CWT Harvey's Travel Refreshes Website

CWT Harvey's Travel is a travel booking agency that offers many unique and valuable services to its travelers to ease the stress of trip planning. The company operates from 22 offices throughout Atlantic Canada, with their headquarters in St. John’s.

As leaders in corporate, leisure and group travel, their website needed to be streamlined to better suit that identity. And now, the refreshed online face of Harvey's Travel is complete! Clean, bright and a dream to navigate, the site now reflects the fast-paced, fun world of travel. Refitted with a newly designed Content Management System, updating the freshest vacation offers in a timely fashion has never been easier.

With bright colors working alongside the streamlined interface, the website now better reflects the personality of Harvey's Travel: on the one side, an exciting, helpful place to plan a memorable vacation, and on the other, a professional, accommodating resource for the seasoned business traveler.

Check out the finished product here.

10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites

One article that has made the rounds of Applecore’s inboxes is Paul Boag’s 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites, which we originally found on Smashing Magazine. As Boag states in his introduction:

We all make mistakes running our websites. However, the nature of those mistakes varies depending on the size of your company. As your organization grows, the mistakes change. This post addresses common mistakes among large organizations.

We took these 10 harsh truths and added our own viewpoints, and what your company can do to change them.

1. You Need a Separate Web Division

There needs to be one division for web. Period. And it’s for this reason that outsourcing your web needs is so helpful: no one trespasses on anyone’s turf, and decisions are made for the benefit of the website, rather than anyone’s ego. A single unified team means that the website won’t be a brochure, or an extended resume: it will be an accurate representation of your company’s daily life, and often, objective outsiders can provide the best picture.

2. Managing Your Website is a Full-Time Job

This is self-explanatory. In order for a website to be truly useful, it needs to have a dedicated team. But something else to think about: it needs to have a dedicated team that’s empowered to make forward-thinking changes.

3. Periodic Redesign is Not Enough

Careful consideration through every stage of the website’s life, along with a willingness to tweak minor things that don’t seem to need drastic makeovers, can save so many hours of redesign in the long run. Sometimes, the only way to get this kind of insight is by asking a third party to consult.

4. Your Website Cannot Appeal to Everyone

A website designed without this in mind will be too incoherent to serve your business well. You can’t please everyone. You can, however, determine which of your demographics is the most important to your business.

5. You are Wasting Money on Social Networking

In other words, when you proceed into social networking, make sure you understand what makes social media work: that it’s people connecting to people, not just another venue to talk about your company. Use social networking to make your company more human, because at the end of the day, no one wants to visit your blog or Twitter account if they don't get anything in return.

6. Your Website is Not All About You

Self explanatory. No jargon, no insider acronyms. Your website isn’t being designed to suit the tastes of your staff; it’s being built to cater to the needs of your users. After all, they’ll be the ones spending their time there, so their requirements shouldn’t be ignored.

7. You’re Not Getting Value From Your Web Team

A web designer brings much more to the table than simple programming. They understand what makes a website work, what translate best to the web and what features are most helpful to a user. Use this amazing resource to produce the best possible website.

8. Design by Committee Brings Death

Harsh, but accurate. Design by committee is well-intentioned, meant to give everyone a fair stake in the decision making process. However, often what’s required is an educated, objective decision.

9. A CMS is Not a Silver Bullet

A Content Management System is like any tool— it won’t make the decisions for you; it can only make the decisions easier to implement. You need to have the resources in place for timely, relevant updates.

10. You Have Too Much Content

Constant review of content ensures that there’s no useless information taking away from your most important messages—only what is fresh, relevant and useful.

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Does any of this sound familiar? If so, interact with us--the solution is closer than you think.

Economic Uncertainty? Grow Out Of It!

Depressed along with the markets? Don’t be—it’s time to grow out of this crisis and into your next opportunity.

At a recent conference in Seoul, Sir Richard Branson said, “There are enormous opportunities when there is a crisis. In a situation like this, it’s absolutely essential to conserve cash. I think companies that do have cash owe it to their country and the people in the company to actually invest that cash in order to grow out of the crisis.”

Obviously our entrepreneurial solutions of the past 8 years got us to this point, so why wouldn’t the same tricks turn things around? The cowardly response is to cut: cut staff, cut training, cut marketing or anything else that would allow only the bare bones of an operation to continue.

The creative mind looks for opportunity.

Internet marketing offers a creative way to thrive in a crisis. Search engine marketing allows you to say exactly what you want to say to whom you would like. You reach a highly motivated person looking for your solution. and can additionally measure every result and change mid-stream if it fails to show results. If they don’t play, you don’t pay.

Invest in your website’s content management system (CMS) : By creating a CMS you take control of your content. No delay at the marketing department, the designer, the printer or publisher. You say what you need to say immediately. The cost? Only your time.

Online video has become the tool of the masses. Created with any variety of technology—a cell phone, a pocket camera or, if you like, a high definition camcorder with studio lights— and edited on the fly. Continue the brand conversation with your audience in the social web-o-sphere – on your website, YouTube, Facebook, Google Video. The opportunities are endless.

If you're worried about rivals poaching your clientele, you have an advantage: you already know your customer. Continue the conversation online through e-marketing. You control this distribution channel and the cost is minimal. All these online marketing endeavours are measurable, they are flexible, lean and nimble.

Still asking ‘why?’ Maybe you should try asking ‘Why not?’

In tough economic times, you’ll see some of your competition disappear. That’s only natural: in Branson’s words, the best always survive in a crisis. It is time to find the ‘E’ in creative, and outlast them all.