Looking for a DC WordPress development company? You have found the right WordPress development company! We are located in Georgetown Washington, DC. The WordPress developers at Bluetext are fun, energetic, and dedicated to the cause. There is a level of professionalism that comes with hiring us that you won’t get with any other Washington DC web development company.  We love discovering new tools to help create the best sites for our clients. WordPress is currently one of the most popular CMS’s to have a site built on, and we understand why. In fact, we think so highly of WordPress that we have built our own website on it! It is a great resource for companies of all sizes. If you work with us keep in mind, throughout the development process we will offer WordPress training so you will be able to make any and all edits and you decide are necessary.

Our DC WordPress developers will work with you to build a new web presence that you can be proud of. We choose to work with WordPress because it allows our developers to have complete control over the layout of the site yet it is still easy for site administrators to make any and all edits to the page. Our Washington DC WordPress development company has built a reputation of excellence. Get in touch with us today to learn how we can help you improve your web presence. Throughout the entire process, we will work closely with you to build a top of the line, modern looking site that engages your audience and decreases bounce rates.

BENEFITS OF A SITE BUILT ON WORDPRESS

  • We can help you improve your online presence with a custom built WordPress site through:
  • Custom WordPress Plugins
  • WordPress Training
  • Extensive knowledge of WordPress themes
  • Custom website development
  • WordPress hosting advice
  • Experienced WordPress team
  • Top of the line features
  • A passion for development

Discussions around the current state of public relations – relative to where the industry was five years ago – inevitably boil down to the slow but steady demise of print newspapers and magazines, or that an organization absolutely must use social media, infographics, Slideshare, and so on.

I think that all kind of misses the point. Sure, maybe there aren’t as many CMOs busting into the Executive Suite brandishing a copy of The New York Times with a feature on their company with the assumption it will vault sales, or the brand, into the stratosphere.

It’s more about, ok, so I have a piece of content here that could be valuable for my company – in this case it’s a news article but it just as well could be a case study, or research paper, product launch announcement or marketing campaign – and now I have to figure out how to fully leverage it. Could the content be multi-purposed into a lead gen white paper campaign or speaker series? Can I use the content to capture new leads through a dedicated e-mail or search marketing campaign? And if I do these things, is my website optimized in a way to fully capture these leads? Finally, do I have a way to get these leads to my sales team to translate the content into new business?

Moving beyond the content, there is also a breakdown of what had been considered traditional channels to distribute content and communicate with consumers, partners, and customers. The channel is really anywhere that these target audiences reside. It might be the website for an industry publication, a webinar audience or physical Conference, but it could just as easily be Kickstarter, YouTube or Pinterest.

That, to me, is a big part of where public relations currently resides. The need for an integrated perspective that governs individual initiatives for PR, branding, digital, creative, social, advertising is key to ensuring that public relations efforts do not simply wander from one announcement to the next. This isn’t to say that today’s PR firm has to offer every single service, or that there isn’t a critical role for PR specialists to play. But it does mean that these moving parts must communicate and align with one another, and my opinion is that PR firms moving the needle today are the ones who understand how to make the pieces work together for the benefit of the client.

Well, you’ve survived the Mayan Apocalypse, finished your last-minute holiday shopping (why shop if the world is ending?), and slept off the New Year’s Eve revelry.  Today it’s back to work! What’s the first thing on your to-do list? Get smart on your digital marketing strategy!

Bluetext’s resident creative director and co-founding partner, Jason Siegel, has unveiled his 11 top digital marketing trends to watch in 2013.  Take a look for a glimpse into the factors that will impact:

  • Opportunities for cross-channel promotion
  • Why your infographics aren’t getting the attention you think they deserve
  • Maximizing paid online media
  • Snackable content
  • The evolution of live IP content
  • How to best leverage geofencing
  • And more!

 

We’re extremely excited for a big 2013 here at Bluetext!  If you’d like to ask us any questions about these trends or how we can help with your digital marketing and strategic communications programs in the new year, please feel free to comment, contact us, or hit us up on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Infographics have become a staple for companies, government agencies, and news organizations. They can provide visual content that is easily digestible for all audiences, both technical and non-technical alike—which is one reason they are so appealing to marketing and public relations folks.  Yet, developing a compelling infographic can be challenging. Many organizations may not have the type of hard, comparative data that makes for a successful infographic. Often, those data sets don’t have any relevance to each other, and don’t tell a story. Nor do they use graphics in an interesting way—they can sometimes look more like a high school student’s report after he first learns how to use the graphs and arrows in Powerpoint.
That’s why we are pushing our clients towards what we call StoryGraphics to tell a story or communicate a brand message. While infographics place the emphasis on charts and graphics, StoryGraphics are about using clever or compelling graphics to deliver messages quickly and directly. They often portray a cityscape or landscape All comedy aside many young people will find they get free or cost health affordablehealth.info through the Affordable Care Act by signing up for affordablehealth.info via healthcare. to demonstrate the depth and breadth of a client’s set of market solutions, or have symbolic items—including trees, or buildings—and may have drawings of people helping to tell the story. They are quickly digestible and can be visually striking.
Perhaps the best advantage of a StoryGraphic is its ability to go beyond data to convey a more technical or complex message in an audience-friendly, visual format. This means that the functionality of your infographic is not limited to the communications and marketing teams. Leveraging a StoryGraphic’s visual impact can deliver trends, messages, and product data more efficiently and effectively.
When there is a clear comparison between datasets, a traditional infographic can easily depict the knowledge or information central to a given trend.  However, StoryGraphics can compensate for what some infographics lack, using illustrations and metaphors to communicate non-comparative data in a natural, linear format.  By leveraging a little context around a data set, a message-based approach to infographic creation can better translate a central message in ways disconnected statistics cannot.
To offer an example, take a look at some of the StoryGraphics we’ve created for our clients, Google Earth, XO, and Riverbed. Each one brings together cohesive, messaged content and slick visuals with various data points that support the impactful trends that impact unique market challenges.

I recently gave a presentation to 50 CMOs of large enterprises about the changing landscape in digital marketing. A section on advanced search engine optimization drove especially strong engagement and curiosity from the smart crowd. Some key take-aways include:

1.  ATTACK OF THE PENGUIN

Google’s algorithm has changed. If you are gaming anchor text and looking to replicate the same content and links on many niche sites, your site will be penalized. Inbound links are now measured by BOTH the relevancy of content on the page you are linked from, AND the relevancy of the site content and the niche site it focuses on.

2. THE HIDDEN GEMS

SPEED: Google loves speed more and more. How fast does your homepage and rest of your site load? Is your code as light and smart as it can be for your homepage? Will a few extra dollars with a CDN hosting strategy drive your SEO and quality traffic by exponential amounts?
SOCIAL SIGNALS: Sharing, liking, pining, tweets, etc. All these social signals are weighed positively by Google. Be smart about this in your template integration and information architecture.

3. MY NEIGHBOR IS WHO?!?!?!

Investigate if you have any questionable sites (i.e. gambling, porn SPAMengines, etc.) sharing infrastructure with you if you host in the cloud. This could hurt your SEO. A few smart questions to your host provider can go a long way.

4. BEING OLD IS GOOD FOR ROOKIES

Corporations looking to rebrand or look to brand new assets, products, or services should look to buying an aged domain. Age of domain has weight in SEO.

5. THE KING: Content. Content. Content.

Google’s optimizing to serve up fast, relevant and high quality content. More energy needs to go into editorial strategy or looking for angles, cutting corners and gaming. Make sure you look at keyword behavior, web analytics, email analytics and search behavior, and question all trends, to help inform all publishing decisions.

Many of our clients have been calling asking for recommendations on year-end projects to use on expiring budget. If you are in a similar situation and want to maximize your marketing investment, or looking to jumpstart 2013 planning, we thought it would make sense to send out some recommendations. All of these campaigns or concepts could be launched quickly and could help augment 2013 marketing efforts you already have planned this year.

  • Build an infographic to effectively position your products or services for 2013
  • Audit your website. Is it optimized for lead generation, search, and content marketing?
  • Optimize your demand generation solution. Are you maximizing your Eloqua or Marketo platform?
  • Optimize your mobile site, as stats are showing that nearly 50% of all web traffic is coming from mobile devices
  • Launch a YouTube re-targeting advertising campaign promoting your videos
  • Conduct a website analytics review with recommendations and next steps

Those are just some of the ideas we have been recommending. Got a question about optimizing your brand, website, or communications campaign? Give us a call…

Critical Elements to address when thinking about a re-brand?

  • Do you really know the audience you want to influence with your brand and what they think of your company? If the answer is, “We think so but are not 100% sure or in agreement,” start with research into your customers and prospects to understand your brand starting point. Determine the channels they use to interact with your brand. Do they visit your site via a mobile device but you have not optimized for mobile?
  • Don’t rebrand for the sake of re-branding. What are the corporate goals you are trying to accomplish? Are you launching a new product or service line? Have you slowly transformed your market but your current customer base does not know it? Do you need to energize your employee base?
  • Analyze and agree upon your story and message. Many people can design a great logo, but it is the story behind the logo and brand initiative that is critical.
  • Use the rebrand as your chance and excuse to re-introduce yourself to current customers.
  • Think about all the brand elements to drive consistency. A new logo without a matching website experience, family of templates, new business cards, office signage, etc. can really fall flat. Make sure you design a corporate style guide that is strictly followed across the board, and can be expanded to business partners and other audiences.
  • Start with your internal audience to roll it out. Your employees are your number one brand ambassadors. If they are excited about the brand and message you will immediately have a fleet of people ready to share it.
  • Measure the impact of the rebrand. What are the key performance indicators you are measuring? Are you getting more meetings? Are you getting more website visitors? Is there a better understanding of your brand six months after launch? 12 months?
  • Is your rebrand designed to scale as you enter new markets or expand with new products?
  • Are there international considerations now or in the future related to your brand that you need to address?
  • As you think about all of these, remember that planning is critical. A strongly mapped out strategy will get you the required results you desire for your brand.

 

I heard a little story the other day that made me smile. One of our earliest clients, which selected Bluetext for a digital platform and website overhaul as well as marketing and social media strategy, has seen their business go through the roof since executing the campaign with us. What makes me happy is that this client was very hesitant to spend the money, skeptical about the potential results, and had never done any impactful marketing. Thinking back to this early project, I think it’s instructive to explore why working with this reluctant client turned out so well.

First, we did our homework on its industry and competitors, and designed a digital platform that demonstrated to the market that it was serious about the future and committed to the business of its customers. As a rule, when designing websites and digital platforms, you have to understand the user experience, how your customers interact with your business, and what they can and should expect when working with you. Many businesses organize their websites around how they operate instead of how their customers want to consume content. And many businesses think that a new website is merely lipstick on a pig.

Second, the client spent the money on a custom photo shoot, which we strongly recommended and helped to execute, as its products lend themselves to having their customers see them and get a clear sense for what they are going to get (as opposed to, for example, a software product). Sometimes, creating a sense of something tangible in the digital world can be very important.

Third, it got aggressive with social media in a market where it originally believed it was not important to prospects. The client committed for the long haul to develop new content and push it out via all channels.

Everyone wants happy customers that benefit from the work you do for them – in this case, a major investment which was met with skepticism has significantly benefitted the bottom line. That is the kind of success that makes me and the entire Bluetext team smile.

Bluetext is very excited to announce that it has been chosen by the Meridian International Center as its official Branding and Marketing Partner for Meridian’s 44th Annual Ball and Global Leadership Summit, to be held October 12, 2012. The Annual Ball has been named one of the top five social events of the year by The Washington Post, and attracts more than 1000 political, diplomatic, and business leaders from the Washington community. This is the first year for the Global Leadership Summit, and one of our assignments is to help make that a valuable and memorable event.

“We look forward to working with Bluetext to prepare for the 44th Annual Ball and Global Leadership Conference,” said Greg Houston, Meridian’s Senior Vice President for Development and External Affairs. “It’s vitally important that those who attend and enjoy the Ball every year recognize the value that Meridian brings to the global community, and Bluetext will help us develop and convey that message.”

Hosted by Meridian in partnership with Gallup and the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, the Summit will feature presentations from The Gallup Organization and from Fred Smith, the legendary CEO of FedEx. This year’s Ball and Global Leadership Summit will be co-chaired by Mr. Jay L. Johnson, chairman and CEO of General Dynamics, and Mrs. Sydney McNiff Johnson. The Summit will convene a cross-section of international and domestic policy makers, corporate and diplomatic leaders, academics, and members of the media to explore more efficient, effective ways to address global economic and social challenges.

While the Ball is well-known in Washington, the inaugural Global Leadership Summit preceding the Ball will bring leaders from Congress, the Administration, the diplomatic community, and the corporate world together to discuss issues that are central to the challenges they are facing. Part of Meridian’s mission is to bring leaders together to interact with and learn from each other, because leaders make better decisions through shared experiences.

We are honored and excited to be working closely with Meridian on this year’s events. Our brand and marketing experience gives us a unique opportunity to help Meridian deliver to its attendees a great understanding of what Meridian achieves for the international community, and how its members can engage with the organization to further that mission. We want everyone who comes to the Summit and Ball to leave there with a greater sense of global purpose, and also to have a great time.

 

The Meridian Ball is one of the most prestigious annual events in Washington. Now in its 44th year, the Ball brings together policy makers, private sector and cultural leaders, and the diplomatic corps to celebrate Meridian’s ongoing efforts to strengthen international understanding through the exchange of ideas, people, and culture.

Traditionally held in October, the Ball in known for its intimate dinners, each hosted by an Ambassador at his or her Residence or Embassy, in addition to a dinner hosted by Meridian at its White-Meyer House. After dinner, all guests convene for dancing, dessert, and dialogue at Meridian House, an architectural treasure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Ball is well attended by public officials including Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices, and members of the U.S. Congress, as well as prominent media figures, foreign Ambassadors, and representatives from the international business and cultural communities.

 

Infographics—Today’s Press Release
The Why and How of Telling a Story with Data Points

You might have the best content around, but if no one sees it, what good is it for your brand?
I think we can all agree that people don’t have time to read white papers or even press releases. They scan rather than scour. To get their attention, you need to grab them quickly, with easily digestible content and compelling graphics that tell the story at a glance. For this reason, infographics are becoming a requirement with every marketing campaign. They can accomplish in one screen what would otherwise take pages of text, and they can be an opportunity to present your brand in the best possible light.

Yes, infographics have become today’s press release. Bluetext clients are clamoring to take their data and turn it into provocative infographics. But then what? How do you ensure that key audiences will see, and digest, this gorgeous piece of storytelling art?

Here are out top tips on how to get visibility with an infographic:

  • Make Sure Your Content is Credible. Team with a research or think tank to develop compelling data points. Credible content with a built in audience base are great components to an infographic campaign.
  • Use premium content to promote the infographic. Create a blog post for the infographic and support promotion through the blog’s social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Email, social news & bookmarking sites).
  • Optimize for sharing. Providing graphics optimized for sharing is important, so take care to present your art in a very friendly manner to maximize impact. A week or two after publishing and promoting the infographic, upload the full image and unique description to Flickr with a link back to the original web page.
  • Tease out the data points. Extract the data points integrated in the infographic and drip them out with links back to the infographic webpage. A similar, but more visual approach can work with Facebook as well.  LinkedIn’s redesign is very oriented to visual communications, so this tactic also works well there.
  • Leverage aggregators. Submit the infographic to popular infographic aggregators and directories.  An example is http://www.visual.ly/
  • Put it out over the news wires. Drive visibility to the infographic by leveraging it within a media release that includes a link to the full infographic and distribute through a news distribution services.
  • Earned Media is also good. If the data is newsworthy, pitch it out as a story to trade and other publications that might be looking for a good graphic on the topic. And don’t forget bloggers who might also be interested.
  • Send it around via email. Leverage email marketing by blasting this infographic to all your in-house as well as purchased email lists.
  • Tweet this, Like this, Recommend this, Pin this. Be sure social sharing is always integrated next to the infographic.  Whatever the sharing mechanism is, offer them all.
  • Animation will take it up a notch. Leverage the infographic into rich media and animation.  Look at our latest animated infographic here for Riverbed.
  • Make it easy to use. Port the infographic into Powerpoint format to support sales enablement and other marketing communication functions.  Publish this on SlideShare, Scribd, DocStoc, and other social document sharing services.
  • Keywords are important. Stuff keywords that are search engine relevant. This will help drive organic visibility.
  • Streamline distribution. Provide embed code for your infographic to streamline sharing and posting into the blogosphere.