JCS Development

Once again in cooperation with Green Haus Design studio JCS Development has created a great website for Fort Worth’s Jazz By The Boulevard jazz and arts festival this coming September.

At the Fort Worth Web Design Enthusiasts meetup. Tonight: Designing a new website roundtable.

In today’s economy making the most of your marketing plan is absolutely critical. Our friends over at Bam Creative have created a new website called “13 Reasons you should Embrace the Web”  and in the introduction they say:

Simply put, the web is more important now than at any other time…

It’s a very good article on why a company should be creating a website now.  The reasons are pretty brief so I wanted to elaborate on a few them just a bit and throw in a couple of my own.

The Web is Cost Effective

Not only does a typical website cost roughly the same as a large advertisement in the newspaper, but it’s comparable to other forms of advertising such as direct mailers.  And having a website gives people another point of contact for your other marketing initiatives.

The Web is Measureable

You can analyze traffic via Google, and other tools, often for free.  You should also have a form that requests people tell you how they heard about you.

… now mine

The Web is Green

No matter what your stance on global warming, having most of your detailed information on the web saves trees.  You can even purchase “carbon offset” web hosting now if you’re so inclined. 

The Web is Local

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to the web to find a menu for a restaurant, or to order a pizza, or look up something about a merchant.

The Web is Your Friend

You don’t have to be scared of the web.  It can be overwhelming I know but there are people to guide you through the process. 

In an economic downturn when funds are tight, don’t ignore the web.  It could just be the most cost effective way to market your business.

Based on the Photoshop design by Chris Green at Green Haus Design Studio, JCS Development colaborated in the redesigned website for a local martial arts studio in Fort Worth.

You’ve developed, or had somebody develop, a website.  How do you know if it was worth your money to put it online, or to keep paying for maintenance every year?   Simple answer, you measure the results.  But what are the results?  Website hits, sales leads or phone calls?  Well that depends on what your product or service.  Lets look at a couple of examples.

First, lets say you’re a restaurant owner.  How do you know if any of your customers are looking at it.  First, ask them.  I would make it a practice that every time a waiter or waitress takes an order from somebody that they ask how they heard about you and put a note on the ticket.  At the end of the day add up the responses and the ticket value and track it.  You could also put a coupon on your website, or create several and rotate them, it’s fairly easy to do since most hosting accounts have database access, and a good web developer can handle the programming.  Setup the ability to take order by e-mail and be sure and track the dollar amount that comes in with the orders.

Next lets say you’re a home builder.  Setting up a contact form is fairly standard.  But are you asking the right questions?  For instance, how did the customer first hear about you?  Is the customer an individual or a real-estate agent?   Think about ways you can use your website to do more than just advertise.  Can the customer request service, send you documents by e-mail?  Can an architect send you plans?  Those things could make your website investment worth the money.

Finally, keep up with your Search Engine ranking.  Google, Microsoft and others.  This is bound to change over time and if it starts to slip downward look at your trends from the data you’re keeping.  Ask your web developer if there is a way to improve those, or look for a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist.  That can be worth every dime you spend on it. 

Marketing without a website these days is virtually impossible, but with a little work you can make the most of every dollar you spend on it.

Finally, the new site is up!  (and there was much rejoicing)  This is the new JCS Development website.  Better, faster, and hopefully more informative.

I had several goals in mind for this site:

• To have a place to show my design and development work.
• A place for clients to contact me easier.
• A place to talk about what’s going on with my company, what I’m working on where we’re headed, that kind of stuff.

Hopefully I’ll be able to accomplish all of that.  I’m sure there will be hiccups, and bugs along the way but I’m glad to be doing this.

Some things to look forward to in the days to come:

• A newsletter which will provide information to help small businesses get their website up to date.
• Additions to the portfolio.
• A “Friday Fun” post each week (this counts as #1)

Thanks for reading, and I’m glad you’re along for the ride.

Rhino Products, distributor and retailer of ceramic coating solutions, needed a site that would enhance their online sales possibilities.  JCS Dvelopment created a professional looking clean site that guided their customers through understanding the product, as well as obtaining the necessary information for an accurate estimate via email.

This site is for the #1 rated bagel store in Fort Worth.  It was designed to reflect the quirky nature of the store using colors and fonts already present.  The site provides for e-mail ordering, as well as an up-to-date menu.

This site was designed as both a promotional vehicle for a large community mission project, and as a volunteer coordination system. It allows volunteer leaders to communicate via both postings and mailing lists with all of their volunters. It also maintains a database of what volunteers are assigned to what areas.

We’re currently in transition from the jcsdev.net site to this site.  Please give us a few days to get it done.  Thanks.