1. Pretty doesn’t mean effective: statistics are your friend!
Designers like to show off portfolios. It can look stunning, but business people like to see numbers. What was the conversion rate on that opt in? What was the bounce rate and average time on site? What was the most clicked on link from the home page?

2. Every design should have a measurable goal
Saying that the goal is to “build the brand of XYZ” or “create an online presence” is basically meaningless to a business-minded person. A goal is only a goal if it is measurable.

3. Your site should have one clear path
As a customer comes to your site, you want to be in complete control of the 1st thing they see, the 2nd, the 3rd, and all the way down until they accomplish your goal that you’ve set. In other words, they have entered your sites “funnel” or “chute”.

4. Remember the swiss army knife
One of the best analogies I’ve ever heard about design came from Marissa Mayer at Google. She said that Google tries to think of its design like a Swiss army knife. It has tons of features neatly tucked away inside, but you don’t see them all at once. A first time user might come to the site and just the main knife is flipped open. It’s immediately clear what the main benefit and purpose of this thing is: it’s a knife. But for the advanced users, a little thumbnail catch is still visible so they can slowly start to pull out lesser used features when they’re needed.

5. Provide performance metrics
Finally, if you really want to impress business people, put together a little report of how a design performs. It doesn’t have to be fancy — maybe a little spreadsheet (those business types do love Excel) with some basic metrics you can pull off of Google Analytics like visitors, time on site, most popular funnel path, and even a goal conversion rate.

Conclusion
This article may offend some designers. You may think it’s off topic, not your concern, or counterproductive to good design. That’s fine — take what works for you and leave the rest.

Speaking in a language the customer understands is key to good communication in any business. Whenever you get deep into a field and become an expert, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the rest of the world doesn’t think like you.

Read the full article here.

1. We are storytellers. It is our passionate desire to team up with ministries and churches that wish to communicate their distinct story to their target/community. Most every ministry/church needs a logo, website, etc., that’s always the same. But, on top of that, every ministry/church has a reason for existence that is God-given and completely unique to them—that’s where we want to be.
2. We want to share. Jesus commanded us to share the Gospel with all the nations. On the same note, we don’t want to hold on to everything we do. As we move forward, there are several ways in which we are going to be sharing our work. Think open-source and strategic partnerships.
3. We wish to be good stewards. As God has blessed us with his mercy and grace, we too would like to bless others. We have some exciting plans in the mix that will allow us to give back to a handful of organizations and operations. Stay tuned!

All that to say that we are on the verge of some pretty exciting times. And, we’d like to take this opportunity to unofficially announce the birth of The Plow Creative.

HT: Collide

Every once in awhile I see something that reminds me of some disturbing trends of Christianity. This is one of them. Is this where we are heading, living in a bubble that looks like the rest of the world? I love the headline, “Trade in your trouble for a bubble”. How true is that?

What do you think? Is this what Christianity has become?

HT: FFFFOUND!

Please download the posters, print them, hang them, and then talk about the words of Christ.

DOWNLOAD “LOG”

DOWNLOAD “MONEY”

DOWNLOAD “MOTHS & RUST”

DOWNLOAD “DIVORCE”

DOWNLOAD “GATES”

Look for the hi-res art for the first 5 next week. Take them, print them, and share the gospel.

I know we are to be fishers of men, but this is still fun.

HT: TENDKILL

The company that we work for has been going through some major changes over the past couple months. Kyle and I are now fully in charge of the “Ministry” division, and will be meeting next week to determine who we are. What I would like from you is some feedback or ideas that can make our company more than just a company.

Here are some ideas we have been kicking around:

1. Give Back Campaign. Percentage of profits go to home building in Mexico.
2. Church Planting Kits. Everything a church plant could need.
3. Ad Agency Attention. Every new church/ministry would get the attention of our full staff when needed.
4. Just Say NO! We will know when to tell a church/ministry no on a idea when needed.
5. Open Source Creative. We don’t want to hold on to everything, lets give some away.
6. Church Training Kits. Sometimes an older congregation needs to be trained on new marketing.

These are just some ideas, but I want to hear from you. What do you like, and what do you dislike. If you are a Pastor, what would be helpful to you?