When people research restaurants for a nice dinner out, they head to the web. And if you want them to end up inside of your restaurant, then you need to make a strong, positive impression when they are on your website.
Enter Cafe Pro — the newest StudioPress theme for the Genesis Framework.
Here is a link to a customized Cafe Pro theme I recently developed.
Café Pro combines elements of two popular Studio Press child themes — Parallax and Foodie — to create the quintessential design solution for not just restaurants, but for any brick and mortar business looking to create a captivating presence online.
What makes Café Pro such an effective design solution for brick and mortar businesses?
First, the full screen background images that are featured on the home page. It is easy to set up and allows you to showcase your business through beautiful photography and dynamic effects.
Second, the pricing table widget allows you to showcase menu items (as shown in the demo) or any other listing of features and benefits that would help show the value your business delivers.
Third, all relevant information that needs to be on every page of your site — contact info, address, hours of operation, etc. — can be included easily, you just set it and forget it, using the convenient footer widgets.
This is essential not only for local SEO, but also for converting web browsers into real-life, in-the-flesh visitors to your establishment.
And of course, there’s more — so you can see for yourself. Take a look at the demo here, and see if Café Pro is the right theme to take your brick and mortar business online presence to the next level.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia at 561.906.3436.
Our Blog
Secrets to Sharp Images on Facebook & The Web
Ever notice that the flyer or poster images with text that you have uploaded on Facebook come out fuzzy?
Try uploading a PNG-24 lossless image instead of a JPEG. That way, Facebook doesn’t mess with the image quality.
Facebook’s JPEG compression is quite aggressive. In fact, Facebook compresses your images twice before they go live! So there’s a good chance you’ll end up with fuzzy compression artifacts around the edge of any text in the image, making it look … well, fuzzy.
JPEGs might be the most common file type you run across on the web. But, did you know that JPEGs are known for their “lossy” compression, meaning that the quality of the image decreases as the file size decreases?
PNGs are amazing for interactive documents such as web pages, but are not suitable for print. You can edit them and not lose quality, but they are still low resolution.
The reason PNGs are used in most web projects is that you can save your image with more colors on a transparent background. This makes for a much sharper image.
How to Choose an Image Format for Screenshots
If you are capturing a web page that has lots of text – like snippets of source code or Google search results pages or even a tweet – use the GIF or PNG format. The screenshots will be clear (JPEG adds grains or noise around text) and file size remains pretty low.
To make sure you’re avoiding other mistakes, this infographic will walk you through the best practices of choosing the right file types for your visual content.
Read up on the whole process by clicking on the image below. This is a fabulous resource!
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia at 561.906.3436.
Creative Marketing On A Shoestring
In the 20th century “small businesses” were mostly local and had major marketing challenges.
Without the graphic design and marketing skills required, local car dealers, plumbers, stores, doctors, lawyers, et al. jumped into weekly newspaper advertising, brochure writing & design, direct mail, outdoor signage, radio spots, in-store promotions, and more.
None of this was cheap, though it could appear so. Much of it was hit and miss. All of it was ephemeral. Some of it relied on local “experts” in the field who charged whatever the market would bear.
Meanwhile, all of the above were brick and mortar operations with major overhead like employees.
Who knew?
In this century the same businesses have come to know a totally different universe. A seductive one. A do-it-yourself one.
Champagne Tastes and a Domestic Beer Budget
How to Squeeze the Most Out of Your Marketing Efforts
In her latest blog post, Pamela Wilson, Director of Special Projects, Copyblogger Media and Owner of Big Brand System discusses in fascinating detail all the ways you can get maximum impact from the limited budget you have.
Read Pamela’s post here:
How To Squeeze The Most From Your Marketing
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia at 561.906.3436