We have recently redesigned and launched the online presence for Sundance Marine. Just quietly… We’re pretty chuffed. We hope you enjoy it too.

The Brief

The redesign of Sundance Yachts had to incorporate the following:

• A change in branding from Sundance Yacht Sales to Sundance Marine, with their expansion to Tasmania.
• Reflect the luxurious look and feel of a stylish yacht.
• Utilise clean lines, easy navigation, and great visuals… Like a stylish yacht.
• The use of a similar colour scheme to maintain consistency between the old and the new.

Eleven Media recommended building the web site using the WordPress publishing platform as it would allow Sundance Marine’s staff to easily add new products and information.

The Original Home Page

The New Home Page

The New Home Page Explained

• By increasing the depth of blue, and adding the cream, we feel that we have created a more sophisticated and mature design. We think that this is more appropriate in reflecting the clients move from Sundance Yachts to Sundance Marine.
• The navigation was simplified for ease of use, and three large call to actions added, representing the three different areas of Sundance Marine.
• We also cleaned up and minimalised the layout of the page by removing current yachts for sale, replacing it with a SEO friendly introduction, and adding a rolling news feed.
• The pièce de résistance though (look at us, talking like we own a Yacht) is in the application of large and professional imagery.

The Internal Pages – Old Website

The Internal Pages – New Website

Our favourite is the product page (second image down). Clean lines, a custom gallery, and a layout that is very easy on the eyes.

The Art is in the Detail

Here’s a couple of close-ups of the detail.

What the Client has to Say…

“The guys at Eleven Media have been a absolute breeze to deal with. The whole team at Sundance Marine love the new site and design, and just quietly so do our clients!

The response from our customer base has been very positive and helped increase our business profile.
Thanks again guys!”

- John Beck – Director Sundance Marine

What we Think…

In summary, we love the new Sundance Marine website. We feel it’s a great website, for a great client, that will serve Sundance Marine well into the future. Unfortunately though, we now want a 58 foot cruiser, black hull, pirate flag, with all the mod cons. Keep your eyes peeled for the Eleven Media Yacht Racing Team in the years to come.

For the moment though, we’re going to cruise around the bay in the Eleven Media Tinny…

Let us know what you think in the comments section below. About the redesign of course.

We’ve been busy building a bunch of great websites in 2010 (All custom WordPress themes).

Here’s 10 of them:

1 – Starmaid International

2 – Class Landscapes

3 – Zail Hearing Care

4 – Ultra-Fresh

5 – Kitson

6 – Immerse Photography

7 – Animals of Oz

8 – Starmaid Professional

9 – CSBA Accounting

10 – Avalanche Cocktails

Facebook is by far the most popular Social Networking website, approximately 8 million Australians are part of the almost 500 Million Wordwide Facebook users. I’ve decided to share some tips for business owners that are starting out with Facebook Pages.

Facebook Pages can be setup for just about anything: Businesses, Brands, Products, Organisations, Artists or Public Figures.  Facebook Pages work much like normal Facebook profiles so you can add status updates, add photos and other Facebook users can write on your ‘wall’.  The main difference is Facebook Pages don’t have ‘friends’ they have fans that ‘like’ the page.

I recommend most of our clients setup a Facebook Page for their business because it’s a great free way for businesses to quickly, easily and directly engage with their customers.

My top 5 tips for starting out with Facebook Pages for your business:

1. Choose your page name carefully

Facebook page names can not be changed so choose wisely! I recommend including a keyword or two in your page name if possible as this can help optimise your business in the Facebook Search Results.

2. Be strategic about when you time your updates

According to Facebook the average Facebook user has over 130 friends so they may miss your status update among all of their friends status updates. One of our clients that run a chain of retail store post facebook page status updates on Thursday and Friday nights mentioning specials, new stock and that they are open late on those nights. Another one of our clients that manages a popular restaurant posts updates on Sunday mornings such as “Hangover? Hungry? why not drop in for a Big Brekkie??”.

3. Include photos in your updates 

In my opinion status updates that include photos will help your update stand out in your ‘fans’ news feed and encourage users to engage with your business. A few of our clients use their mobile phones to take photos of new products as they arrive in store and they upload these photos to Facebook within minutes.

4. Promote your Facebook Page

There are a few quick an easy ways to promote your businesses Facebook Fan page: Add a button to your website, add a link to your email signature, send out an email newsletter, promote it at your place of business or you can even pay to advertise your Facebook page on Facebook.

5. Maintain your Facebook Page

I recommend that you review to your Facebook page at least once a week to see your page ‘insights’ (a.k.a stats) and to review comments posted on your page. I recommend you ensure that your contact details (website address, email, business address and phone numbers) are up to date and easy to find!

To setup a Facebook Page for your business visit:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Feel free to leave a link to your Facebook Page in the comments & checkout Eleven Media on Facebook.

View more presentations from matthewgain.

A very well produced video on the state of the internet – including some interesting  social media statistics.

Thanks TY : http://trevoryoung.posterous.com/