An article entitled, “Why Do Websites Cost So Much Money?“, by Christine Anderssen (Tailormade4you), which appeared on January 10, on GOARTICLES.com(1), very succinctly summarizes the reasons why reputable web design and development firms charge more for their work, even to their smaller business clients/emerging enterprises.

Anderssen makes clear, simple and effective statements about the value of using professional interactive agencies: “Frankly, building a website so that it works in all browsers, has a good design and presents all the information about the company in a pleasing, eye-catching and user-friendly fashion takes proficiency, and this costs money.” More importantly, she adds that when you utilize a good firm, you are “paying for the advice, the support and the long term relationship.” We at MITRA CREATIVE agree—-these are some of the key factors in deciding to engage an experienced agency. There is value added through working with professionals who can see your brand from an external perspective and can translate your business requirements, messages and calls-to-action into engaging, highly web-usable designs instead of “just” designing websites. It is equally critical to work with visionary design agencies that continue to innovate within their discipline, but that also know your business and its culture well enough, and stay with it long enough, to maintain the consistency of, and to grow, your brand.

Most critical is brand. Simply put, design firms that truly understand business in addition to art and technology elevate brands by giving them credibility and respect and by making the appearance of companies forward-thinking. They do so using today’s most impactful, powerful and pervasive medium: namely, visuals on the web. A picture is now worth a billion words… everywhere.

(Article Copyright © 2010 Jayde Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

As all of us at MITRA CREATIVE wish our families, friends, clients, colleagues and followers a very Happy, Prosperous New Year, we want to share with all of you a great article that we read on the popular and highly informative, “social, media, brand” information resource/Blog called Penn Olson. The article, by contributor Willis Wee, speaks of the “4 Reasons To Employ Social Media in 2010″:

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

We usually comment on what we read, but this article — containing a compelling, concise video called “Social Media ROI: Socialnomics” (from the insightful work and writings of Erik Qualman) — brilliantly summarizes the Business Social Media landscape and we feel it does not require further narrative.

We very much look forward in 2010 to providing valuable information, articles, information about Mitra Creative’s happenings on this Blog, and working with many of you to support your interactive/media design and development, marketing communications strategy, corporate digital video production and Web 2.0/3.0 and other needs!

Mitra Creative is proud to announce the relaunch of the website for LIZALDE DESIGN™, the Fashion Lingerie line by the New York and LA-based designer, Ricky Lizalde, of “Project Runway®” Season Four.

VISIT THE NEW LIZALDE DESIGN WEBSITE BY CLICKING HERE.

Designed by Vincent Wang, Mitra Creative’s Co-Founder and Creative Director, the completely revised and uplifted site higlights Ricky’s new collection, with an all-new look, feel and images/graphics, as well as links to stores where items from the line can be purchased.

An eMarketer article published today is a telling study of the increased use of Digital Marketing techniques. According to the article, the “2009 Promo Interactive Marketing Survey” from PROMO magazine” exposes that: “More than one-third of marketers surveyed believed that interactive marketing ROI would be more profitable than traditional marketing…”

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Among the interesting statistics found in the article, among respondents to the PROMO survey, are a 25.3% increase in SEO marketing, 15.% increase in Corporate Blog marketing, 12.4% increase in Viral marketing, and 8.8% increase in Video marketing between 2007 and 2009. Questions still arise about measurability but this demonstrates a powerful shift in the methods used, and the focus on, Interactive, Web 2.0 and Video-based marketing in only two years. For example, while overall statstics in the survey remain high for the use of Email marketing (over 70%) — one of the focal points of many marketing campaigns over the past decade — the increase in use of Email marketing in two years is, says the survey respondents, only 1.8%.

The Web 2.0, social media/socal community, sharing/Widget/bookmarking, Digital Video marketing universe is, undoubtedly, here to stay!