Consistent branding looks professional, saves on design time and helps guests and prospects remember you.

Starting with the logo
Maine Stay Inn and Cottages (Kennebunkport, ME) offers modern comforts in their historic home and guest cottages. Innkeepers Judi and Walter Hauer knew their web site needed an update and chose InsideOut for the redesign. But they had no logo or established branding.

After exchanging ideas with Judi, InsideOut designer Jim McCauley created a logo that conveys the accommodations’ traditional yet contemporary appeal. The logo is legible at both large and small sizes. And because it’s a vector-based* electronic file, graphic designers can quickly and easily work with this logo. Beth Logan had no trouble incorporating the new logo into her web site design.

Business cards
With the look and feel established by the logo and web site, designing the business card was a snap. Maine Stay decided to list all the staff with a check box next to each name. In this way, they saved the cost of printing a set of cards for each person. InsideOut created the design and took care of the print management for fuss-free printing and quick delivery.

E-newsletter
The logo and branding also transferred seamlessly to the e-newsletter designed by InsideOut. Now anyone on the Maine Stay team can publish e-newsletters with an easy-to-use template that also provides email list maintenance tools and statistics on open rates, bounce rates, etc. Their branded e-newsletter gives them an excellent way to reach out to guests in a targeted, low-cost way.

Consistent branding counts
By establishing a branded look first, Maine Stay has saved hours of design time. Their marketing materials also express the quality of their accommodations in a consistent way. This consistency makes the brand more memorable and avoids jarring discontinuities: e.g., the web site makes the place look great, but the rack card makes it look so-so. In Maine Stay’s case, prospective guests see the same experience as they go from business card to e-newsletter to web site to blog. A good first impression is backed up by repeating that impression, instilling the brand into viewers’ memories.

*Vector-based logos can be enlarged endlessly with no loss in image quality. Non-vector logos have strict limitations on how much they can be enlarged. Designers also use up valuable time cutting them out from their backgrounds since non-vector logos usually do not have transparent backgrounds.

Rack card and business card designs for Garden House, Key West, FL

Catering to the Key West crowd
Key West is a favorite spring break destination and Garden House has just the right vibe for this fun-loving crowd. Garden House owners John and Connie Manasco worked with InsideOut to create a great website that’s fun and easy-to-use. Next, they needed print pieces for visitors to pick up and keep. They turned to InsideOut to design a rack card and business card that matched their site.

For the rack card, the 4″ x 9″ size was the perfect choice since it fits both standard display racks and no. 10 envelopes. Plus there’s just enough real estate for useful information and photos while still fitting easily into a purse or backback. Using standard sizes for the rack cards and business cards (3.5″ x 2″) also kept print costs much lower than custom dimensions.

Matching the web site for strong branding
With a few adjustments, print designer Jennifer Lozada was able to transfer the horizontal web design to the vertical 4″ x 9″ print format and the small business card size. She kept the tone very casual, using the same sunny beach and ocean colors, cutout photos, fun pattern and handwritten font. Text was kept to a minimum; only the most important information was included. As a result, there was room for a few good photos plus a simple map to help visitors find the inn and to illustrate its convenient central location.

Garden House’s marketing pieces, both online and in print, have the same relaxed party-friendly look. Matching these pieces keeps a consistent picture in prospects’ minds. There’s no jarring difference in quality between the cards and the site.

The result:
John & Connie were happy with the designs and quickly approved them. They selected a quantity of 2500 rack cards and 2500 business cards which gave them an excellent per piece cost on printing. InsideOut oversaw the print management, ensuring high quality printing and fast, no-fuss delivery.

The New Blair House Inn Web Site

The Blair House Inn is a unique property, and it was an exciting challenge to incorporate their interesting business model into an attractive & functional site.

They have one of the most popular cooking schools in the nation. The food network came to Wimberley to film a segment on their unique “BBQ Camp”. They have a a popular series of classes that includes themed regional cooking, like Italian or French.

We wanted to build a site which would allow viewers to easily move through the products and services offered at the Blair House. The Hill Country Inn also has an art gallery on-site, where local and national artists’ work is displayed. We used beautiful pictures of the inn and the work there to convey the anomalous feeling at the inn: laid-back Texas style, gourmet dining, art & education!

We also included a blog to assist in search engine optimization for the site. By allowing the staff and innkeepers to make new content on the site on a regular basis, the site remains a vital and changing place, that reflects the activity that is happening at the inn.

Speaking of blogs, we launched a Wordpress-based site for Whale Bay Charters, a one-man boat charter business that sets sail from Gustavus Alaska for about a dozen private charter trips every summer. They are geared towards families and marine mammal viewing. But not just any little seal, Captain Mike Braal brings his vessel the Exodus through the Icy Strait to the feeding grounds of humpback whales.

Whale Bay Charters New Web Site

When Mike came to us, he felt that no one had ever found his Alaska Boat Charters via his web site online. He had a limited budget, but we were able to make a site that could change and shift almost as much as the ocean he sailed. Through the power of Wordpress, we made a low-cost, high-efficiency site that would allow Mike to update and change the information on his regular pages as the seasons change, as well as include a photo blog area where he and his guests can share their wildlife photography from the week-long trips.

As always, both of these sites were built with great Search Engine Optimization in mind, and according to the office manager over at Blair House Inn, they are seeing an increase in traffic and bookings already.

Homespun Country Inn is located is pastoral Nappanee Indiana. A diverse community that is known for automobile manufacturing (formerly Rvs, now flat-bed electric trucks) and, on the other end of the scale, a large Amish population, makes this area a draw for both tourism and business travel alike.

Nappanee has a modest population of just under 7000, so it was important the Homespun Country Inn was able to establish themselves not only as a bed and breakfast for leisure travel, but also as a lodging property that would appeal to travelers that would normally look for a hotel in Nappanee.

The Homespun Country Inn New Website

The former website was far from achieving this goal. Dated, and rather unappealing, they were suffering from a high bounce rate of about 37%, with users spending an average of less than 3 minutes on the site, looking at less than 3 pages. Rooms photos we tiny, and unclear. The web site made the inn seem small, stuffy and unattractive.

What a difference a few hi-resolution photos and a great destination marketing team can do! The site now reflects the charm and beauty of the inn.  The Homespun Country Inn has seen it’s bounce rate drop 25%, visits have increased by 16%, pageviews are up 156% and time on site is up 28%, just in the few days since the new site has been live. Wow! This is why our clients love our site designs: they are beautiful, effective marketing tools that allow the user to have a positive experience and the innkeeper to watch their ranking and reservations increase.

Your Web Site is Your Number One Marketing Tool!

Your web site is your first impression, and according to recent web search surveys and a webinar from marketing guru Trent Blizzard, the higher and more often you are found on the Internet, the better the perception of your business (source). So don’t let your web site give the impression that your business is old, dated, somewhat broken, messy, cluttered, or, heaven forbid, ugly. A new site design is the first step in making sure you are ahead of the curve in todays’ travel and destination marketing environment. Don’t get left in the dust!

On a peninsula in Lake Hamilton, the Estate as a breathtaking view of the Lake and surrounding area. We were so delighted to create a design for the Estate that would give visitors an impression of what it was like to really be at the inn.

We used cool colors and gentle florals to make the site feel appealing and approachable. The old design was rigid, and we wanted the web site to convey to potential guests and brides that Hamilton House is committed to their guests’ comfort and enjoyment on the lake.

Hamilton House Estate, Hot Springs Inn & Wedding Facility

Adding a Google map to the directions page allowed users to instantly access driving directions, reviews and other information about the property and the area from Google maps.

We re-vamped their wedding page to include all new and relevant local services and vendors that a bride may be looking for. Their Hot Springs Wedding packages are listed clearly, and there is a downloadable PDF for brides or event planners who want more details.

The Hamilton House website now optimized and designed to current web standards while giving the visitor a better and more accurate impression of this exceptional property.