UK type design firm Fontsmith caught our attention with their calalog of creative fonts. In this Design Focus, we take a look at their website, and see if they put as much attention to their divs and style sheets as they do counters and serifs.

Drawing attention to what’s important

As a company that specializes in fonts, Fontsmith does well to draw attention to its fonts by using them in its site. For instance, the menu font is FS Sinclair Web Light Italic. And while we think the font is a little hard to read for a menu, we’re glad that the font is tasteful and doesn’t overpower the content of each page.

Dynamic Design

We’re usually hesitant about having more than one carousel or slider on a page, but we think what Fontsmith has done is great. We really like the major content slider at the bottom, which  merges the “call out box” format with a slider to get more in page. This way, the site can draw attention to a “featured font”, new blog posts, Twitter updates, and more. This is a really effective idea to fashionably add navigation and direction — without all the clutter.

Navigation

We do miss the absence of a home button, but we accept that it’s a common trade-off when trying to simplify the main navigation.

Search Engine Optimization

Fontsmith has the same META data (description, and keywords) across many site pages, which is not optimal from From an SEO perspective. This has largely to do with the site being based on WordPress, which, although we love it as a platform, it all but completely fails at META data out of the box. We recommend changing the META data either manually, or using WordPress plug-ins to help you maximize their value.

Organization

Fontsmith makes good use of structure to help keep things organized. Implementing structural changes after the site has gone up is a huge problem, so it’s important to get it right from the beginning. Reorganizing can mean creating a jumble of redirects in order to maintain the site’s SEO value. Thankfully, Fontsmith seems to have a great deal of sectional relevance built into its site structure.

Overall, we’re very impressed with Fontsmith. We think their site draws attention to their fonts, and shows what a stylish and dynamic organization they run.

After many great years at 2243A Danforth Ave, Kobayahsi Online is moving to 1200 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 801, Toronto as of February 6, 2012.

We think the move will help inspire us and our clients to innovate, explore and look ahead.

Plus, Kobayashi Online will now be under the same roof as Finesilver Design. As the online world evolves, consumer behaviour is changing rapidly. By combining Kobayashi and Finesilver digital, marketing and design capabilities, our clients will be able to tap into insights, ideas, social media tools and technologies that engage and keep consumers and communities closer to brands. It’s a new world of marketing communications.

Trust us, it’s a good move.

Check out some of the photos from our last day on Danforth Ave.

If you haven’t heard yet, Kobayashi Online is moving to a new Toronto location at 1200 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 801. Everyone has been busy packing and getting organized for the move in addition to making the online world friendly.

Roberto invites you to learn his language with the help of 25 email marketing terms. Some terms include: false positive (when a legitimate permission-based email is incorrectly filtered or blocked as spam), open rate (the percentage of emails opened in any given email marketing), and targeting (selecting a target audience or group of individuals likely to be interested in a certain product or service). If you don’t know these terms or short forms like CTR and UCE, this guide will help you brush up.

Great photography is crucial to most websites. Eva is passing along a 20 per cent off coupon on purchases of $25 or more at istockphoto.com. If you can’t get a professional photographer, high-quality stock photos are a good option for your website.

Having the right domain can give your brand a leg up on the competition. Roberto found some pointers for those new to domains. Should you go with a .com, or a country-specific domain like .ca? What to do if your ideal domain isn’t available? Should I buy other extensions and redirect them to my site? Check out Alexander Dawson’s article on understanding domain names to find out.

A lot can happen in five months! Roberto is interested in testing out at least some of the 35 most interesting and useful WordPress plugins released since September 2011. Included in the list is: a plugin that replaces the default comments widget with the Facebook Comments widget; a plugin that regularly backs up your website; and a plugin that helps secure your WordPress page. And now that you’ve got a bunch of new plugins, the Plugin Performance Profiler (or P3) will measure the impact of your plugin on your site’s load time.

Daveed is a little weary about Google’s changes to its privacy policy that will let it track consumers across its many online products such as YouTube, Gmail and Google Search. According to a Washington post article, Google will be amalgamating its data to create a more complete picture of its users. Many think this goes too far, especially because they won’t be able to opt out of being tracked. It may be little consolation, but Google wants to use this extra information to do “cool things”. (If you want to know what Google already thinks of you, check your interest and age profile.)

Brent was able to exchange some ideas on how to use Facebook to drive engagement at Dx3 Canada, a Toronto trade show dedicated to digital marketing, advertising and retail. One company that is using Facebook well is Etsy, an online marketplace that created an app which suggests items to you based on the likes and interests of your Facebook friends. This is supposed to make shopping for gifts easier, but it also helps make Etsy a more attractive site to buy from. With 18 million Canadians active on Facebook, companies stand to benefit from using the platform — preferably with a some elegance and creativity.

Mobile devices are competing with traditional advertising like billboards for consumer attention. (image by fschroiff)

Signs and billboards often vie for our attention while we’re out and about. These can be thought of as predecessors of mobile marketing. As our glances turn towards our own smart phones and tablets, these devices have become a natural destination for advertising and engagement.

Mobile marketing is marketing that engages people where they are, and when they’re interested in making a purchase. No wonder it has gained status as a business buzz term.

But what is mobile marketing? It can be thought of as a catchall term for practices including mobile websites, QR Codes, text messages, mobile apps, and location-based marketing.

In this post, we’ll go over the individual elements of mobile marketing, and give you an idea of what they can offer your business.

Mobile websites

We think mobile sites are enormously important because they allow your business to reach all your audience members, no matter what device they use. Mobile sites are ones that look and function properly on mobile devices. (Our post on mobile friendly websites covers some of the issues to discuss with your developer). Mobile compatibility is an advantage for businesses because visitors can see your product then and there, rather than waiting until they’re in front of a computer, because by then, they’ll likely have forgotten.

An easy way to evaluate your mobile website is to simply see how your site looks and functions on your own phone. Also, borrow a friend’s phone and see how it looks. Try to browse your site from as many different phones as you can. You can also see how your site looks from online mobile emulators like Opera Mini Simulator or any of the downloadable emulators.

QR Codes

This abstract QR code leads to a URL -- in this case, the Kobayashi Online Facebook page.

QR codes look like a random assortment of black and white squares to the human eye, but mobile phone cameras interpret them differently — often as directions to a webpage.

Some say the uses of QR codes are only limited by our imaginations. The codes can be displayed on business cards, temporary tattoos, posters, and products themselves. These codes, in turn, can lead people anywhere, such as a restaurant’s takeout menu, a transit map, a product catalog or a movie trailer.

Marketers have been using QR codes for years for various purposes from simply leading people to a website, but also other processes like getting a coupon or streaming an mp3.

What’s more, flyte new media founder and president Rich Brooks has remarked that “there’s a certain amount of fun and surprise with QR Codes.” When someone chooses to scan one, for instance, they don’t necessarily know what’s behind the door, which can be exciting.

Brooks notes that QR codes aren’t right for every situation, but they often work well as an addition to print media, offering “a way for non-digital products and services to leverage the Internet and mobile marketing all at the same time.”

SMS messages

SMS messages (also known as text messages) are currently the most prominent form of mobile messaging with about 6.9 billion SMS messages having been sent in 2011, according to mobiThinking statistics and research. The agency expects this number to rise to an astonishing 8 trillion in 2012.

While these SMS messages are largely sent from one individual to another, application to person SMS, whereby a company sends an automated message, is growing. A company using A2P could be a bank providing an alert about your account, or a retailer providing a special offer.

But you don’t necessarily have to have people opt-in to get A3P SMS messages. So-called “proximity systems” let messages be broadcast to all mobile users in a specified geographical area, whether they’re advertising, public information, or anything else. You could walk into a mall and get an alert about a sale going on at one of the stores.

In general, people seem to respond well to SMS messages. While North America has been somewhat resistant to SMS messages, opt-in SMS in the UK is very effective. According to a survey, two out of five Britons would likely react favourably to opt-in marketing messages.

Mobile apps

It just makes sense for some businesses to have their own mobile applications. For instance, mobiThinking found that the ticket industry had a lot to gain from including mobile capabilities such as mobile ticket purchase and management, making it almost mandatory for a ticket retailer like Ticketmaster and its competitors. Most retailers choose to build their native mobile applications on iOS and Android, the top smartphone platforms in the US.

But businesses don’t have to build and maintain their own apps, which can be an expensive and time-consuming process. Ads can offer a lot of the advantages of apps without all the headaches.

In his address to the NYU Stern School of Business, Eric Litman explains that ads on mobile devices are not static like billboards or newspaper ads. They can provide a full-screen, immersive experience that users can interact with. “Build a rich, engaging ad that can do basically everything you can do in a mobile application, but in an ad unit itself,” he says. In order to draw people to these ads, he recommends companies partner with developers and content producers. Services like Google Mobile Ads can also help place ads on mobile devices.

Location-based marketing

Location-based applications, available as either native apps running on a phone or within a Web browser, have transformed how we see the real world. Services like foursquare, Yelp, SCVNGR, Google Places and Gowalla help you engage with customers and prospects who are in a specific locale.

The Yelp iPhone app lets people see reviews of nearby businesses.

Your blog may connect with people based on the topics you cover, but these location-based networks help you connect based on location. Someone using Yelp, for instance, may find out that there’s a great Italian restaurant, Web developer, or car mechanic in their city based on user-submitted reviews.

Getting customers to review your company is important, because, as social media specialist Ivan Walsh says, reviews “give us a sense of comfort as others have helped us make the right decision.”

To get the most out of Yelp, social media consultant Bridget Ayers recommends creating a Yelp business profile, and becoming active on the site by reviewing other businesses, and posting discounts and announcements, which could make it into Yelp’s weekly email news blast.

Whether it’s Yelp or another location-based app, it’s important to be consistent with your company’s profile, actively engage with others on the network, and be genuine in all your actions. This will help drive word of mouth referrals and added loyalty.

Businesses are quickly learning about the benefits of mobile marketing, which has grown rapidly over the past few years. Acquity Group’s 2011 Mobile Audit found that 12 per cent of sites in 2010 were compatible with mobile browsers, and 7 per cent had downloadable apps. In 2011, 37 per cent of sites compatible with mobile browsers, and 26 per cent had downloadable apps.

As people increasingly look toward their phones and tablets to make purchasing decisions, businesses owe it to themselves to examine how they can better connect with mobile clientele.

Need help making your business mobile friendly? Hit the road with Kobayashi Online!

Eva is impressed with the minimal and clean site Fontsmith created to celebrate its 10 years creating custom fonts. In addition to the great website, Fontsmith has published a limited edition box-set of booklets it has produced over the past decade. What better way to celebrate beautiful fonts and 10 years in type?

As further proof that Daveed appreciates HTML5 on a deeper level than the average Web surfer, he drew our attention to a Google case study of how the Stanisław Lem doodle was built. In celebration of Lem’s impressive career as a science fiction writer, philosopher and satirist, Google created an interactive animation that demonstrates some of the considerations that went into programming the doodle using HTML5, the Internet’s new Web standard.

Roberto found out this week how people look at Facebook profiles — literally — thanks to a study that tracked where peoples’ eyes went when looking at social media profiles. According to the study, profile pictures garnered the most attention on Klout, Facebook and StumbleUpon, however, on LinkedIn, unsurprisingly, job title gets more interest. People are also very interested in who you know based on the attention they pay to the thumbnails of friends seen on social profiles. And, finally, people are most likely to see content close to the top of each page, so if it’s important, don’t make them scroll down.

Daveed found out that Google is making its search results more social. When signed into Google+, Google searches now include posts and uploaded items like photos from you and your friends. So now when you search for “Awesome things you can do with a paperclip”, for instance, you’ll find out what the budding MacGyvers on Google+ have done with a paperclip. We’re partial to the paperclip helicopter.

Our innate desire to socialize has helped make the Internet a platform where people share information and their life experiences. The social nature of the Internet is something that institutions like governments, universities and businesses, cannot ignore. Having been a by-product of this network revolution, e-commerce businesses have much to gain from taking a decidedly social approach to businesses.

First off, consumers have made online shopping an opportunity to socialize — not unlike going to the mall with friends. As we’ve pointed out before, even if your e-commerce site doesn’t have a community of its own, the opinions and advice of your social network contacts are easily available through a simple Facebook post, Tweet, or email.

Online shopping, however, has only become social on a large scale in the past few years partly due to the mainstream rise of social networking sites like Facebook, according to Cloven Footwear co-founder Matthew Carroll in a wonderfully detailed Quora post.

Until about five years ago, Carrol says, an e-commerce site would usually have to rely on people emailing friends about products or services to build online word-of-mouth. Now, the barriers to creating this sort of social sharing have greatly lowered. There are now more than 850 million Facebook users able to share links and advice, and dozens of companies are coming up with solutions that make sharing easier. We’re at a point where it’s easy for people to share brands they like, and now it’s up to brands to try to drive this goodwill.

This post will provide five tips on how to make your e-commerce brand more social.

1. Go where they are

In his article “3 Crazy Ecommerce Marketing Ideas”, Armando Roggio proposes (rather sanely) that companies take their product or service to where your potential customers are. This could mean creating a presence on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, or even in the real world by scheduling a show, concert, or class, to show people your brand. Inviting people to meet you in the real world can be a great way to see your company as more than just another website.

With the rise of smartphones like the iPhone, we’ve been seeing more people check online stores while in brick-and-mortar ones. Having a website or mobile app that allows consumers to quickly compare product prices and features presents an advantage for those willing to check their phone while shopping. That’s being in the right place at the right time.

Of course, you don’t always have to wait for people to come to your website. Over the past year we’ve also seen the growth in popularity of location-based promotions, which essentially help draw in consumers to local business with the promise of deals. One of these services is Facebook Deals, which became available on Canadian smart phones in 2011. Facebook Deals lets users sign in through an app or Facebook’s website to find retailers offering deals through Facebook, and “check-in” at participating stores for a coupon or discount.

2. Your web presence can a bring lifestyle brand to life

It’s no secret that corporate brands can play a part in the identity of a person or group. Luxury brands like Lexus and Burburry draw upon images of elegance and wealth. Others like Nike and Adidas are associated with sports, and Roots and Hudson’s Bay Company with Canadiana. These brands with which people strongly associate culturally are known as “lifestyle brands”. 

In addition to selling a product or service, lifestyle marketers sell an identity or an image either based on the brand’s consumers and their aspirations. Depending on the type of lifestyle being marketed, you can share the lifestyle you want to project through your website and social networks. Share customer experiences, photos, testimonials from people who your audience respects. 

Examples of websites that integrate a lifestyle are numerous. Outdoor equipment store MEC prominently shows images of people mountain climbing and doing other outdoor activities instead of simply showing products. In contrast, the website for clothing store Urban Outfitters shows young, urban people wearing its clothes and quirky, offbeat graphics made to appeal to the store’s customers.

3. Provide a personalized experience

One of the trends identified by Sociable Labs is that some shoppers will pay a premium on goods from sites with personalized shopping services. Virtual personal shopper service Trunk Club, for instance, pairs men with a stylist who creates a wardrobe for them based on their individual size and style, which is then sent in a trunk to the customer.

Want to save time scouring the Internet for products? Shop It To Me is a personal online shopper service that helps members find the styles and brands they want for free. Additionally, it gives members a heads up on sales and special offers that may appeal to them, saving them money.

Sociable Labs notes that an upcoming trend for 2012 is that shoppers, especially affluent ones, will shop less but spend more: “Shoppers with more cash than time will be courted by, digging up only the deals and the products that the shopper will jump on.”

By providing expert advice, companies are making their consumer experience social and providing a high quality shopping experience.

4. Make use of subscriptions

A subscription is an opportunity to make an impression — not just once — but regularly. 

An obvious way to make use of subscriptions is to offer an email newsletter that provides, for instance, the latest news on the company and its activities, tips and tricks about using your products, and case studies on particular clients. A newsletter can help people remember why they were interested in your company in the first place, and remind them you’re still around and interested in their business.

Other companies actually build their business around the subscription model. An innovative use of e-commerce subscriptions includes Man Packs, which delivers bachelors a package with all the essentials — underwear, socks, and razors — every three months. 

Another example is Birds and Beans, which sells coffee beans grown with the conservation of migratory bird habitat in Latin America in mind. People have the option of buying these bird-friendly beans on a subscription where their coffee is automatically delivered every two to eight weeks.

These are just some of the ways that companies are using subscriptions to keep people interested from week-to-week and month-to-month.

5. Make Twitter part of your support channel

Twitter is as close as we have to an immediate social network. While people are likely to share their positive experiences on Twitter, there’s a good chance that they’ll also vent their frustrations on the micro-blogging platform.

According to PC World’s David Daw, Twitter is great for engaging not only happy customers but dissatisfied ones as well, and it can help “turn them into happy advocates of your brand in less time than traditional customer service often takes.” Daw basically recommends you monitor what’s being said about your company on Twitter, and be prepared to respond to any issue quickly and helpfully.

Twitter also acts as a record of how your company resolves disputes and confused customers, so potential clients will be able to see if you respond to customers well.

We think online business is becoming more social, and there are steps your can take to ensure that your e-commerce site is conducive to this new reality. Whether you’re hoping to add e-commerce to an existing business or start a new online store, we think any e-commerce initiative would be helped by making it more social. 

One final tip: always be open to advice and input from your customers, because feedback is always valuable.

And on that note: Have any other tips on making e-commerce social? Please feel free to share them in the comments!

Need help making your e-commerce business a reality? Kobayashi Online is a digital marketing agency that strives to make the Web a social, friendly and beautiful place. Let us know how we can help!

This week at Online Friendly, Roberto reminded us that search results can often boil down to writing better page titles — the world’s top search engine agrees. Eva got a glimpse at the state of social media thanks to a new infographic that shows its influence by the numbers. Duct Tape Marketing posted a great reminder on the importance of backing up data, and introduced some backup options for your social media updates, cloud services, and WordPress blog. We liked Pamela Vaughan’s breakdown of Web design and usability guidelines which include making a great first impression, consistency, and solid navigation. We followed along with HubSpot’s examination of five real-world landing pages that some show some ways to make landing pages that help drive more conversions. From leading customers to your product and sealing the deal and all places in between, 352 Media Group design director Daniel Alves broke down sales-focused e-commerce site design — which more-or-less align with our own e-commerce guidelines. We were inspired by 30 unusual, fresh and creative WordPress site designs chosen by wplift, and 23 Interesting HTML5 and CSS3 sites picked by Rocket Graphs.

By now you’ve likely heard about how the Internet is transforming business, and at least a few e-commerce success stories. Whether you’re hoping to put your existing business on the Web or start a new online store, making the plunge into e-commerce can be rewarding. But it’s best to get your business started online properly.

In this post, we’ll look at some things to consider before opening an online store.

1. Let them help themselves

One of the major differences between traditional and online retail is that there is no physical person to go to for help. A potential customer could easily leave your site without buying your product or solution if they’re not convinced it meets their need. The trick is to give them all the information they need to make a purchase.

Because there’s no one physically there to help them make a purchase, you should help site visitors help themselves with material like sizing charts, product specifications, FAQ’s — anything that will help them answer their questions.

Not only will providing them comprehensive and accurate information help convince people they have the right product for their need, but it will also reduce the likelihood that a customer will be disappointed in a product because they were expecting something different.

2. Monitor and take part in discussions on external sites and social networks

The latest Harris Poll on consumer holiday shopping found that consumers seek out multiple sources of information in their gift planning and shopping process. As much as 10 per cent of consumers seek out the collective wisdom of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and blogs. You can find out what is being said about your company through this chatter, and even use it to help customers connect with your business to become a part of the conversation.

To integrate your expand your presence online, TopRank Online Marketing recommends (among other things) becoming active on the networks where your customers are, seeking out reactions to your business and competitors, and offering promotions through social media.

Making use of at least one of the resources available — such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube — can help you connect with customers, helping educate them, resolve problems, and show your corporate culture.

3. Manage your inventory

Storage and shipping is one of the major stress points of e-commerce. If you have the space and labour, you can store and ship products from your current location. Another popular option is using a fulfilment warehouse, which is basically a company that will store your inventory off-site, receive orders, package them, and ship them to the end consumer.

A fulfilment warehouse can be an efficient way to take care of your deliveries and manage your stock, according to Hallmark Consumer Services’ James Harper. Some fulfilment services companies make running your online store even easier by receiving orders from your e-commerce application automatically, and sending them off to the buyer. Harper also notes that the extra money that you make from sales and save from managing your own warehouse and shipping can offset the fulfilment service fees.

With storage and shipping taken care of by a third party, you can offer a more plentiful and varied stock of products than what can usually be achieved at your own location. Having more items in stock means that delivery won’t be delayed because products have run out. And the ability to have more products for sale could give you the diverse product catalog needed to appeal to niche consumers, which Wired editor Chris Anderson identified as a key business model in his theory of the Long Tail.

4. Have a policy for returns and exchanges

A solid return policy builds confidence in buyers and shows your commitment to customer service, according to Shopify’s Mark Hayes. Laying out a straightforward policy also makes the hassle of handling returns and exchanges more smoothly because there are no surprises for either you or your customers.

Hayes provides some valuable pointers such as accurately describing products so that customers don’t return items out of disappointment, not hiding return shipping and handling fees, giving a specific time frame in which returns are accepted, and specifying if a customer can expect to receive an exchange, store credit, or a cash return. It’s also important to train staff members in the returns policy so that they can be as helpful as possible to customers.

5. Don’t go overboard on e-commerce!

It can be a little disheartening for traditional businesses to see – at first – only a small number of online customers compared to their brick-and-mortar store or office.

Texas Web design firm A Divine Studio says that budding e-merchants should be aware that success can be elusive and take time, and not to ignore your core business. “If you do decide to make the investment [in e-commerce], make certain you go in with your eyes wide open, not expecting to be an overnight success,” they write. “Whatever you do, don’t place at risk what got you the measure of success you’ve enjoyed in your local market.”

It’s important to make sure your business is making its best use of all the channels it has available — and while many managers are excited about the opportunities of new ones, they should not automatically take precedence over old channels like in-person sales that may, in fact, be keeping the operation afloat.

Also, while e-commerce is often thought of as opening new markets and gaining new clients, we think e-commerce can help businesses strengthen their relationship with their existing customers too. It can be wise to market to your current customers who already know and believe in your store, so they know about the option of e-commerce, which can be more convenient than getting to your store. They’ll also be able to recommend your company to their social network peers, and can keep their loyalty even if they (or you!) move. Ultimately, e-commerce can add to the amount of shopping your current customers do with you , and even slow natural attrition and brand loyalty.

We think that e-commerce can be a great way for a new company to sell a product or service, or as a new channel for an existing business. A great e-commerce site can help provide the same high-quality experience to online visitors as they would get in-person, and it can give your business greater flexibility and the ability to quickly respond to customer needs. We hope this advice builds your confidence in your e-commerce endeavors.

Need more help with your e-commerce site design and strategy? Kobayashi Online is a one-stop digital marketing agency that can help make the e-commerce world friendly.

In the first week of 2012, we wondered whether the doomsayers were wrong about their cataclysmic predictions about the year 2012 given the general lack of fire and brimstone. We were interested in what Nettuts+ counted as their year-end web development trends and their predictions — and we had some of our own. We were relieved when Web developer Kayla Knight in her mobile Web design manifesto echoed our sentiment that mobile isn’t an added feature; it’s a necessity. We found it touching that a Kleenex PR campaign finds sick people via Facebook and sends them Kleenex care packages in the mail. We agreed with Scott Stratten that marketers should be ashamed of spamming their social media contacts — and stop immediately. Our heads were turned by some very creative and memorable logos compliled by Vandalay Design. And the UnderConsideration 2012 Holiday Card helped keep us motivated for the new year.