Website Wednesday: Website Design Trends

Staying up on website design trends keeps you in the "know" and serves as a measure to evaluate the effectiveness of your web design.

This 3 column design is used on an American Express business forum.

The three-column design is everywhere. Corporations like Starbucks, McDonalds, and the American Express Open Forum incorporate the format.

Mid-size companies, small businesses, and the solo entrepreneur can easily make three symmetrical blocks of information using images and text.

The format organizes key blocks of information and a horizontal image on the home page allows the blocks to show above the fold.

Easy-to-use drag and drop platforms mean you can create three columns and bring in the text boxes.

You can see this in my website Running a Small Business.net which is in process.

Need a robust Do-it-Yourself or professionally designed website, then I can provide through Right Touch Marketing.com. Contact me there for a free quote.

One of the credible sites to read up on website design trends is Enfused. One of their topics focuses on the need to design web sites so they respond to different devices, especially smartphones.

Click here to read more from Enfused.

I have no affiliation with them and you can click here to read more on 2013 web design trends.

Use Color to Stand Out from the Competition

This free marketing tip focuses on using color so people recognize your business in a crowded marketplace.

Cabin of an A 330 used from Virgin Atlantic blog

There are small ways to catch the attention of a customer that may require using creativity but not much money.

Virgin Atlantic is a good marketing case study in doing little things to differentiate itself from the competition of other airlines.

I flew the airline for the first time in July 2013 from Los Angeles to Seattle and the first thing that caught my attention was the soft colored lights when boarding.

The hues were red and blue and had a more calming effect than Southwest, United, or others.

The flight attendants outfits seemed classier, too.

When we departed in Seattle I had the feeling I had experienced just a bit of luxury even though we paid less than $275 per person. The cost was less than other airlines.

A simple use of colored lighting is one way Virgin Atlantic sets itself apart in a crowded marketplace.

Business owners can use colors to set themselves apart.

Choose a color scheme for your business and keep it easy to replicate.

A shirt and slacks, business cards, portfolio, and thank you cards can all be the same color. Use the theme on your website, blog, and enewsletter.

It may not make a difference right away but over time referral sources and potential customers will begin to associate you with a particular color scheme.

The use of color is one way to get noticed in a crowded marketplace.

Click here for the 2011 Virgin Atlantic blog post showing the interior of an Airbus A 330.

My Experience Creating a Small Business Website

The basic five page small business website is easy to create for business owners. There are several free website platforms available that are drag and drop with no knowledge of html.

An easy-to-create website isn't necessarily best, though. The most important step is before you log on to the platform or expect a professional designer to shoot back a great-looking comp.

You must plan your website.

Log on to this link below on an article I wrote on Yahoo Finance and you'll see what I mean.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/first-person-creating-business-website-195400359--finance.html

I raise a few key questions in the article:

• what do you say about your company
• what do your customers say about your company
• why do you really operate the business - what is you are helping the customer achieve? 

Answer these questions thoroughly, or enlist someone like me to help you, and you can plan a strong website on any platform and enhance your web presence to aid in marketing and customer relations.