web development

When it comes to your company website, perception is reality. When prospective clients want to know more about your business, the first stop is your website – and what they see becomes their impression. Create the right impression and you have instant credibility. Create a poor impression and you will find that your prospects lose interest or decide not to do business with your company.

Your website’s role in attracting and closing new business is critical. When is the last time you took a look at your website? Is it making the impression your company deserves? Was it conceived and designed to engage your prospects and communicate the true essence of your business? Does it convey your company’s credibility? If not, you are missing a big opportunity and potential clients are missing your message.

Before we begin the design process, Appian gets to know your business, your team, your brand and your message. Our creative thinkers take in all of these key elements to develop inventive, engaging and meaningful user experiences that speak directly to your end user. Whether you are selling a product, serving a customer, or improving efficiency, Appian designs websites that speak to your customer’s needs and your business requirements.

Rich Media

So what does “rich media” mean anyway? It simply refers to the practice of using interactive multimedia to offer an enhanced user experience. Appian commonly integrates web video, audio, animation, podcasts and other engaging technologies for maximum impact.

As the web matures, the demand for media-rich websites increases. These days it’s easy to leverage the web to deliver high quality streaming video. Appian can add a simple corporate video or commercial to your website, or we can show you how to use the web to deliver ongoing video episodes, demonstrations and video podcasts.

Ask us how we can improve your website today!

Microsites

Microsites are a separate page or pages of a website used to present and promote specific information. Microsites are a great way to provide in-depth information about a particular product or service. They are also an excellent way to present topic-specific, keyword-rich content that will rank highly with search engines.

Landing pages or lead capture pages can be used to present promotion content as well. Landing pages are often linked from social media, email campaigns or search engine marketing campaigns in order to enhance the effectiveness of the advertisements. The goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales leads. By analyzing activity generated by the linked URL, marketers can use click-through rates and conversion rate to determine the success of an advertisement.

Talk to us for more information about microsites and landing pages to see how they can benefit your online campaigns.

Responsive Websites

True mobility means multiple devices, display sizes, and orientations. It also means new opportunities. A flexible, responsive design approach reaches your customers regardless of the browser or platform.

Responsive design and progressive enhancement eliminate the need for separate device-specific layouts and simplify content management.

branding

First impressions count, and your logo is likely the first piece of information your audience has about your company. Having a professional logo is no trivial matter, instead, it is a powerful tool that instantly communicates your corporate style and philosophy, and sets you above your competition.

Brand relevance relates to the functional aspects of your brand identity, or how your company is positioned differently than your competitors. Your audience must be able to quickly distinguish you from the competition, understand your value proposition, and ascertain how your offering will best meet their needs.

Targeting customers' requirements and generating sales requires more than just a great product or service to sell them. They need to identify with what you are offering them.

Brands may work subtlety but they work hard! Businesses often find it difficult to justify why they should implement a well executed Brand as they don't relate to it as a tangible object or something of value. It's worth considering however that the public form initial perceptions (and ultimately purchasing commitment) from your product or service based on the first few seconds of encountering your Brand within any given environment. If the right messages or values are not communicated instantly through the design, potential business could be lost at the first hurdle.

A well designed Brand will set up an environment with themes that the consumer will find familiar and immediately relate to. It may do this by evoking a mood or lifestyle that has an instant appeal. The Brand will also reflect visually the values and strengths of the company and product/service. Such bonds are formed subliminally but provide a strong arsenal for converting potential business to sale.

A good Brand is often simple but the result of extensive development and comprehensive research. It does not dictate its environment and its strength and longevity lies in its ease of application. Implementing a controlled and consistent Brand programme will help you; your staff and your suppliers establish a visual synergy and help build recognition within all of your marketing material.

photography

Website Photography

Your first web impression counts - We can help you get the best visual impact with great photography. Here at Appian, in addition to our 360 VirtuaView photo tours, we offer a wide range of website photography options to not only enhance your website but to make the process simple, accessible and affordable. Let us show you what great photos can do for you! - On location, in-house, we offer it all!

Do you love it when an image tells a story? So do we... With our photo expertise, the pictures we take will convey the message and image you want them to present. - Quickly and concisely. Appian will give your website that personal touch that your visitors will relate to and trust!

Our photo options include but are not limited to:

• On-site photography (facility, staff, real estate, outdoor)
• Product photos for online catalogs
• Photos for marketing materials (corporate brochures, leaflets, headshots, advertisements, merchandising

360° Appian™ VirtuaView

Our 360° Appian™ VirtuaView Tours are an opportunity for a dynamic experience with high-definition, panoramic imagery for an "almost as if you're there" environment. With 360° VirtuaView, your website visitors can walk around, explore, and interact with you like never before!

Virtual Tours are a great way to show your customers who you are! Show them around your office or facility and give them an interactive view of your venue! Appian will help you create a unique experience for your customers that will help you stand out and continue to enhance your web presence! Our VirtuaView technology is perfect for:

• Continuing Care Retirement Communities - Showcase residential interiors and exteriors of your CCRC communities to applicants. They can view all your entire campus from the comfort of their homes.
• Residential, Commercial & Rental Properties - Residential and commercial real estate, apartment complexes, or vacation rental properties can now be shown like never before!
• Universities - Allow prospective students to view your classes through interactive virtual tours, and show them the commitment your school has to technology and their digital generation.
• Architecture - Showcase beautiful interior and exterior building design and landscape features. Inspire, excite and intrigue your online viewers in ways they haven't seen before.
• Museums, Concert Halls, Wedding Venues, and more - The sky is the limit when you use 360° VirtuaView Tours!

custom applications

One size does not fit all. Appian knows that a standard approach doesn't always work. Many projects have specific requirements that go beyond a standard website or "off-the-shelf" platform. At Appian, we have the custom application development expertise to personalize technology especially for your goals.

Our team of developers have built custom web applications for the smallest projects up to the most complex business applications. If you have an idea to improve a business process, we can make it a reality. Some common custom projects include:

• Extending content managment systems
• Custom online forms
• Custom intranet applications
• Financial calculators
• Custom ecommerce solutions
• Web-based business process applications

If your project has particular requirements, contact Appian today and learm more about the possbilities!

CMS Platforms

How often have you dealt with this scenario: you need a website change. Right now. A board member has just joined your organization, or you have a compelling piece of news that you are just dying to brag about to your current and potential customers.

But you don't host your own website, and you don't have the ability to change the site yourself. So you call your web provider, tell them what you need, and, wait, and wait?

Appian offers a host of content management solutions that makes it easy to create, manage and publish all of your web content through the use of intuitive web-based administration system. Anyone in your organization can manage your website content at any time with no special software or complex training.

Database Development

A critical business process is running on an older, outdated piece of software. You're ready to go to a newer, faster system, but you don't know how to migrate your critical data. Or you have an existing web application, but it runs slowly because of database performance bottlenecks and you don't have access to a database administrator. What if you have an existing data store with information you need to make business decisions - but you need reports generated?

Leverage Appian's expertise in database design and development and eliminate your database related headaches. We feature developers who are skilled in both Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL, so you can feel confident we have the technical expertise to get the job done for you the right way. We also hold core competencies in SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft Access development as well as an array of other RDBM systems.

e-Commerce

Are you watching your competitors succeed in online web sales? You have an idea for online sales, but you don't have the infrastructure to create and maintain a complex ecommerce solution? Appian can share our extensive experience with you to help you get your ecommerce store up and running. From design, development, and maintenance, we can help you achieve your online sales goals through custom solutions development that grow with your business ?not an inflexible pre-built solution that forces you to fit into it.

Additionally, our partnership with Authorize.NET, the web's leading online payment processing gateway, along with Rackspace, the premier solutions hosting provider, assure you that your store will be ready to handle almost any kind of transaction with the reliability and scalability you need to stay online.

online marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The process of search engine optimization involves altering your website so that it may rank well for particular terms, especially with crawler-based search engines such as Google. After optimizing a site to be "search engine friendly", it generally takes weeks to produce results and this approach requires ongoing maintenance in order to sustain effective results.

We will work together to develop a strategy and implement key changes that will deliver better search engine results. Appian will address critical search engine optimization enhancements to your web site.

SEO Planning and Strategy

To make your web marketing campaign successful, Appian begins with an initial discovery interview. This provides critical information in positioning your website as best as possible. In addition you can ask any questions that may be concerning you in regards to the types of changes that will be made to your web site, when to expect results, and lays the strategic foundation for your ongoing Search Engine Marketing Campaign.

• Goal Setting
• Competitor Benchmarking
• Keyphrase Research
• Discover keywords which will produce the highest volume of traffic
• Keywords that the competition are using to find success
• Significant high traffic keywords
• Newly rising keywords primarily based on new trends & services and products related to your industry
• Keywords with high conversion rates
• Keyphrase selection

On-page optimization

Appian will make the required changes to your site by incorporating your selected keywords into existing internet pages, and changing the keyword saturation and density, modifying and optimizing the most vital areas in your site's source code, making and implementing server level adjustments to guarantee your site is search engine friendly.

E-Mail Marketing

How do you grab the attention of new customers? Permission-based email marketing has emerged as a cost-effective way to acquire, retain, cross-sell, up-sell, promote and reinforce your company brand. Email marketing communications gives you the power to create targeted, cost-efficient and effective dialogs with customers, which can accelerate value throughout the customer lifecycle.

Our email marketing applications allow you to easily create, manage and track email campaigns to large mailing lists. Our customized mail list optins are seamlessly integrated with your website and make it easy for your visitors to subscribe.

Appian's email marketing program includes:

• A custom template that matches the look and feel of your website
• Import of any current mailing lists
• Easy-to-use campaign management system
• Customer training
• CAN-SPAM compliant delivery
• Delivery tracking
• Integration with social media

Web Analytics

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of website data for purposes of understanding and optimizing your online presence. Appian offers Google Analytics, the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.

Features

Advertising ROI - Measure the success of your display, search, new media and offline advertising efforts.

Cross Channel and Multimedia Tracking - Compare your site usage metrics with industry averages and track Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications.

Visualizing Data - Uncover trends, patterns, and key comparisons with funnel visualization, motion charts, mapping, and more.

Customized Reporting - Create the reports, dashboards, and segments that make the most sense for your business.

Sharing and Communicating - Administration controls and email reports allow you to share data across your organization.

Google Integration and Reliability - Google Analytics complements a suite of related products, all running on the same world renowned infrastructure that powers Google.