LEADING TRENDS IN INTERNET MARKETING
WordPress has been one of the “go-to” tools for bloggers, but is that all it is good for? More and more websites are being created using WordPress themes. In fact, as of April 2013, version 3.5 had been downloaded over 18 million times. 1
“WordPress is a free and open source application and a dynamic content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL.” It has grown to over 60 million users since its creation in 2003.
Blogging: A Bad Rap
Blogging has a bad rap in our market. This is due to the misunderstanding of how it influences existing and potential clients, and the fear that people will negatively comment about your company. With the downsizing of marketing staffs, allocating the necessary time to maintain the content seems daunting. However, the benefits of increasing brand awareness for your company is simply this—utilize WordPress for either your main site or a sub domain for a news/blog site.
Easily Distribute Your Message
WordPress may be used as the application to distribute your news, project updates, community relations and articles that position your company as a “thought-leader.” Comments can be “block quoted,” meaning you can use WordPress as a dynamic website without the typical blogging features.
Here’s why WordPress has over 368 million users:
- Easy to update: WordPress is open source, works with multiple programming languages, but is user-friendly to non-programmers. This means that most of your updates can be done in-house, saving time and the cost of outsourcing the programming.
- Extremely customizable: With countless plug-ins available, you can easily add a shopping cart, forms, videos, a calendar and SEO (search engine optimization) tools to your site.
- Delivers SEO results: The most important thing about a website is being able to find it. With SEO plug-ins and the amount of content you can create with WordPress-powered sites, it is hard to beat. One “post” or news release can spread quickly and organically online via search engines.
- E-mail marketing: Integrating your WordPress content via an e-marketing campaign boosts its reach even more effectively, increases web search results and delivers your messaging virally.
Case Studies
The Studio has designed and built both news (sub domains) sites as well as complete websites with WordPress. Our customers who frequently update/upload content, benefit from the intuitive user interface and the results from SEO.
Take a look at some of our past case studies…
WordPress-Powered Website
LuminOre CopperTouch
Project Goal: Start-up biotech company website for education and investor relations.
Site Features: The design is clean, concise and cohesively reflects the corporate branding initiatives. The site features an integrated blog/news page, contact form and embedded videos.
WordPress-Powered Website
Jeff Johnson, Author of “A Long Walk Around a Small Island”
Project Goal: Author website for the promotion and sales of Jeff Johnson’s golf memoire book.
Site Features: The approach is friendly, simple, targeted at golf enthusiasts and reflects the book’s cover design. Professional photos and graphics, a contact form, shopping cart and social media sharing buttons are included.
WordPress-Powered Website
Legionary Retreat House
Project Goal: Retreat center website for retreat sales and registration.
Site Features: The site design is inviting with a spiritual feel that reflects the ambiance and nature of the Northern California retreat center. The site incorporates online event registration with Constant Contact.
WordPress News Blog
DesignWise, Studio 2055
Project Goal: To increase company transparency and create a forum for project updates, community relations, press releases and helpful tips.
Features: DesignWise is seamlessly integrated into our main website. The blog features seven index categories and social sharing buttons. All titles, articles, links and photos are posted with careful keyword and SEO consideration resulting in increased Internet exposure.
For more information on using WordPress, contact us. Article prepared for SMPS.
Sources:
1 As stated in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress
WordPress stats, from http://en.wordpress.com/stats/
