Polar Design Interactive Marketing Blog, Website Design Blog, E-Commerce Blog

Interactive Marketing Blog

Polar Design’s interactive marketing blog features regular posts, insights, thoughts, ideas, and recent project launch announcements. We share our developments in interactive design, online marketing, and crystallization of communication. Occasionally, we’ll blog about apparently off-topic subjects we love, from music, agency marketing, the Boston startup scene, chimps, and the Celtics.

Chronological Listing of Blogs Posts from All Blog Categories

Content Management Solution: Part 5- Video Integration

June 26, 2014

by polaradmin

castus, CMS, content control, content management solution, SilverStripe, tightrope, video, video integration, vimeo, youtube

This blog post is one part in a series. Click to see the other posts related to the benefits of a content management solution. Interactive content many times is what helps draw website visitors in and keeps them clicking through a website. With the now ubiquitous YouTube and the incre

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The Mass Big Data Award Winning Interactive Website Promotes Big Data in Massachusetts

June 10, 2014

by polaradmin

Awards, Big Data, government, Horizon Awards, Interactive

Mass Big Data Wins Best Of Government Websites

Polar Design announced today that a project it has worked on with the Mass. Technology Collaborative and Gopi Bala LLC, won the Best of Category award for Government Web Sites in Horizon Interactive’s 12th annual international award competition. The project is significant in many ways

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STEM Center USA : ReBranding for Kickstarter Success

April 04, 2014

by polaradmin

education, fundraising, logo design, rebranding, website design

Pi Bot Robot Kit

What can rebranding do for you? Today’s ever changing world of online markets lends itself to great opportunity to spread an existing or start-up company’s message to a huge number of possible customers, cost effective, through social media and other digital marketing methods.

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Content Management Solution: Part 4 – E-Commerce Content Management Integration

March 12, 2014

by polaradmin

CMS, content control, content management solution, e-commerce website, ecommerce, online store, products, SilverStripe, system integration, web development

This blog post is one part in a series. Click to see the other posts related to the benefits of a content management solution. Many websites go beyond just being informative: they sell products too. While having an e-commerce website can provide extra revenue streams for a business, a

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Content Management Solution: Part 3- Event Calendars

December 20, 2013

by polaradmin

calendar, CMS, content control, content management solution, event calendar, events, SilverStripe

Event Calendar Backend Example from The Camera Company

This blog post is one part in a series. Click to see the other posts related to the benefits of a content management solution. So you have general information on your website — an attractive Homepage directing users to important subpages, an About Us page with mission statement

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Understanding the Cloud : A Play in One Act

November 26, 2013

by polaradmin

application hosting, cloud hosting, IT infrastructure, system integration

Cloud Hosting Drama

With a growing number of clients requesting or coming to us with cloud hosting of web applications and sites, we’ve asked and been asked a number of questions about the cloud. Understanding cloud hosting is not daunting but does require some patience – the basic idea behind the cloud

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Content Management Solution: Part 2- Slider Carousels

November 19, 2013

by polaradmin

CMS, content control, content management solution, SilverStripe

Slider Carousel Backend Example from The Camera Company

This blog post is one part in a series. Click to see the other posts related to the benefits of content management solutions. Sometimes it is difficult for an organization to identify the top three to five messages it would like to communicate to its website users. And, further, an or

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Content Management Solutions: Part 1- Page Templates

November 11, 2013

by polaradmin

CMS, content control, content management solution, SilverStripe

Example of SilverStripe Page Templates

This blog post is one part in a series. Click to see the other posts related to the benefits of content management solutions. You’ve decided that your website needs a better maintenance plan: a content management solution. Great! But, where do you start? When integrating a websi

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Content Management Solutions: Making Website Maintenance Life Easier

November 05, 2013

by polaradmin

CMS, content control, content management solution, SilverStripe, web development, website editing

Content Management Solution Page Tree

Maintaining a website can seem like a daunting task at times. What type of content do I need? What size should images be? How can I have images rotate in a carousel fashion? What’s the best way to feature events? I could really benefit from a sign up form on this page rather tha

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How to Choose eCommerce Software : A Checklist

October 30, 2013

by polaradmin

conversion, e-commerce, ecommerce software

eCommerce Web Site Speed Test

Whether you are new to e-commerce or are an online merchant that has been around the block a few times, you know that after your product and your brand, your e-commerce web site is your third most important investment. With so much competition between e-Commerce design agencies and e

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Preparing Websites and Campaigns for Google Enhanced Adwords

April 10, 2013

by polaradmin

advertising, mobile, PPC, tips and tricks

Desktop vs Mobile Advertising in Google Enhanced Adwords

Google Enhanced Adwords : Forcing Us to Grow Into Mobile? Earlier this year, Google Adwords’ blog announced a newly updated advertising platform : Google Enhanced Adwords, that will thoroughly revamp how advertisers create campaigns. The goal is to allow advertisers to create s

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Top 8 Marketing Resolutions of 2013

January 17, 2013

by polaradmin

advertising, application development, facebook, mobile, online marketing, tips and tricks

New Years Fireworks

Marketing Goals for 2013 That Can Make A Difference The new year is well underway, but its still not too late to commit to some New Year’s marketing resolutions for 2013 that can lift your online marketing results this year and in future years. 1. Talk and Listen A new year̵

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Facebook Promoted Posts: Powerful if You Avoid Certain Pitfalls

November 30, 2012

by polaradmin

advertising, facebook, social media, tips and tricks

I Want My Friends Back Facebook Promoted Posts Controversy

Facebook Promoted Posts Are Reshaping Social Media Advertising Since October, owners of Facebook pages, from community pages to company pages to fan pages alike have reported a dramatic drop in impressions (views) of posts. If you’re an avid social media marketer, this is not n

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Taking Fundraising Social at the ACM-NE Conference

November 14, 2012

by polaradmin

fundraising, non-profit, panel discussion, social media

On Friday, November 2, two members of the Polar Design team (Mark and Tom) were invited as panelists for a workshop discussion entitled “Taking Fundraising Social” (along with Alecia Jean “A.J.” Orsini Lebeda, @AleciaLebeda, of Falmouth Community Television) at

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Polar Design Attending and Speaking at ACM-NE Conference

October 31, 2012

by polaradmin

ACM NE Public Access TV Conference

Our team will attend the 2012. This annual public access TV conference provides station managers, employees and volunteers the opportunity to participate in educational sessions, panel discussions and meet vendors in a variety of specialties such as audiovisual equipment; editing sof

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Polar Design Website Redesign

October 23, 2012

by polaradmin

CMS, online marketing, polar design, rebranding, redesign, SEO

Polar Design v. 4 web site portfolio

Have you heard the old saw about the skilled cobbler whose children always went barefoot, preoccupied as he was in plying his trade for others? This autumn, the team at Polar Design decided to lace up some new shoes. Let’s be clear: you would not want to hire a roofer that lives

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Polar Design Awarded Gold and Bronze by Horizon Interactive

May 11, 2012

by polaradmin

Awards, e-commerce, Horizon Awards, social media

The last time you heard about AnniesBid.com in a previous article, we discussed how Polar Design’s efforts in cause marketing and social media marketing achieved great success by acquiring prospective customer sign ups at just $6 per acquisition (as compated to $40-$100 that mos

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Cause Marketing : How Doing Good Increases Sales, Decreases CPA

March 12, 2012

by polaradmin

case study, online marketing, social media

AnniesBid Facebook App Landing Page

Until now, businesses have engaged in good works such as community service or charitable giving because its something their stakeholders value, because its part of their mission, or because of some vague tip of the hat to intangible benefits to a brand realized through charitable givi

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IUOE 478 Launches Public and Secure Member Portal, Upgrading its Multi-Employer Benefits Communications

March 15, 2011

by polaradmin

dashboard, multi-employer, secure portal, system integration, taft-hartley

IUOE 478 Taft-Hartley Participant Member Dashboard

IUOE 478 is a Taft-Hartley fund that turned to Polar Design in 2009 to redesign its multi-employer benefits website for its members, employer and staff. The previous web site was based tied to the company’s legacy benefits administration system that limited expansion to provide

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SEO and PPC Costs and Results Compared

February 15, 2011

by polaradmin

advertising, case study, online marketing, PPC, SEO

Compare SEO and PPC Costs and Results

Results and costs of SEO vs PPC Comparison SEO and PPC are both important components of any marketing program. SEO has the potential to drive traffic and sales leads at significantly less cost than PPC, but marketers often lack control over the results at a given time. Pay-per-Click

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