Atlanta Web Design Company – DoubleDome Web Technologies

A new study by the nonprofit Online Trust Alliance suggests that marketers are doing too little to protect the reputation of their brands online, with only 37% of Fortune 500 companies taking robust security measures to safeguard against cyber-fraud. And phishing — fake e-mails often sent under the guise of well-known, trusted brands, usually to obtain credit-card numbers — is on the rise.

A Gartner study released last week said in the 12 months ended September 2008, more than 5 million U.S. consumers — 40% more than in the same period a year ago — lost money to phishing attacks. These well-publicized e-mail scams have made consumers wary of opening commercial e-mails. And perhaps no one feels the pain more than financial services companies, a prime target of scammers.

The OTA study said the overwhelming majority of Fortune 500 brands, including huge marketers such as AT&T, Procter & Gamble, Sears and MetLife, have not taken the two key steps to reinforcing online security: implementing website-security certificates and authenticate e-mails sent from their corporate domains.

What does that mean? E-mail authentication means a marketer provides information — digital signatures, IP addresses or domain names from which legitimate e-mails will come — to the ISPs, such as Earthlink or Comcast, or e-mail vendors, such as Yahoo or AOL, that helps them determine that this is truly from the company it claims be from. For example, XYZ company can declare to the ISP that it only sends e-mails from the domain www.bigbookseller.com. Thus, if the ISP sees e-mails purporting to come from XYZ but that are sent from any other domain, it should block them.

OTA Chairman Craig Spiezle said third-party e-mail marketers are adopting authentication at a rate of 85%, but brands themselves are not protecting their corporate domain names. That means third-party vendors sending e-mails on their client’s behalf often authenticate the domain they have set up to control the campaign. For example, an e-mail marketer sending promotional e-mails on behalf of XYZ might use the authenticated e.bigbookseller.com domain, but bigbookseller.com itself is not authenticated. Thus, it becomes easy for someone to forge e-mail that appears to be coming from bigbookseller.com.

Christopher Bradley Ecommerce Design, Web Design integrated marketing

The euro Ford Festiva must be cooler than the US version we remember.

In an aggressive social-media program that goes far beyond what Ford has done in the past — and reaches beyond just the marketing department — the automaker is counting on 100 bloggers to introduce its new Fiesta, which is set to reach U.S. dealers in early 2010. The idea behind Fiesta Movement is to get the model’s target audience to drive and, hopefully, chatter about the car for months to come.

The Fiesta is Ford’s global subcompact vehicle and was designed in Europe, where it’s been on sale since August 2008. The diminutive hatchback (a sedan will be launched here) seeks to provide stylish transportation in a small package with low acquisition cost, high fuel efficiency and cues that appeal to young consumers.

Ford is loaning 100 German-built Fiestas to social-media trendsetters for six months. The 100 “Fiesta agents,” chosen from 4,000 who applied online, will share their experiences behind the wheel, completing monthly, themed missions from travel to social activism; posting videos; and updating their friends and followers on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. The participants begin training with their Fiestas in late April, and they will begin receiving the cars in the first week of May.

Christopher Bradley Ecommerce Design, Flash Design, Web Design interactive marketing

Web design has a huge impact on your business. Some people lose sight of this simple fact, but it is something that should not be forgotten. A website serves as the face of a company. Quality design with sleek features and solid content will make for a successful online venture. On the other hand, a confusing website with sloppy graphics and generic features will bore users and turn people off almost immediately. Believe it or not, most web visitors form an opinion about a website based on the initial impression that they get when opening the page. That means you have only a few seconds to impress new visitors. An impressive design will get you more traffic and create a positive image, whereas a poor design will greatly damage your credibility and ability to attract traffic.

Poor creative design is one of the main pitfalls for web design. You need a solid foundation on which to build. Without this, you will struggle with the implementation of many prominent features. Poor navigation is often a result. Few things are as frustrating to a user as a confusing navigation setup. If there is no usability, then visitors will leave the site immediately. Another common mistake is when designers forget to make a site cross browser compatible. If a website only works for one type of browser, then you are cutting yourself off from tons of other potential visitors who cannot open your site with their browsers. It is a rookie mistake, so keep an eye out for it.

Poorly written content is also a big mistake. Internet browsers are generally intelligent, and they want to read good content. Garbage writing is an insult to their intelligence. People won’t return to your website if they find poor content. A professional web design firm can provide consultation so that this does not happen. They can also help to correct unfocused marketing messages. Speaking of marketing, it is important to make your site search engine friendly. Many amateurs forget to do this, and that is a major mistake that will affect the levels of traffic to your site.

Another web design mistake is using the wrong technology. Sometimes people will use Flash when HTML should be used. Remember to use an enterprise class data center. A slow hosting environment is never good for business. Finally, look for a firm that performs a post launch evaluation. If you spend a lot of time developing a site, a post launch evaluation should definitely be carried out to make sure everything works how it should.

Christopher Bradley Ecommerce Design, Flash Design, Web Design web design