loop.

Outbound Marketing vs Inbound Fundamentals

In essence, Outbound Marketing is the opposite of Inbound Marketing, which is a more passive, patient, and evergreen approach to advertising. Television commercials, radio spots, magazine ads, cold calling, email (spam), trade shows, newspapers, and brochures are all considered outbound efforts. You are actively initiating a conversation about your business. This is where brand repetition really comes into play.

Is it Chilly in Here?

Some tactics used in Outbound Marketing can be considered “cold” or impersonal. For instance unsolicited emails and phone calls, which tend to carry a higher cost per acquisition and lower chances of effectiveness. It’s fair to assume someone who hasn’t opted to hear from you isn’t going to be thrilled about a sales pitch out of the blue. This approach assumes you are casting a very wide net in hopes of catching a few fish. It’s a numbers game and, although you might get lucky from time to time, we recommend starting out any business relationship on a more welcome note.

Social Media Advertising

There are two types of social media promotion: paid and earned. If a potential customer is not actively following you and anxiously awaiting your updates and posts, you have to pay for their attention. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn all allow you to define as broad or narrow of a target audience as you wish when building a paid campaign. This is your opportunity to minimize the chances of wasting ad spend on uninterested eyes. From pay-per-click to influencer marketing, it’s critical to have an in-depth knowledge of ideal demographics and interests before launching. Social media affords advertisers the ability to reach users based on hobbies, job titles, geographic location, age, and life events. Failure to target the right consumers will drive up your cost per acquisition and potentially prevent your ads from being run altogether. Do your homework, plan meticulously, and future customers will be happy to learn about your business!

Traditional Advertising

Advertisements don’t inherently offer much value to people. Whether it’s a mandatory commercial before a YouTube video or a pop-up banner on a website, they disrupt the flow of a person’s desired activity. The wrong ad, at the wrong time, to the wrong person is money down the drain and potentially increased negative sentiment toward your brand. Advertising in publications, over the airwaves, or online can be extremely effective in building awareness—but only if your message matches the audience. Remember that wide net we talked about earlier? Let’s reel it in. Narrow your geographics, limit your interests, rent booths at conventions and trade shows that make sense for your target industry, hand-pick the sites you display ads on, and run commercials alongside only the most relevant audio and video content.

The core benefit of Outbound Marketing is control. By getting to potential customers before they discover your business on their own, you can better narrate the journey, messaging, and experience. Truth be told, Outbound Marketing often gets a bad rap—mostly due to its interruptive nature. Studies have shown significantly higher conversion rates using Inbound Marketing, but there is no reason to not supplement those efforts with both Outbound Marketing and Website Optimization. The Infinite Marketing Loop is most effective when each of the phases work in harmony with the others.

To see more of what we offer in terms of marketing head over to our services page!

Infinite Marketing Loop: Inbound Search Marketing

June 12, 2018

We recently opened our vault to let the world in on our Infinite Marketing Loop strategy and how it applies to virtually every business in any industry. A few weeks back, we touched on Website Optimization—the critical first phase of this proven process. All caught up? Let’s continue with Inbound Search Marketing!

Inbound Marketing Fundamentals

Fact is, consumers (and business owners) are making their buying decisions online. Whether it be finding a restaurant for date night or choosing a local landscaper, instant access to a plethora of business information has turned the average American into a master research expert. Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! have not only become invaluable tools for people, but have leveled the playing field for businesses as well. Through a well-managed Inbound Search Marketing (SEM) plan, utilizing both paid (PPC) and organic (SEO) strategies, any business can compete for those precious, targeted clicks!

Pay-Per-Click Ads

Depending on the search engine, paid ads appear either above, beside, or beneath the organic results for a given search term. Buying PPC listings increases your chances of being seen (and clicked) before your competitors—for a price, of course. Advertising platforms such as AdWords and Bing Ads operate on an auction-style format, where ads compete with each other instantly, in real-time, based on the amount each business is willing to pay per click or impression and their overall campaign budget. The more popular a particular keyword (search term), the more expensive it tends to be. For example, “Pomeranian dog portraits” will likely cost you less per click than “auto insurance.” Although, to me, a professional pom painting is priceless.

Sure, anyone can bid $500 per click to beat Geico in search results for one day, but it’s by no means a sustainable strategy. Doing your homework to discover and employ more specific (long-tail) keywords with less competition can increase your conversion rate without breaking the bank. A PPC campaign is not a set it and forget it task—but instead and ongoing effort that needs to intelligently adapt as you learn.

One critical point to keep in mind is Google’s commitment to delivering relevant results to its users—and that includes paid ads. Through an incredibly complex algorithm, search platforms can determine if your ad is meeting the needs of those who see it, and penalize your placement if it falls short.

Search Engine Optimization

If you follow our blog regularly, you might pick up on a recurring theme here. When it comes to internet marketing, nothing is more important than SEO. It delivers all the benefits of paid advertising—but for free. Regardless of what the astounding number of emails in your spam folder claim, Search Engine Optimization is not an exact science and there are no guarantees. In fact, employing shady (“Black Hat”) tactics to better your site’s ranking can actually get your URL demoted (“sandboxed”) by the various search platforms. For this reason, among others, it’s best to keep things above board when it comes to your organic performance.

Each search engine operates on a proprietary algorithm that is constantly fine-tuned to learn, react, and deliver. Google, for instance, is notoriously vague about the finer points of their ranking equations, which leads to a lot of “expert” speculation across the web. Staying up with the latest tricks is a full-time job and ultimately an unnecessary use of energy. If you look back at the very first iteration of Google and its evolution to present time, one driving factor remains at the forefront: relevancy. I’m sure you’re tired of hearing this by now but content really is king! Publish relevant articles, build your audience, share your links, demonstrate authority, and your site’s ranking will rise accordingly. However, as with PPC, you need to establish a strategy and follow through.

Of course, not all SEO tips & tricks are complete nonsense. It is still imperative that your site conform to basic practices to ensure readability by the crawling bots (and visitors). Simple efforts like image ALT tags, clearly-defined navigation, nested site structure, interlinking, backlinking, keyword density, and proper headings establish a healthy foundation for ongoing Search Engine Optimization.

People are going to use search engines to discover products and services, whether your site appears in the results or not. Inbound Search Marketing is about being there when potential customers are looking for what you offer. It requires some strategy, some money, and some hard work, but has the potential to pay off in dividends.

Find out great inbound marketing and more marketing services we offer over in our services section!

Infinite Marketing Loop: Website Optimization

April 24, 2018

Every digital agency has their own set of guiding principles and philosophies. This is what makes each unique, and one more compatible with your business than the next. For that reason, most design firms tend to keep their special formula pretty close to the vest. In this new 3-part blog series, we are lifting the veil of secrecy, stepping out of the cone of silence, and opening our vault at ACS Creative to share with the world what we call The Infinite Marketing Loop. Although there may be no definitive “start” to the loop, we’ll begin by diving into Website Optimization.

Fundamentals

The key to advertising is repetition and recognition. We just saved you four years tuition on a Marketing degree (you’re welcome)! In order to stay top-of-mind among both existing and potential customers, your brand needs to follow people where they go and be where they’re looking. One of the most critical pivots you can do for your business is to abandon the notion that marketing is an occasional event when, in reality, it should be a constant, ongoing effort.

Website Optimization

Social, organic, and paid marketing are all effective methods for driving traffic—but you need somewhere to send them. The Infinite Marketing Loop begins with a symbiotic combination of website, landing pages, retargeting pixels, traffic analytics, and conversion measurement. When we talk about Website Optimization in this context, we are not referring to SEO (that comes later).

Although each piece of the loop works in conjunction with the others to convert visitors into customers, Website Optimization is at the core. Your website provides the platform for prospects to take action, pick up the phone, submit a form, or purchase a product. Adjusting and updating your site on a regular basis will yield the best results for your bottom line.

Having a beautiful website if great. Having an effective website is better. This means understanding your audience and accommodating different types of visitors, their needs, language, and learning styles. No matter who lands on your website, a clean, well-organized layout and navigation will always do wonders to improve the overall user experience.

A few things to consider when optimizing your website for digital marketing:

Some visitors quickly scan web pages and others read every word. Make sure your content is structured in a way that appeals to both.
You may have seen instances of “innovative” navigation in your internet travels. When it comes to your site, keep it simple and familiar. Don’t make your visitors work harder for the sake of being different.
Define a clear call-to-action and place it prominently throughout your site. You have no control over what page people land on, but you can certainly nudge them in the right direction from there.
Your visitors could fall within any number of browsing scenarios from slow internet to outdated browser to physical disability. Poise your website to accommodate any and all potential customers with minimal load times, responsive design, and basic Accessibility standards.

Landing Pages

Let’s assume you have a beautiful website that contains all the content and media anyone could ever ask for. Unfortunately, there is still one tragic flaw—it’s too much. Landing Pages give us the opportunity to provide targeted segments of visitors a more personalized and concise sampling of your business. Of course users have the freedom to click around until they arrive at your site’s homepage if they wish, but a well-conceived landing page should include everything needed to complete a conversion. Although landing pages are most often utilized in PPC campaigns, they can draw some organic value if linked to from your main site.

Retargeting

It’s no coincidence that you saw a banner ad for Moen on CNN’s homepage after spending the previous day researching kitchen faucets. In this instance, Moen has no direct advertising agreement with CNN whatsoever. Your computer simply picked up a harmless, invisible pixel (cookie) from their site and will now occasionally see their display ads on platforms that utilize the Google AdSense program.

Consider the endless scenarios in which an individual might visit your website and not buy or inquire. Sure, they may be genuinely disinterested or unimpressed—but what if they just didn’t act in that moment but would in the near future? Fast forward a week and this same potential customer is ready to commit but can’t quite remember the name of your company. Devastating right? This is why repetition is vital to effective advertising and why Retargeting should be a part of your Infinite Marketing Loop.

After a visitor visits a site containing a retargeting pixel, they will begin to see ads for that business on the sites, apps, and social media platforms they frequent. This persistent brand reminder will continue for about 30 days or when the person completes a conversion—whichever comes first.

Conversion Pixels

Surely, that was a fascinating primer in Retargeting, but what’s this about tracking conversion completions? Glad you asked! Google Analytics, in addition to most PPC platforms, allow website owners to place a unique Conversion Pixel on their confirmation or receipt pages. Suffice (it) to say, every time that pixel is fired (activated), a conversion has occurred. This method provides a tangible means of measuring the effectiveness of your landing pages, emails marketing, organic efforts, paid campaigns, and website as a whole. Whether it’s an e-commerce transaction, mailing list subscription, or form submission, conversions are everything and the numbers don’t lie!

As we continue this 3-phase reveal of ACS Creative’s Infinite Marketing Loop, one constant theme will remain: connections. Alone, these tactics are one-off “spray and pray” efforts with little potential for long-term growth and success. However, together, they connect with each other, compliment each other, and lift the effectiveness of each other over time.

The Value of Outside Perspective

April 3, 2018

Sometimes to achieve the best end result, we have to step outside of our bubble. Whether you’re just starting up or your project is stuck, amazing things can happen when you open up to some outside perspective. Limited budgets, ambitious timelines, and inherit fear of “too many cooks in the kitchen” can cause business owners to inhibit their marketing potential – looking only to their employees or existing agency for direction.

Look from the Inside Out

A recent survey of 300+ small businesses conducted by Clutch.co demonstrated that 43% trust and invest in their own in-house employees to meet their digital marketing goals. Don’t get us wrong – human capital is essential to business growth. These are the people on the front lines helping your business do what it does all day, every day. If you’ve built a team of smart, dedicated, creative people, your company is going places. However, the solution to your online marketing challenges isn’t always necessarily under your roof.

A truly successful website launch or advertising campaign is the product of collaboration between your staff and some outside talent. It’s not about stretching the capabilities and expectations of your existing workforce, but creating symbiotic connections to see the project through. Not to mention, people within your organization spend a majority of their waking hours thinking about your business. Oftentimes, it takes a fresh new perspective from someone who isn’t quite as close to the nucleus to conceive something really brilliant.

This is also true of entrepreneurs with a staff of one. As a bootstrapped startup, the sole proprietor ends up wearing a lot of hats – especially in the beginning. To be so deeply enveloped in your own business doesn’t necessarily make you the best person to be marketing it. An outside agency or individual can help articulate your offering to the world and execute an effective strategy for online success.

Escape the Project Vacuum

So you’ve assembled a team to bring your digital marketing project to fruition. Perhaps you’re utilizing some in-house talent as well as an outside agency. The original timeline is completely out the window and you’re starting to feel the momentum from earlier stages has since halted. If progress has slowed because new ideas are missing the mark or the conceptual trajectory has gone off course, this is an ideal time to seek out some outside perspective.

Metaphorically-speaking, your team is crammed into a tiny room for months on end, breathing the same recycled air, growing more fatigued of the objective (and each other) by the day. Originality and innovation have dimmed to convenience and utility. Allowing someone else to offer a view from beyond those walls might be just what you need to bring your project back to life.

No matter what phase your web, print, or advertising project is in, inviting outside perspective can offer truly valuable insight and direction. To believe that your most-effective campaign approach exists within one person, one room, one department, or one agency, is severely limiting to your company’s potential. Before you go any further, think outside…

Digital Marketing Year in Review

December 26, 2017

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday surrounded by warmth, family, and festive spirit. With just a few days left in 2017, we thought it would be fitting to take a look back on the year in Digital Marketing. Things are changing fast in the online world. Design trends come and go; mobile traffic is on the rise; and ecommerce is flipping the retail landscape upside-down. Understanding how advertising and marketing evolve is the key to staying ahead of the curve looking forward.

Big, Bold Web Design

In 2017, website designers started thinking out of the box (literally). Logos, graphics, and layouts broke free of the symmetrical grid, embraced white space, and created complex visual experiences in protest of the safe, static compositions of primitive responsive design.

We learned a page is truly a canvas from edge to edge and a bit of controlled chaos can go a long way in leading visitors on an immersive, branded journey. Websites are getting braver and more adventurous with their design. Expect to see this trend push the boundaries even further in 2018.

Advertising for All

When ACS began over 30 years ago, radio commercials were a big portion of our creative work and an effective means of generating new business. It’s no secret the writing is on the wall for television, radio, and print advertising. The meteoric rise of subscription streaming and online content will make sure of that.

As major corporations shift their marketing dollars from fading channels to online platforms, the playing field is leveling. Self-serve advertising makes it possible for small businesses to reach their target audience in the same way as the giants in their industry. No longer is there a massive budget barrier creating opportunity for elite corporations while burying fledgling competitors. Every business, big and small, is now on the same page.

Smarter Social Media

The year in social media can be summed up in one word: interaction. A vast majority of businesses are now on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram, which are primarily “broadcast” platforms by nature. However, a rising importance is being placed on individual conversations.

Many companies are using social media to field customer service requests, educate buyers, and up-sell products. You’ll be hearing a lot about chatbots in 2018, which yield the same benefits of human interaction with far more efficiency. Social networks will always be a place to get your message out to a mass audience, but this new emphasis on making actual connections will surely set businesses apart in the new year.

It’s been quite a ride this past year—for the industry as a whole, and us as well. ACS exceeded the expectations of hundreds of clients on projects ranging from letterhead design to website development. We’re excited to see what’s in store for digital marketing in 2018, and even more thrilled to lead the way.

From our team to yours, we wish you a very happy and prosperous new year!

Lessons Learned from Amazon Prime Day

November 14, 2017

When it comes to doing business online, especially e-commerce, Amazon is a safe bet to admire. Since the site’s inception in 1994, Amazon has single-handedly changed the internet’s entire landscape. They’ve had a few flops and plenty of successes over the years, but one fact remains true: There is no better company to gather marketing inspiration from in today’s online marketplace.

Amazon’s annual Prime Day promotion got off to a rocky start in 2015. With a combination of public confusion and lackluster product selection, many considered the event somewhat of a failure. Amazon was determined to redeem themselves over the next couple of years, and they did so in epic fashion.

With its third annual Prime Day subscription promotion this past summer, the shopping giant boosted global orders by 60% during Prime Day in July of 2017. Amazon’s U.S. orders rose by more than 50% and Prime membership sign-up experienced its highest day ever. Even more surprising: Amazon Prime Day sales beat out 2016’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers combined! It was the company’s biggest day ever—and that’s saying a lot. They also earned these sales in mid-July—a notoriously slow retail month. Needless to say, Amazon Prime Day is a brilliant promotional success. Some say they got lucky. We say they got savvy.

Hidden Objective, Clear Results

Major brands like Amazon routinely take advantage of promotional strategies to achieve their own desired objectives. This is in addition to any ongoing advertising initiatives.

Amazon Prime Day is just one of those promotions. This theoretical holiday allows Prime members to enjoy exclusive deals on a wide range of merchandise. Amazon’s goal is to increase Prime memberships. The added sales are a mere bonus.

Why is Prime subscription the goal? Because prime members are more likely to buy from Amazon all year long with the promise of free, two-day shipping. So a specific consumer goal yielded a bunch more loyal Prime customers plus a jaw-dropping increase in sales. And that’s the key to a successful promotion: driving a clear, measurable action.

The Difference between Advertising and Promoting

If you go looking through a thesaurus ($11.95 on Amazon.com) “Promoting” and “Advertising” come up as synonyms. To most people, they mean the same thing: hawking your wares and/or services to consumers. However, to a keen marketing maven, promoting and advertising are more like fraternal twins. Sure they come from the same place, but they can look (and be) vastly different.

By nature, advertising is an ongoing, brand-building effort. It’s a marathon without a finish line designed to keep your company top of mind, recognizable and ahead of the competition. In contrast, promoting is a sprint. It’s an intense effort with a specific goal in mind. When executed properly, the two can work together in beautiful harmony!

Promo Strategy 101

To make the most out of your promotions toolbox, you first want to hone in on the goal you want to achieve. Is the objective to introduce a new product to the market? Boost subscriptions to your service?

As mentioned earlier, promos work best when you have a specific action you want consumers to take. Once you know your desired outcome, you can then use your advertising campaign metrics to decide the best way to achieve that goal. What kind of advertising do your consumers tend to respond to best? Use your long-term advertising findings to dictate your promotional strategy. Your promotion will be more successful if you fish where the fish are.

Brainstorm

Promos are catchy, memorable, and encourage prompt action. Ideally, you want your promo to spread wide and fast among your targeted audience. So set your creative team to work dreaming up various promos to achieve the goal you set. Then choose the most strategically sound one. Heck, even make up your own holiday. It worked out pretty well for Amazon!

Plan and Launch with Purpose

The timing of your promo is critical. For example, launching a gift-wrapping service the day after Christmas might lead to an epic promo fail. Now this is an exaggerated scenario, but you get the picture. Consider both consumer behavior and seasonal influencers to determine the right time to launch, and then launch your promotion with everything you’ve got.

Spread the word on social media. Create digital campaigns. Buy some billboards and ads. In general, push your promotion through whatever medium will best reach your target audience. Again, fish where the fish are.

Why this Matters

You would be hard pressed to think of a company that needs to offer a special promotion less than Amazon. Their advertising is everywhere (including people’s doorsteps). They follow customers around the internet with highly-targeted remarketing campaigns until a purchase is complete. Financial experts say Amazon is the only company that could ever feasibly buy Google someday. Their stock market position is consistently healthy and nearly all of their sub-products (streaming, hosting, music, fresh delivery, home services, etc.) make a huge impact to the bottom line. The question is WHY? Why would a global giant with more revenue than they know what to do with host a one-day promotional sale? The answer is simple: because it works.

The lesson here is that promotions should be an integral component of all your marketing efforts. A good one can have lasting effects on your bottom line. So get brainstorming. Your customers will love you for it, and you’ll surely love them back!

Halloween Just Got Spookier

October 30, 2017

Being in the creative world, Halloween is one of our favorite holidays here at ACS. It’s the one day a year we get a free pass to express our inner spirits to the world. We’ve always had fun dressing up in ghoulish costumes around the office but, this year, we wanted to offer a special treat to our loyal followers…

Introducing Spooky Escape – a haunting game of skill, patience and timing. Help the little black cat find his way out of the scary cemetery using your computer, tablet, or smartphone. The controls are simple and the addictiveness is real. Our best score so far is 13. Can you do better?

play now

We hope you enjoy this fun little escape from your workday. Please share with your friends and co-workers and have a very happy Halloween from all of us at ACS Creative!

When the Feds Need You, You Need Us

October 24, 2017

Federal agencies and other government organizations are just like other businesses. They turn to vendors for various products and services. If you’re in the business of providing those services, then we should be in business with YOU! We’ve helped many companies market themselves to government entities. We understand the language and visuals they respond to. By designing your company a strong B to G website, we can help you procure those coveted government contracts.

You may have seen us on the GSA schedule.

For a long time, ACS Creative was on the GSA schedule as an official vendor capable of delivering government marketing orders. Today, we are often asked to partner with larger companies to fulfill a facet of an extensive contract—and we are happy to do so. We’ve lent our expertise to many federal, state and municipal web projects. These contracts often consist of detailed technical requirements, which we are accustomed to meticulously meeting. Our long history of working with the government is a boon to our dozens of clients who seek to work with government agencies as well.

Let us lend you our expertise.

Our agency has a great deal of experience in the government vendor space. Many lessons learned and goals accomplished inspire how we approach new B to G website projects. Here are a few simple ways you can make your website design stand out to government agencies.

Be clear and concise.

When marketing to federal agencies, you want to address the services and benefits your company provides right up front. Splashy landing pages and other visual gimmicks are better left to other industries. This is a time for straightforward information. For example, check out this site we designed and built for Arena Technologies. The tabs on the homepage clearly state the info behind each tab, making it easy for visitors to understand the specific services provided and to learn more. Similarly, this website for ECS offers a slider that lists the company’s specialty areas. Below that are two prominent links: “What we do” and “Where we operate.” Again, these layouts are designed with clarity in mind.

Show off those federal logos.

If your business has been awarded government contracts in the past, you should definitely list the agencies’ logos right on the homepage. This instantly communicates to other agencies that you understand and fulfill government requirements. We’ve followed this rule for many of our B to Gov clients. Note how we highlighted them on the ECS and Arena Technologies websites we mentioned previously, and also on the Loch Harbour website we designed. Those logos serve as stamps of approval—and for companies pitching services to federal, state and municipal sectors, they are marketing gold.

If you work on contracts, list them.

If you are able to do so, it’s important to list the government contracts you currently fulfill on your website. This is not only helpful to other government agencies seeking work under those contracts, but it also shows off your expertise, qualifications and track record. On the Loch Harbour site, we included a tab on the primary navigation bar for “Contract Vehicles.” When visitors click on this menu option, they are taken to a page that lists both primary and sub contracts held by the company. They can further click on each contract to get more information. Furthermore, this tactic proves you’ve been vetted, which increases trust from potential new customers. All details are presented in a clear manner with points of contact designated for each.

Similarly, we listed “Contracts” in the nav bar for Spin Sys, a cyber security company. Here we also called them out in the Footer. This is especially helpful for those scrolling on tablets. If they never click on the Contracts tab, they still see the opportunity again at the bottom of the page.

For any business, a government contract can mean steady, long-term work. No matter which sector you serve, the competition among vendors is intense. A professional B to G website that speaks to those you’re targeting can significantly tip the needle in your favor.