#1 - Create Landing Pages. Landing pages are copies of existing web pages that have been given special names so they will stand out in your web tracking statistics. For example: A search engine may deliver you lots of page views to your homepage, however if you specifically code the link, you can track your marketing efforts much easier. Click this link and look at the address in your browser. It will take you to our homepage, however, this is not the normal homepage link. We coded the link to show that it is coming from this newsletter. This method is particular useful when you use more than one web address to point to your site, and you want to know which address is most popular. It is also good so that you can use multiple web addresses to gain more search engine listings... even though you only have one site.

#2) If you don't use landing pages to code your incoming traffic, then you can use the links you give out to other sites. All you need to do is add "?source=BizName" to the end of the web addresses you give out. In use it goes like this. Let's say you are linking to our site to the activities section so you won't constantly have to update your site. Our normal activities page is located at: http://www.cityconcierge.com/mammoth-lakes/activities/index.asp. If you add this source code to the link you put on your website, then our traffic reports will show us where the traffic came from. So it now looks like this:
http://www.cityconcierge.com/activities/index.asp?source=BizName. Here try it out. Click to See Todays Activities. While you're there, check out the way the address reads in the browser your window. We'll be able to tell how many of you actually clicked. (not who you are... that would be a cookie)

SECRET SAUCE
A great logo doesn't just happen. It is planned so that the design, accompanies by the company name creates a message which will last. The discussion of great logos is ongoing. Here are a few ideas to get your thinking about yours.

1. Logos must be credibility-based. This is essential. It is based on a simple principle: credibility persuasion. Just as credible people are more influential, so are company logos on the business card or letterhead. Many studies in people to people communication conclude that if a person as the source of the message is competent or knowledgeable as well as trustworthy, then the message will be more readily accepted by the receiver. The person is considered credible and more influential.

Knowing “what” to put into the logo in the first place is 90 percent of the logo design job! Design is important. Content is more important.

2. Logos must symbolize the company business to be credibility-based. A logo earns creditability by communicating what it is supposed to. Imagine that a chef is more likely creditable on choices for good restaurants and a sport store owner likely knows equipment better, than vice versa. Your logo iconology (the symbol) must look creditable which means it looks professionally done. It must represent your business accurately or you are defeating the purpose. Would a chef use a ski boot as his logo icon? Would the sport shop use a knife and fork?

How does this same principle apply to design? The first thing a competent credibility-based logo designer does is symbolize the company business in the logo. Voila! This says that the company is an expert in that business.

3. Logos must also be designed to communicate that the company is trustworthy. Bad design usually spells distrust. Is the logo graphic confusing to the eyes? Do you look at it and not understand what the business does, or represents? In contrast, does the icon tell what the company does?

We will continue this in the next issue. Here area two good examples.