The words you’ll hear in advertising circles, again and again, are OTT and Connected TV (or CTV). So what exactly are they? These words are often used interchangeably, but that is incorrect. To keep it simple, OTT is the delivery mechanism for TV content online, usually streaming or video on demand, “over the top” of traditional providers. CTV is the actual divide used to watch TV content online, such as a smart TV, Roku, or gaming console. 

OTT subscriptions and CTV ownership are skyrocketing and are the next best opportunity for marketers. It is an opportunity to reach viewers in a highly targeted way and touch them across multiple devices. This gives them a chance to nuance the messaging across devices and along the journey and moves customers from the no-touch device of a TV to an actionable device. 

What is linear TV, and what is the difference?

Linear TV is the traditional way of watching TV, and wherein a viewer watches a program on the channel, it is presented at a scheduled time. You watch “The Voice” at its scheduled time each week. This is linear TV. 

Linear advertising refers to a schedule in which ads are scheduled for a specific time, so viewers must tune in to a particular show to see the ads. By comparison, non-linear advertising means creating demand and preference for your product by participating in the consumer’s life by following his habits. 

Another term you will hear is Advanced TV. This is all non-traditional TV and the umbrella term for OTT/ connected TV and Addressable TV.

CTV in advertising is skippable online advertising targeted to relevant programming and audience groups. CTV refers to any TV connected to the interest and access content beyond what is available by the regular cable providers. 

Why are so many viewers moving from traditional TV to CTV?

The growth in CTV viewing is exponential and continues to grow. Consumers are flocking to CTV after being tired of paying for channels they don’t watch, lack of choice in programming, and cable’s escalating costs. OTT content is served on the viewer’s schedule, which is very appealing and also offers a wide variety in programming, subscription costs, and on the whole, is more affordable. 

As more and more viewers convert to OTT, advertisers invest more and more of their budgets to these platforms. They are quite simple, following the audience. 

Connected TV Advertising Basics to get you started today

Connected TV is here to stay. So it’s time to learn your Roku from your remote. This is a whole new world letting advertisers take advantage of precise targeting and tracking. So we know CTV is television content streamed over the internet vs. by satellite cable network or device. 

CTV advertising is purchasing ads that display over these internet-powered streaming devices and apps. The precise targeting it brings along with cross-device marketing makes it very popular.

Devices that can serve CTV content include your laptop, cell phone, Smart TV, Roku boxes, and Amazon Frie sticks. Even many game consoles can deliver d CTV content and ads. 

CTV ads are sold through automated software that maintains and tracks data while sending out the ad. Think about the algorithms that Facebook uses when sending content to you. You define your audience and choose whether to work with a tech company or buy your own. The ad is produced and shown per those specs.

Metrics include numerous data points like frequency of viewing, reach, the percentage of your target audience that sees it, CPP, or cost per point, which shows the cost using the gross rating point GRP).

With the big players /like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu producing great scripted content, CTV is exploding. Add to its popularity with millennials, with 67 percent in a house relying solely on CTV for their TV entertainment. 

Ad quality and quantity on CTV are advantageous to advertisers because they’re getting better content and more relevant experiences. They also experiment with formats like animated or interactive ads. All of this leads up to an excellent completion rate for CTV ads. 

The metrics that advertisers can garner also help measure campaigns’ effectiveness beyond what was ever previously possible in TV, based on clicks, views, and conversions. And when the viewer logs into a mother device through google or Facebook, advertisers can target more precisely based on demographics, location, interests, and online behavior. 

With broader reach, all of this targeting can be more efficient than traditional TV campaigns, And the waste is significantly reduced. 

What are some limitations of advertising with OTT and CTV?

OTT advertising is not without challenges. The multitude of platforms and potential audience overlap makes it difficult for media buyers to make strategic decisions. The metrics and attribution of conversions across multiple devices can be very overwhelming. So the learning curve can be steep and costly. A good agency will have the necessary tools and understanding to launch you into CTV.

Why you must bring CTV advertising into your marketing mix now

In 2020, the nationwide lockdown during COVID-19 created a massive surge in OTT and CTV viewing. CTV viewing has risen from 2.7B hours during pre-pandemic to 3.9B hours within just a few weeks. That is an increase of 81% year over year. Liner TV has dropped while CTV remains stable. 

What is the future of video advertising?

You don’t need a crystal ball to understand that for now, OTT and CTV are the way of the future. The technology and tracking area still being played out, but it will continue to grow and morph and become more complex and targeted. Video advertising has come a long way since the three choices of ABC, NBS, and CBS of years ago. 

All signs point to the growth continuing, and any savvy marketer will want to jump in with both feet now. The time is now for brands to jump in to take advantage of the many new targeting options and engage with their new targeting options and expand that audience. 

Branded content is the next phase in video marketing

Content strategy and management platform, Semrush defines Branded Content as “…content that speaks the values and the vision of your company…”, that “generates a conversation and an emotional response.” “Branded content is an experience… that relies on storytelling tools and techniques.” Branded content is beyond the sale. It seeks a deeper connection with the customer.

Video content is a proven foundational tool of any brand’s digital marketing strategy. It has developed into a standard with its complexities, advantages, and challenges – all worth mastering as the data supports video’s dominance as digital marketing over other types of content. High-quality video content optimized for online and social media platforms increases brand awareness and conversion rates, reduces bounces, boosts search engine optimization on Google (mainly if you use Google-owned video platforms such as YouTube), drives organic traffic to your website, is mobile-friendly (no more skewed margins!), and has a demonstrable positive effect on customer retention (that means repeat sales).

Now it’s incumbent on marketing teams to take their video content marketing strategy to the next level. Brand awareness and the package of advantages noted above, which already have a proven, groundbreaking ROI, are now the stepping stone to leveraging video’s unique storytelling powers to engage customers on an emotional level that make them connect with your brand’s values.

5 Ways Branded Video Content Can Grow Your Business

1. The Return On Investment (ROI) is spectacular.
2. Video is a storyteller’s medium.
3. DIY approach is cost-effective and scalable.
4. There is a video content category for every business.
5. Creates and nurtures community.

1. The ROI is spectacular

As is, video is a proven winner. The numbers do not lie. Here are just a few.

200%-300% – increase in click-through rates with video in marketing emails. (Forbes)
98% – people who like watching new product or service videos more than other methods of communication. (Wyzowl)
97% – people who say explainer videos lead to a better understanding of a business, product, or process. (Dubb)
95% – people who retain the message of a video more than other methods of communication. (Wordstream)
90% – people who prefer video streaming on their mobile devices. (Wyzowl)
90% – target audience who buy products that include promotional videos. (Dubb)
84% – people who buy a product or service after seeing a  brand’s video (Wyzowl)
80% – increase in conversion rates with a marketing campaign or website homepage that includes video. (Dubb)
64% – business owners who believe explainer videos help increase sales. (The Draw Shop)
52% – increased brand awareness with video content. (Thomson Reuters)

It’s not a contest. Video content rules the digital marketing toolbox. Branded content appeals to potential customers in a different, more personal way, and video is the most effective type of content to inject a brand’s values into a customer’s experience.

2. Video is a storyteller’s medium

Branded content is a story that creates an emotional response, and there is no better medium to achieve that end than video. Whether it’s a 15-30 second video on TikTok, influencer video marketing on Instagram Live, or a long-form video on YouTube, the brands (and influencers) that tell the best, most authentic story that aligns with its vision and values will rise to the top. For example, consider the simple online search for a recipe. The journey most likely ends with the searcher following an instructional video to whip up his or her next culinary masterpiece. Yet, these types of videos barely harness the true storytelling power of the medium in the way branded video marketing strategy can achieve.

3. A DIY approach is cost-effective and scalable

Professional video production is low cost and is forever. A brand’s values told through a compelling video will resonate with a wider audience long after its debut. An effective way for a company to spread its values and create growth is to put its own social media channels and other platforms through strategic paid campaigns. A short, inexpensive but meaningful video pushed through as many online and mobile channels as necessary will yield instant, measurable results. A YouTube channel, Video On Demand, a Video Ad, an animated video, influencer marketing, are all a type of video that can drive a wide range of customer interactions and engagement.

4. There is a video content category for every business

From the traditional commercial “spot” to the highly effective “explainer” videos, there are types of videos that fit every business. A retail business may use video for customer testimonials or a start-up company for a product demonstration. An iconic venue can connect with its community with a behind-the-scenes video, or a Fortune 500 company can stand out with a company culture video. Branded content takes this already personalized strategy one step further. A How-To Video is an opportunity to build a customer base and reach a larger audience. Regardless of the type, types, videos, and used, branded content can transform the ordinary into a memorable, relationship-building experience.

5. Creates and nurtures community

The difference between a sale and an experience is a sense of community. For the most part, people patronize local, regular businesses – from restaurants to dry cleaners. These places are in the customer’s immediate area and build loyalty through repeat business characterized by familiarity, authenticity, and a feeling of being connected to the fates of the people who work there. Brands that create branded online video content using traditional storytelling techniques can recreate the close and special relationship people have with the businesses in their communities.

Grow Your Business with Branded Video Content

Video’s visceral connection with customers generates buzz and engagement that can help any business grow its brand in an organic way that achieves long-lasting loyalty based on its culture, values, and mission. Video with branded content can drive a customer’s long-term relationship with a brand and drive future growth.

Programmatic Display Advertising, or Programmatic Advertising, is not some new digital marketing trend or advertising technology, but a slow-rolling earthquake that’s shaken everything up.

The future of digital marketing has been Programmatic for so long it’s hard to determine when the future became the present, but what can be said with certainty is that a Programmatic Advertising Strategy is the most dominant force in digital marketing. Statista projects that 2021’s programmatic ad buys may hit $127 billion, which is $35 billion more than predictions made just several years ago, driven by the ever-increasing use of social media platforms, mobile platforms, and multimedia content such as video. Other recent reports from industry trackers state that revenue from programmatic ad buys now 80% of all digital display advertising revenues. 

What is Digital Programmatic Display Advertising?

Programmatic Display Advertising is everything a digital marketer needs to grow its brand and reach its audience – targeted, multi-channeled, and automated. Programmatic Display Advertising uses technology to purchase and manage digital ad spaces like over the top (OTT), social networks, mobile, digital video, and display and gives the brand an advanced level of control and increased levels of security. As digital ad spaces multiply, governing large digital marketing campaigns becomes more complex and laborious. Leveraging technology to automate complex functions, programmatic campaigns give marketers the tools to gain visibility and actionable insight into their target audience and the freedom to unleash their digital strategies.

 How does Digital Programmatic Display Advertising work?

While Programmatic Display Advertising may seem complex, the process is simple and straightforward. 

1.  You buy ad space through an ad exchange (e.g., Google Ad Exchange, AdSense, or Microsoft Advertising).

2. Using real-time bidding software (RTB), you bid for digital ad spaces against other marketers. Just like any other auction, the highest bidder wins. If you want to automate bidding over multiple channels, demand-side provider software (DSP) can be employed. 

3. Each time the ad is displayed, you pay.

These are the top five reasons advertising agencies are making programmatic ad buying a significant part of their media mix.

#1: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is the driving force behind Programmatic Advertising’s remarkable features and what makes it such a digital marketing success story. Companies can more cost-effectively leverage their consumer data and connect with an audience that is ready to buy their product. Multi-channel, real-time reporting, granular targeting options, and budget and spend optimization are all built into an AI system that is constantly improving itself to meet the business objectives the company sets. Better reporting, ad fraud protection, and brand safety are just several areas in programmatic advertising’s AI-centered capabilities that have resulted in major systemic improvements over traditional media buys.  For example, programmatic advertising software can block fraudulent bots, prevent your ad from running next to undesirable content that may be hurtful to your brand, and return real-time reporting data on campaign effectiveness that can be optimized to increase your reach, connect with more customers, and grow your business.

#2: Targeting

By far, the most significant characteristic of Programmatic Display Advertising is its ability to break down the barriers that traditionally separate a marketing team from its target audience. Instead of casting a wide net and pulling up plastic bottles, tires, and coat hangers with your prize lobsters, you’re sending out millions of fishing lines at once, each with its own unique “smart lure” custom made to hone in on one individual customer. Targeting methods allow marketers to reach the exact audiences they want to reach at a fraction of the price and at a scale previously unimaginable. Layers can be location, demographics, metadata, interests, education, or gender, or any other relevant identifier. With this increased insight and smart strategic planning, targeted ads can be more relevant, contextual, and organic. Ads that are disruptive to the user’s regular behavior (e.g., auto-play ads) or infringe on user privacy leave a negative impression, impair the user experience and may dilute attempts to build a strong brand. With increased, more personalized targeting, there is less wasteful advertising and more control over to whom your ad is displayed.  Brands executing their digital marketing strategy with programmatic campaigns have more demonstrable success reaching who they want, how they want when they want. 

#3: Multichannel Automation

Automating your digital advertising campaigns across multiple digital channels benefits the management of online marketing in so many obvious ways. It reduces human error, eliminates manual time-consuming processes, and boosts online visibility. Programmatic Buying far surpasses the reach of traditional online advertising channels such as AdWords and Bing as they only display your ads on their network of sites. For example, when you run a programmatic advertising campaign on AdWords, your ads will only be seen on websites that are part of the Google Display Network. Programmatic Buying pushes your high-quality content across Google, Facebook Advertising, social media channels, Smart TV, and any other programmatic advertising platforms that align with your digital marketing efforts. Another power of the programmatic ad campaign is the sheer scope of its scalability to increase your online presence. The power of programmatic allows you to reach, or even retarget, a vast number of internet users wherever they may go. 

#4: Real-Time Flexibility

One of the most powerful tools of Programmatic Display Advertising is its real-time functionality – whether it’s real-time bidding on advertising space during a real-time auction, reporting that gives valuable insights into user interests, projections, spending trends, measuring a campaign’s performance, or making adjustments as ads run, the real-time abilities of programmatic platforms give marketers a competitive edge. They can proactively build and improve their online presence and marketing efforts instead of waiting until the end to see what worked. Gone are after-action reports. Now real-time optimization is the standard. This added freedom comes with an extra degree of complexity, but managing a suite of mission objectives in real-time empowers brands to be nimble and adaptive to a rapidly changing marketplace.

#5. ROI

For the above reasons and more, Programmatic Display Advertising maximizes conversion rates and ROI. An automated, multi-channel, AI-driven ad run with real-time flexibility eliminates a bloated layer of intermediaries and human negotiations (up to 60% of a digital marketing budget), thereby reducing unnecessary overhead, allowing marketing dollars to be spent in a more intelligent and effective manner. This means an impressive return on investment. Programmatic marketing is so cost-efficient in comparison to traditional marketing; even a modest budget can produce exemplary results. There is little wonder why Digital Agencies are committing more and more of their overall digital marketing budget to Programmatic Advertising Campaigns. With its endless feedback loop of real-time rich customer data and optimization recommendations, ad runs can be tested, measured, and refined while producing greater returns. With cost transparency, ad campaigns can be designed to target impressions to the most actionable people, and savings can be reinvested into the marketing plan.

Video is a popular and effective digital marketing tool to connect a brand with its target audience

Once the sole domain of the trained professional, video went global when the first home video camera was introduced. Overnight, millions of people became amateur filmmakers.

You can indeed create your own video content, and you can do it right from your phone. Social media platforms make it easy to make and post videos of all types and lengths. The popularity of video as a storytelling medium is at an all-time high. Consider video editing and streaming platform Tik Tok. It’s gaining thousands of subscribers per month.

Study after study supports the effectiveness of video as a digital marketing tool. However, just as unique and engaging video content can elevate a brand’s profile and communicate its message and values in a positive, memorable way that no other medium can accomplish, a poorly made video can drag the whole thing down in 30 seconds.

Ten Reasons To Hire A Video Production Agency

1. Taking a brand’s message from marketing campaign concept to shootable script and producing a high-quality professional video that resonates on an emotional level with potential customers is difficult for an experienced team who does it every day. You can’t do it. It is that simple.
2. Only a video production house has the creative and technical expertise required to produce a professional quality video and shepherd it through Pre – Production, Production, and Post – Production. Talented artists and technicians with specialized skills that ensure the final product meets a high creative standard staff each phase. A weak link during any stage, or role, can sink a video project.
3. Production value is the filmmaking term for doing as much as you can with as little as you have. A marketing campaign with a limited budget range can still produce a technically flawless video with dynamic, meaningful content that exceeds expectations. Video production professionals who possess the unique skill sets and experience to create “movie magic” will ensure a successful final product regardless of the resources.
4. The quality of your finished product impacts the overall impression people will have of your brand or business. While there are bound to be exceptions if you do it yourself, the results will most likely be noticeably and egregiously wrong. Do not sacrifice expertise, skill, and quality to save a few dollars. Hire a professional video company instead.
5. Your excellent concept and ideas may be just that – concepts and ideas. To take a concept from its inception and make it into a filmed property is so tricky the people who do it the best are paid millions of dollars. A professional video production company will collaborate with your marketing team to take the incredible ideas everyone is excited to share and bring that vision to life.
6. If it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage. This saying is a Hollywood truism. Chances are nobody on your team has experience writing a video script or knows how to take the final script and convert it into a shooting script. How about storyboards? Cold reads? Revisions? Script continuity? This is just the script. Video production companies employ writers with the creative vision to take a brand’s message and make it into a tangible blueprint that will be the foundation of the project’s success.
7. The professional-grade equipment required to go from “page to stage” is different and better than the smartphone. A video shoot requires a wide array of cameras, lighting, audio-visual equipment, and editing equipment, all of which are useless in the hands of amateurs. Only trained people with high levels of technical and creative proficiency can unlock the possibilities of the technology.
8. A video production team does more than provide the creative and technical expertise to guide your project through the video production process. The group brings industry knowledge and networks with them. They know the best sound stages, permit operations, and where to get that camera crane you’re dying to use for half the price – to name a few out of hundreds of essential details that are an integral part of high-quality video production. They bring several marathons worth of legwork that you and your busy team will not have to do.
9. Creative differences: It’s not a term you hear or worry about until you have a room full of storytellers-by-assignment who have no professional training. Immovable positions will form. Conflicts will arise. Personal preferences will drive decisions instead of professional insight. In the end, the work will suffer, and the brand’s message will be underserved. “Gigli” happened, and your big corporate video can be just as big as a disaster if every shot has the shadow of Ken-from-Finance’s head in it.
10. Professional secret: Making a film, any film, is excruciating in its monotony. If it’s not, the finished video will most likely be wrong. Professional pilots spend most of their time going through checklists, not actually “flying” the clear blue skies. Professional filmmaking is a series of lists that one prominent director once described as “getting your arm caught in a threshing machine.” You don’t want to do it.

Grow Your Business With Video Marketing

A business that doesn’t have a video marketing strategy misses the most significant opportunity to develop a relationship with its potential customers. Video’s effectiveness in communicating a brand’s message and values is unrivaled by any other medium and impacts other critical metrics such as conversion rates and customer retention. Leveraging video’s storytelling prowess is best achieved by partnering with professional video production companies.

Whether creating a 15-second Tik-Tok video or a web series, video quality, production value, entertainment value, technical proficiency, and appealing memorable content are the domains of multi-disciplinary skilled artisans. To ensure the success of all the hard work that goes into creating an iconic brand, the best way for a video project to succeed is to hire a video production company with the specialized talent necessary to create high-quality marketing video content.

We Live. We Speak. We Create.

We Live. We Speak. We Create.

Marketing for real estate is serious business: first impressions matter, and whether you want to go for opulence or excitement, you have milliseconds to make an impact.

Whether you work in traditional real estate in Miami Beach or are marketing an apartment complex or hotel, you know that seeing is believing. Much of the appeal of your Miami Beach real estate comes from viewers seeing the photographs and envisioning themselves there. They begin to believe in the luxury, relaxation, or fun of the Miami area the moment they see your photographs. However, as smartphone cameras get better and better, it has gotten harder to distinguish your business marketing from the photography assets available to all the other businesses in your area. Beating the competition at this point requires taking a new approach, and we believe that drone footage is the way to go.

Why Drone Footage Should Be Your Next Marketing Upgrade

Drone footage may be new to you as a marketer, so here are some of the reasons we see drone footage as the next big thing in real estate marketing of all kinds. It’s a key component of really sharing everything your real estate properties have to offer.

A New Perspective Draws the Eye

Even very high-resolution, crisp straight-on shots of a particular real estate property are not going to be as eye-catching on a listings website as the only photos that have an aerial angle, showing they were definitely taken by a drone. Most real estate marketers are looking for an ‘it factor’, something that distinguishes them.

As drone footage becomes more common, you don’t want to be the only one that doesn’t have this perspective on the world. Instead, be the front-runner in your market for having excellent, crisp drone-based photography.

Drones Generate a Premium and Interest

With the buzz that drones have currently among the average population, just having this footage may draw in interested buyers or other potential customers. People have seen drone racing and other drone-based news stories and want to know what the fuss is about.

They’ll want to know what it was like getting this footage and will want to know more about the process. As a marketer, you know that any point of interest that starts a conversation or gets people sharing a video or photo is great exposure for you.

Be the first in your market, for instance, with a high-quality drone footage video that makes your real estate offerings look amazing, and you’ll be surprised how much more people share and like that video on social media than they’d share a traditional real estate listing.

Drones Offer Unprecedented Videography Potential

Speaking of video, the video possibilities are so much stronger with drones.

Standard Earth-bound videography can only capture so many angles of your real estate property, while flying a compact drone both above, around, and even inside the property at eye-level can really make your viewer feel like they are actually present.

If your goal is to help your viewers go from big-picture interest to granular details, drone footage is the way to go. The angles that were previously only possible with helicopters and major-motion-picture budgets are now available to a variety of brands who want their real estate marketing to really pop.

Four Tips for Maximizing the Potential of Your Drone Footage

So you’ve opted to upgrade your marketing with drone footage? Here are some tips to get you started on the right path with your professional drone camera and video team.

1. Shoot Video and Still Shots

If you’re choosing to fly drones, absolutely make sure that video and still shots are both included. The angles you’ll get should be able to be used in still-photo listings and advertisements, but you’ll also want the clickable intrigue of a video to draw more people in over time.

2. Use a Combination of Close-Up and Distance for More Comprehensive Appeal

While drone images from afar can take in the expansive nature of your property, you want to use drones close-up too.

Drones offer excellent angles that human photographers would have to twist themselves into knots to get.

Whether you’re looking at a Miami Beach real estate property’s beachfront access or the large balconies on an apartment complex, make sure you get up close and personal and use photos that convince people that they know exactly what they’re buying into.

3. Create Valuable Context Through Neighborhood/Location Shots

One factor that many real estate marketers don’t factor in enough is the location of your property. Use high-level drone images to showcase how close your property is to important nearby areas, including popular roads and interesting nearby attractions.

Anything that puts your property in a great light should be included in your shots that establish location.

Seeing is believing, so many viewers will internalize your great location more with photos and video fly-overs than they’d get from reading a quick blurb about how well located your property is.

4. Don’t Miss a Thing, Not Even Tiny Details

Make sure that your shot list for the drone footage is comprehensive.

Cover everything, since even if you can’t use every single angle you shoot, you might discover a hidden gem that looks totally different and way better than the competition’s best photo assets.

5. Work With a Reputable Idea Agency to Craft Your Drone Footage Vision

Make sure that you take the time and invest the energy in finding a company to craft a vision for your photos and video, especially as your real estate marketing first ventures into drone footage. After all, you want to be able to stitch together these valuable assets into something cinema-worthy, not just a few slightly-better versions of your old style. Let a great idea agency use drone footage to level up your branding overall.

Especially when you want to cultivate a brand voice and persona throughout a variety of distinct properties, having someone craft your marketing into a narrative-driven advertising campaign is key.

Conclusion

Still not convinced? Drone footage, as we’ve said, is one of those things that, once you see what it does, will completely convince you.

Let us show you what drone footage can do for your marketing; contact us today.

Your website is the single most important asset in your marketing toolbox.

It serves as the face of your company. Thus, finding the right web design company is a must. When representatives of your target market look at your website they should quickly:

• Identify your brand
• Know the exact product/service you provide
• Identify the specific webpage they’re seeking
• See a call to action

Top-performing websites share the same traits which include:

• The ability to load quickly
• The ability to work on a variety of mobile devices
• Clear menus that provide easy navigation
• An aesthetically pleasing design
• Outstanding error handling
• Beautifully formatted and informative content
• Browser consistency

Considering how important your website is to your business, you can’t afford to cut corners when it comes to hiring a web design company. To ensure you get a good deal, there are several things to look for when weighing the pros and cons of each web design company you consult.

Does the Web Design Company use a Mood Board?

Mood boards are an important aspect of designing a website that a surprising number of web design companies haven’t yet incorporated into their design process. An effective web design mood board bears an uncanny resemblance to the Wall of Suspects that are often featured on police procedural shows. The difference is that instead of a bunch of photos of bad guys, the web design mood board is a collection of images and visual assets the design team feels represents your business and could potentially be incorporated into your website. The mood board serves as an early representation of the overall mood and direction the finished website takes.

A good web design team will encourage your feedback during the mood board portion of the design process. They will want to make sure that you and they agree that the images used on the board accurately reflect your brand. The more input you provide about the mood board, the happier you’ll be with the final website.

Does the Moodboard Evolve Into a Sitemap?

Once the moodboard is starting to come together, the design process should start to evolve into the creation of a sitemap. At this point, an experienced web design team takes the various aspects of the mood board uses them to start structuring your website. This part of the process goes much smoother if you already have a solid idea of the different types of pages/elements you want to be incorporated into your website.

It’s important to make sure that you’re working with a design team that knows how to create a sitemap that allows each element of your website to flow seamlessly into the next. A well-executed sitemap results in a final website that subtly directs it’s visitors to each page until they make a purchase.

Taking the Mood Board and Sitemap and Using the Information to Create a Wireframe

One of the biggest mistakes newer, inexperienced web design companies are making is trying to skip the wireframe process. These novice designers feel that creating a wireframe simply slows the design process and since they’re eager to work with as many customers as they can, they skip this vital step.

We don’t. We understand the value of a solid wireframe.

The purpose of a wireframe in website design is to define your website’s design hierarchy. The wireframe is vital for ensuring that the final web design provides a high-quality user experience.

This aids in defining the information hierarchy of your site’s design to ensure the layout is planned around the desired user experience. Benefits of a good wireframe include:

• Testing page functionality
• Confirming that the page structure works
• Identifying what content works and where it should go

The wireframe serves as a kind of outline or blueprint for the final website.

Tying It All Together With a Design Mock-Up

The next stage of a highly-effective web design process is creating mock-up PDF displays. This is another step novice web design teams try to skip because they don’t understand that the static creations provide both the design team and yourself to determine if the visual aspects of the design truly work. The elements you want to look at when presented with the mock-up of your website include:

• Is the logo presented nicely or is it overwhelming
• Does the color scheme work
• Is the content laid out in a way that it draws your eye to the important details
• Are navigational links easily spotted
• Is the font easy to use
• Does design accurately represent your brand

If the answer to any of these questions is no, the design team tweaks the project until everyone is happy.

Moving Onto the Live Preview

For many business owners, the next stage, developing the live preview of your website is when things start to get exciting. This is the stage when it finally starts to feel like you’re about to establish your online presence.

The live preview stages is when you and the design team create an active version of the website. It’s still not accessible to your customers, but you and the team are able to see how it interacts with web browsers, confirm that the various aspects are fully functional, testing the SEO optimization and meta tags, and that it includes all the necessary features and content you require. This is your last opportunity to tweak things. This is the best time to let your inner perfectionist run loose. If you’re not 100% happy with the live preview, let the design team know sot that they can tweak the design until you’re as excited about the website as they are.

2 Optional Revisions and the Launch!

Now, the only thing that is left is making some final tweaks to the responsive elements and maybe a few placement changes. Once that’s done and everyone is happy with the results your website is ready to launch. This is a big day. Throw a huge website launch party and invite all of your customers to take part.

Need a Website? Contact C&I Agency About Our Website Design and Development Services!

C & I is an agency that has a long and respectful history of creating high-performing websites. This list of clients who have been delighted with our web development and creative marketing services includes:

• Monster Energy
• CocaCola
• Montice Swim
•  American Apparel
• Nike
• And more

Learn More About Finding the Right Web Design Company

There is nothing we enjoy more than taking our experience and combining it with your ideas until we’ve created a beautiful and fully functional website that perfectly showcases your business while also attracting members of your target market. The sooner you contact us about our web design services, the sooner we can help you build your internet presence.

We’re doing our part to put South Florida rap and hip hop scene on the international radar. What have you done lately?

Let’s give it up to Nylle Thebes for this dope freestlye on this week’s episode of Freestyle Friday! Be sure to follow Nylle Thebes on Instagram to help get his name out there!

If you possess lyrical skills to compete with the best then hit us up to be featured on the next Freestyle Friday. If you aren’t a lyrical wordsmith but do appreciate artist profiles and spotlights on local talent, then subscribe to our Youtube Channel. We add fresh, original content weekly and just relaunched the ongoing Dailies series with brand new episodes, which now invite you to experience life at C&I Studios.

Putting the South Florida Rap and Hip Hop scene on the map!

We have studio locations all over the world, from Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., London and Fort Lauderdale. Our main headquarters is our Fort Lauderdale office so we have a deep bond with artists in the area. Whenever we aren’t working on projects for our clients, we are doing whatever we can to help other artists build up an audience. Freestyle Friday is one of these intitiatives.

So far, we have worked with some of the best South Florida rappers, like Sam Stan. In fact, Sam Stan was recently a guest on #UNCREATIVERadio talking about the release of his new album, Happy Campers. You should definitely check it out!

Freestyle Friday features the best of South Florida rap music!

Give Marnino Toussaint a hand for turning up on this week’s episode of Freestyle Friday and be sure to follow him on Instagram.

If you possess lyrical skills of your own, hit us up to be featured on the next Freestyle Friday. If you are not a lyrical wordsmith but do appreciate artist profiles and spotlights illuminating local talent, then subscribe to our Youtube Channel. We add fresh, original content weekly and just relaunched the ongoing Dailies series with brand new episodes, which now invite you to experience life at C&I Studios.

Putting the South Florida rap scene on the map!

We are passionate about helping other artists wherever we can. Since our headquarters is in Fort Lauderdale, we focus a lot of our attention on South Florida artists–musicians, models, poets, and creative entrepreneurs (to name a few). Freestyle Friday is our way of giving South Florida rappers a stage to share their talents and establish South Florida rap music as an elite micro-genre.

We feel it’s important to give artists a place to grow their audience; to market themselves beyond the scope of their network. In fact, that is literally what #UNCREATIVE is all about! If you’ve never checked out our blog, you’re missing out. There is a ton of awesome content to inspire your craft.

You should definitely follow our Youtube Channel, too, if you want to see more original content. Oh, and if you are an artist looking to be featured in an upcoming series, don’t hesitate to reach out!

You can imagine our surprise then when we came across the sauce that literally no one (not even our mothers) have ever even heard of. A rare unicorn of sauces — The Original Banana Pepper Sauce by Hyattsville Sauce Company.

When we discovered this hidden gem our tastebuds sang with the angels. This is not an over-exaggeration. We loved The Original Banana Pepper Sauce so much that we created a spec ad campaign for the brand. And the heavenly creators of our new favorite sauce don’t even know we’re doing it.

That’s where you come in. We want to get this in front of Hyattsville Sauce Company. Their sauce is so tasty — so perfectly spicy — that we felt they deserved a little free exposure for giving our tastebuds a much-needed break from mundane snackage.

Call it love at first dish but, yes, we officially — deeply — care about The Original Banana Pepper Sauce. We were so completely shocked that this had been missing in our life for so long that we created an ad campaign promptly titled “The Only Thing Missing…”

The power of this spec ad campaign is the negative space. It draws the consumer’s eye. They immediately think, “something is missing.” And they are 100% right! The Original Banana Pepper Sauce is missing. So what are you going to do about it? Go buy the friggin’ sauce!

What’s at stake? Well, boring food, that’s what.

You must be thinking, “Wait, no, not all food. That can’t be…”

Smarten up! Yes, all food! Your hotdogs are boring; your chicken is flavorless; your burger is generic; your salad is too green; your chicken wings too mild; your rice bowls too dry; your sandwich… don’t even get us started on your sandwich.

You’ve been leading a dull diet. The Original Banana Pepper Sauce has been missing for too long!

If you’re having a cookout tomorrow for the 4th of July and you’re missing this glorious condiment then forget it. Just cancel the party. Otherwise, open your world up to the sauce you never knew you needed and overnight this bottle of goodness from Amazon pronto!

On behalf of Hyattsville Sauce Company, you’re welcome.