[Project Complete] - Banners for emailWiz - $300

[marketingtitan]

(Admin code added by Palmer - 8UU49904KW356125N)

I need a set of mini-banners for the right sidebar of my website, www.emailwiz.com. Each of these banners would highlight one of our key features and have a height of approx 300px. These graphics will randomly display in the sidebar, with two graphics per page. The features I'd like to highlight are:

* Free Forever Plan - Users can sign up for a free account that allows them to store up to 2,000 subscribers and send up to 12,000 emails per month. This plan never expires and does not require a credit card to sign up.

* Unlimited Sending - Unlike most of our competitors, we do not impose any limitation on the number of emails a user can send per month. For instance, if a user signs up for our base plan, he can store up to 1,000 subscribers and mail as frequently as he wants. Each plan is limited by number of subscribers, not by the number of emails delivered.

* Built-in A/B Testing - This is explained on the following page: http://www.emailwiz.com/content/ab-split-testing

* Reseller Program - See http://www.emailwiz.com/content/reseller-program

* Wufoo Integration - Users can design subscription forms using Wufoo and easily integrate those forms into our system

* Unlimited Autoresponders - See http://www.emailwiz.com/content/create-auto-responder

The design of these graphics should be clean and contemporary, consistent with the design of the site as a whole as well as being consistent with one another.

[will]

Here are the first 2 banners. Let me know if the style is of your liking. I used mainly the colors of your website so they do not call that much attention but designed some elements so their meaning is relevant to the vistors' eyes :D

[marketingtitan]

Will, that design has kind of a retro feel to it. I'm really looking for something more contemporary, more of a Web 2.0 style, if you know what I mean... At least to my eye, it doesn't really fit with the overall design of the site.

[will]

Here are 3 slightly different versions of the same concept, one with shadow, the other without it and the third without the white border (that I used to merge the concept with the little icons on the left)

[will]

Here are 2 other web 2.0 banners :D

[will]

Here are the final 2 :D

[will]

And all the banners together... Let me know if you want to change anything (colors, shapes, fonts, etc). :D

[marketingtitan]

Will,

These banners are nicely designed, but I'm still not convinced that they fit with the style of the site. On the one hand, I want them to stand out, but on the other hand, the site has a very minimalist design, while the banners are bright and colorful and I think they will appear garish.

I actually prefer the colors in the first set of banners you designed. When I suggested a more Web 2.0 style, I was referring more to the icons, fonts, etc... For instance, the magnifying glass reminds me of something I would have seen in a comic book ad from the 70's. I'm also not a fan of all the green in some of the other icons, as well as the starbursts, etc...

I apologize if I've given confusing feedback. I guess I'm looking for something with a more contemporary and sophisticated appearance. Our target market is primarily small and medium sized businesses, not consumers, so I want to come across as more businesslike and corporate, rather than flashy and yelling for attention. I hope that makes some kind of sense?

[will]

I ll give it a try again tomorrow :D

[will]

mmmm... what about this... I tried to mix both concepts and align them to the style of your site. :D

[will]

...and this version without shadow integrates even more :D

[silviu-ivan]

Here are 2 concept from me for the A/B testing and Unlimited Sending banners. On the second version of A/B testing, I can make the cartoon hold up 2 envelops (similar to v1 where I've put them in the hands of the characters) - if you like the concept better.

I think the clean look of the banners work great with the rest of the site, you can see them but they are not in your face, and the graphic tells the story.

I would appreciate your feedback before I continue with the other banners.

Cheers,
Silviu

v1
http://silviu-ivan.com/do/emailwiz/banners-v1a.jpg

v2
http://silviu-ivan.com/do/emailwiz/banners-v1b.jpg

[marketingtitan]

Silviu, I very much appreciate your submission, but I'm going to go with Will's design on this one. I hope you'll continue to participate as I post additional projects for this website.

Will, I think you nailed it this time. The only thing that needs to be changed, is I need a "Learn More" button integrated into each of the banners, with the exception of the "Free Forever" banner which should have a "Sign Up Free" button.

Thank you both!

[will]

Thanks for choosing my concepts :D

Not a problem, I will add the buttons and redesign the other banners to fit the new style :D

[will]

By the way, which version do I use: with shadow or without it ?

[will]

Here are all the banners. I kept the drawings in the style of the main envelope so it fits the overall design better :D

let me know if you want to change anything.

[marketingtitan]

Hi Will,

These look good, but I'd like actual buttons, rather than just text that says "Learn more" etc...

[marketingtitan]

Also, can you work on the graphics for Unlimited Sending and Unlimited Autoresponders? Currently, Unlimited Sending is just a simple envelope, which doesn't really provide any meaning beyond the fact that it's somehow related to mail. Unlimited Autoresponders is three envelopes, which again, doesn't really capture the idea of an autoresponder.

[will]

Here are the changes. I made 2 different banners for both UNLIMITED. Let me know if any of them goes in the direction you are thinking :D

[marketingtitan]

Yeah, the ones in the bottom row are good.

Another concern I have is with the Free Forever Plan, I want to place more emphasis on the fact that they get up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. Lots of companies give away free accounts, but they usually have very low limits.

Perhaps you could move those up to the top, directly underneath the headline, and emphasize them using a reverse text block, and/or some type of graphic...

[marketingtitan]

Also, please make the buttons and the text inside the buttons larger. The text is so small that it appear blurry on my screen. I really want those buttons to stand out, so people understand that they're supposed to click on them, LOL!

[marketingtitan]

Also, you can feel free to make the banners taller so the text is less crowded and you have more space to make the buttons larger, etc... I specified around 300px in height, and they're currently under 200px.

[will]

Here are the changes :D I made the banners all the same size, but can adjust this to fit the text instead of uniformity.

[marketingtitan]

Everything looks good, except the buttons look like the same size as they were in the previous version. Please make the buttons and the text inside the buttons larger. Thanks!

[will]

Here they are :D

[marketingtitan]

Looks great, Will!

Go ahead and send me the files. Please include the PSD's and fonts as well.

Thanks for the super effort!

[will]

Thanks to you for choosing my ideas :D

The Final Files have been sent throug Private message :D