Design and develop your fully responsive website Like Sweet-Georgia

 Sweet-Georgia   Yarns is an artisan yarn company that makes exquisite hand-dyed yarns and fibers in stunningly saturated colors. Sweet-Georgia offers webinars. Workshop, and guides to knitting and crafting with yarn. We help them realize a 909% increase in email conversations. Base in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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                                      Brand Positioning

Overview:

People are 70% more likely to buy from brands that they recognize and trust through following them in blogs and on social media. As such, brand positioning is central to content, design, and marketing strategy.

Brand positioning is central to content, design, and marketing strategy. Our process starts with getting-to-know-you conversations to learn about your business and its goals.

There can be no strategy if you don't know who you are and where you're headed. What you offer and how you differ from your competition are crucial to every part of your digital strategy.

Who is your audience, what do they want and need, and how do they want to engage with you?

The way we plan and build your site and the digital strategy surrounding it are all based around what your visitors need to do, and creating the ideal experience for them in which to do it.
We work with you to map and define the boundaries and identity of your brand, so that you can get on with the business of building it.
We can help with brand management support including social media and content recommendations, or work with your marketing team to make sure the brand you’re trying to build finds resonance with the audiences you’re trying to reach.
We also offer brand and logo design, if your business needs help visually capturing the essence of your culture and your story through a new or redesigned image.
Although it sounds complex, positioning your brand doesn’t require a giant marketing budget. A strong website regularly updated with original, high-quality content, and a simple but consistent social media marketing presence are all you need to get started.
Fostering a customer-driven strategy is what will help it grow.

                Information Architecture

Overview:

Information architecture is the logical gathering and ordering of website content into a usable and searchable site structure.
The thorough process of examining your brand's content, what you and have what's missing to fulfill a solid digital architecture, and filling in the holes before we build your site, is what sets Forge and Smith from the competition.

A logical site structure focused on usability and find-ability will guarantee users can find and engage with your content.

 

Analyzing your content before a build or redesign is like looking at all of the belongings in a home before a big move.
Some of those belongings are essential, and will get packed up into labeled boxes and moved. Some of them are just dead weight that no one has used in years, and will be thrown out. And there will be things that you need to acquire before the move, such as a winter wardrobe if you’re relocating from Arizona to Alaska.
Visitors to your site should feel like they know where things are, and can complete the tasks they are there to accomplish, without having to think about it.
Once all of the necessary content is itemized, it’s time to put it in order and build. The outcome is a sitemap, which illustrates the organization and how different content blocks appear and are linked together.
This helps clearly define where your content will live, exploring not only the location but also how each part of the site supports overall project goals, and how users can accomplish tasks within the site.
Your site structure should focus on the goal of your website, making the content accessible and logically organized for both your internal users and your audience. Integrating the purpose behind task-oriented, utility-based content into the structure from the beginning is information architecture done right.

                       UX & Prototyping

Overview

If your website is the home-base for your web presence, user experience (UX) design is the floor plan, the structure, and the windows and doors. Everything that shapes how visitors experience and engage with your content is defined by the blueprint that is UX design.

Your website needs the same consideration as planning a new house. You wouldn't invest in building a house if it wasn't designed to properly house all of your contents, serve the lifestyle goals of its residents, and support a positive, welcoming experience for visitors.

UX defines and informs a site's design in the same way that the layout of a room informs furnishings. A highly functional, purpose-built site makes it much easier to source, find, and design - or redesign - photos and graphics, impact elements that make for a beautiful and inspiring site.

Prototyping is presenting a website with all of its design elements removed, like a walk-through of a house with all of the interior walls whitewashed and the floors covered in paper.

We use prototyping to make it easier to focus on site structure, flow, and functionality. Like checking to see if the fridge will be too close to the kitchen door, prototyping helps answer important questions before design.
Do the pages in a site connect well? Is it easy to identify the menu and navigate between pages? Do headers and content blocks appear in the right places?
The biggest advantage to site prototyping and good UX design is that they are purpose-built for modularity.

We know the site we build for you now won’t be the site you’ll need in 12-18 months; your needs will change. We design a site that tells your story right now, and can be expanded upon with additional development down the road as your business grows and evolves.
Our sites are designed to flexibly expand and allow you to add to the content over time without compromising the user experience, or the structure of the site. By making sure you have a solid foundation and a modular base, relevance and imagination become the only limiting factors.

                         Content Strategy

Content strategy isn't about the fine details of each individual blog post, YouTube video, or tweet that your brand produces. It's about planning and managing website content as a strategic business asset across your whole organization.

 Effective content strategy considers all the uses and permutations of the content you will create and structures the approach, making it repeatable. Good strategy asks how content will be shared, how it can be changed to fulfill different needs, and how it will be managed throughout its life-cycle including sun-setting (how and when it will be retired).

In the same way your site map and content prototypes inform design, content strategy informs and structures your content marketing.

Let’s take a business example: If content marketing is the topic of conversation at a seminar and the specific slides to be shared, content strategy is the framework of rules and plans for who hosts the debates, the order of speakers, the schedule of sessions, how feedback is collected and discussed, what not to talk about, how to keep things moving, and how the seminar’s success is measured.
The objective of good content strategy is to get the right content to the right user at the right time, and curating content that creates solves pain points and drives value. It’s about acquisition, retention, and loyalty, and it’s not limited to the written word.
Content strategy needs as much attention as human resources, information technology, and marketing. However, not every business can afford the time or budget to dedicate a person or team to this role. That’s where we can help.
Our partners benefit from our the two types of strategic guidance relationships we foster: coach or partner. The deciding factor is often how much time and effort is needed to get your digital presence performing successfully, and how much time your brand has to dedicate to it.
Some of our partners start with us as a coach and later ask us to take an active hand in content creation as their needs grow. Others looked to us for guidance while getting started, but now have built up enough momentum to drive the bus themselves.

                     Website Design

Overview:

Web design is so much more than choosing a layout, a color palette, and content. Effective design is a collaborative problem-solving process using navigation, appearance, and user experience to tell your story.

A combination of engaging user interface design and exceptional user experience design (or UI and UX) is what draws people through your site to the intended destination. It informs their behavior while there, and is what will bring them back time and again – converting a visitor into a customer.

From typography to photography, the elements of your site should work together to form a perfect digital representation of your brand.

Bringing your brand to digital life starts with an exploration of your vision and goals: what you have, what you need, and what role your website plays in your business.

With over 18 years of industry experience, Forge and Smith Principal Shawn Johnston takes creative direction over crafting unique, purpose-built, and future-friendly designs for each of our partners.

We work collaboratively through the design process, making careful decisions based on your target audience, consumer data, research and expertise. We take into consideration who your audience is, what they need to do on your site, and how they want to be able to accomplish it.
After all, design without strategy is just decoration.

                    Custom WordPress

Overview:

Your site, and how you interact with your audience through it, should grow with your brand. Websites are a big part of a solid digital strategy that drives your success. We believe in WordPress (WP) because it's stable, sustainable, responsive, and future-friendly.

Many businesses change locations several times during their growth from a startup to a fully realized, profitable brand. Whether your business is a not-for-profit, a retail chain, or a tech venture, over time your needs will change - from furniture and technology to employees and team culture.

Imagine if you never had to move, because your office was in a smart building that could grow and adapt to your needs. Like that dream office, your website should be purpose-built and flexible. Your site, and how you interact with your audience through it, needs to grow with your brand.

For businesses looking to level up in their digital strategy, having a powerful content management system to drive that strategy is critical.

We craft high-quality custom content management systems (CMS), supported by forward-thinking user experience design and data-driven strategy.
One huge benefit to WP is its effectiveness in empowering you to manage your content. Adding new content and modifying existing content is simple, intuitive, and straightforward.
We use customizations that make it simple for you to add custom fields, change your information gathering forms, and connect social media to grow your audience and engage with your customers.

Website platforms need to be logical and accessible for those who might step in to handle maintenance and upkeep down the road as new needs arise. We plan for the long term, thinking realistically about what your company will need in the future as the needs of your users and your business evolve.
Working with our developers and digital strategists is a long-term investment in a platform that will keep your site strong and drive your online business for the foreseeable future.

                             E-Commerce

 Overview:           

E-commerce is no longer just about adding an online storefront and its extra revenue stream. Today's e-commerce is about creating a direct-to-customer avenue, and it's a path that many businesses are taking to success.

E-commerce is the method of purchasing goods and services online. Over 40% of global users have made an online purchase, with international e-commerce sales in 2015 totaling over 1.7 trillion dollars. Social commerce is also increasing through platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.

Whether your business is B2B or B2C, it's easy to see that there's much benefit to be gained from having an effective, successful e-commerce store.

Our e-commerce platform enables businesses to put together high-quality tailored shopping experiences without the cost of a custom store.

We use Woo-commerce, a powerful WordPress plugin, to help our partners to place their products and services directly in front of customers. This tool is flexible, scale-able and sustainable, and empowers business owners with more control over the way their products are displayed online.
Woo Commerce presents the opportunity for everyone from small, craft artisans to established international brands to build an online store, without being forced out of their technical comfort zone.
You can have a fully-functioning storefront housed within a professional site, or integrated with a blog. Woo-Commerce has vast customization options, a built-in analytic system, and lots of extensions that enhance marketing, payment gateways, and reporting. You can even integrate with UPS and FedEx and set up custom shipping rules.
It’s just one more tool we use to help give you the keys to drive your own digital strategy.

This brand has taken Woo-commerce, our site design, and beautiful photography, and paired it with their wealth of products to produce a store that feels much like their personal in-store experience.
You can search and filter intuitively, move seamlessly between shopping and finding advice, and listen to their podcast to find out where your skills can take you next. It’s purpose-built with a plan.

                 Mobile Accessibility

Overview:

Mobile-friendly sites - those that can be viewed on a cell phone or tablet regardless of screen size - show up first in Google search results. This is a direct indication of how important it is that business websites can keep up with the ever-evolving ways people access information.

Mobile accessibility is the future: more and more, this is where your audience is looking for you. This is about load times, efficient user experience, and content strategy that translates to horizontal and vertical screens.

It's also critical for social referrals; your audience is using social media on devices, so click-through has to be perfect. More than 60% of web traffic in 2016 will be mobile, making a responsive first point of contact crucial to a site's success.

Building mobile-friendly sites requires prioritizing a visitor's optimal user experience at all stages of design, regardless of what type of device they might use.

How will your audience interact with the feel of the site? Are the menus easy to navigate with your thumbs?
Thinking about your UX in this way can significantly inform your content; whether you’re targeting the busy professional needing information between meetings or the restless parent trying to find answers while the baby’s crying at three a.m.
If a website’s experience is seamless between desktop and mobile, it has a much higher chance of creating return visitors and building loyal followers.
A mobile-friendly site is also more cost-effective and easier to manage. When the technical needs of all devices are met through flexible, responsive web design, you don’t have to spend additional time on development to build both a mobile- and a desktop-friendly site. It just works.
There’s no need to maintain two separate web addresses, or manage and administrate two channels of content creation and design. Responsive web design enhances SEO by funneling all potential visitors to your site on any device – even ones that don’t yet exist.

All of the sites we build are quality-tested on multiple devices to ensure the ideal user experience for your business carries over from one device to the next.

                          SEO & Analytics

Overview :

There is an increasingly major need for businesses to gather data, and to make sense of what the numbers are saying. Being able to comprehend and leverage the awesome power of analytics can mean the difference between a site's success and failure.

Growing your business shouldn't be scary, and neither should growing your exposure. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all that data. We can work with you to develop an SEO strategy that's interesting, quantifiable, and that mitigates the risk of stepping into deeper digital waters with your company's online presence.

We'll assess how your site currently performs, identify areas that need to be strengthened, and define a clear path to help you better inform, engage, and connect with your audience.

You can't strategize in the dark. For this reason data-driven analysis (analytics) needs to be at the heart of your digital strategy.

We’ve got a solid analytic track record. We’ve helped the Pacific Center for Reproductive Medicine increase their Year-over-Year (YoY) traffic 90% since January 2015, and mobile traffic by 107%. This success came from our understanding of and attention to analytic to shape and drive their digital strategy.
Our team has skilled SEO strategists who understand the current search algorithms, and how to navigate pleasing them so that your site turns up higher in results. We can provide monthly SEO recommendations on keywords and topical optimization to implement in your content strategy.
If you don’t have an online presence, or it’s failing to perform, we can help by interpreting the story your numbers are telling and identifying important areas that need improvement – and strategist how to accomplish it.
Once you’re set up and building momentum, we’ll walk with you and monitor performance to continually tweak and build upon successes. Your story is important, so we help provide the tools to make sure it reaches the right audience.

  The site you have now won’t be the site you’ll need in a year. Consumer and business trends change at an ever-increasing pace, and website owners need to be able to adapt and respond with new data-driven strategies. We can continue to work with you to ensure your site is optimized for peak performance.

Objectives:

• Increase brand equity and online reach by focusing on solid content additions and user engagement
• Create a highly usable, searchable and browseable product catalogue with easy social sharing options and clear conversion points to contact for a quote
• Expand content and product offerings (patterns, projects, lesson courses) to grow community and brand recognition
• Reorganize and expand current blog for enhanced search and browse-ability of content
• Grow social engagement and nurture resulting referral traffic
• Implement social user stories and hashtag streams to improve trust and credibility and create better conversion
• Implement a fully responsive solution backed by WordPress CMS and Woo Commerce for cart functionality.
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                                     Phase 1

                                     Prototyping

When SweetGeorgia Yarns approached us, the brand already had a fantastic foundation on which to build. What she needed was help – her business website had grown to the point where the work of managing it was taking away from her ability to manage her business.
The client was able to work with us to set a more visual experience for Sweet-Georgia Yarns. Together we came up with a better overall experience in presenting and exploring products, which centralized the content and made it pleasurable and intuitive to navigate. They wanted to make sure that visitors, friends, and clients could easily find what they were looking for based on their interest.

                                        Phase 2

                                   Style Concepts

Sweet-Georgia had a strong brand, and a multitude of great things to highlight. We wanted to make the site as fun and invigorating as chatting with owner Felicia Lo, so we focused on making the experience as intuitive and self-serve as possible. Inter-connectivity within the site was paramount. Visitors can find yarns and fibers (for those who like to spin) in the weights, material, and colors they like; find patterns and workshops based on the yarns they already have; and provide detailed links to the materials needed for each workshop to make it easier to buy. Fluid, bold typography and vibrant color palette enhance and draw the focus to the bright, colorful yarns and knitting projects the site showcases.

Phase 3

                             Bringing It All Together

Even if you've never looked at a pair of knitting needles you can start with Sweet-Georgia Yarns and learn. The fully-integrated eCommerce lets viewers see curated new selections from the fibers, yarns, and patterns right on the homepage. Workshops and new materials are frequently added. The bright photos of rich, vibrant skeins leap off the screen.

The redesigned Sweet-Georgia Yarns site fosters a love of craft and nostalgia for gifts from family. We dare you to spend ten minutes on the site and not fall in love with yarn.

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