If you’re a developer or have ever messed around with html and style sheets you will know that getting it to look the way you desire isn’t always the easiest job. What’s worse is when you finally get it perfect just to find things are much different in other browsers. Personally I use a variety of tools when developing and quite a few specifically for cross browser testing and ensuring an exact design to development match. These tools include:

General Browser Testing:

Spoon.net – http://spoon.net/browsers/

This website will allow you to run a variety of browsers as if they were installed on your computer. This is by far the best overall browser testing tool I have run across.

IE Tester – http://ietester.com

For general testing in Internet Explorer I often use IE Tester as a quick check to ensure all development is coming along as it should in Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8. I also like the Dev Tools offered in this software that allows me to get a closer look at the code.

Specifically for Matching Design to Development:

Pixel Perfect – http://www.pixelperfectplugin.com/

This is one of my favorites, it is a Firefox add-on that allows you to overlay the design image on top of the developed HTML to match it up Pixel Perfect.

Microsoft Expression Web 3 SuperPreview – http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/dd819431.aspx

For internet explorer I use the trial version of Microsoft Expression Web 3 SuperPreview. It allows you to overlay the design image on top of the developed HTML like the Pixel Perfect Firefox add-on.

B2C and B2B online marketing investing is still FAR from where it SHOULD be and this Forrester Research article below discusses this amazing continual growth trend.  If you are a business owner and still watching from afar or slowly limping into online marketing, reconsider your strategy and find a great web marketing partner and start discussing ideas and strategies. It’s time to get serious. Your competitors are likely already there or planning to get there soon. So should you.

Forrester Article, By Michael Greene

Forrester’s five year forecast of B2B interactive marketing spending has gone live on the Forrester site. This report marks the beginning of a chain of research for interactive marketing professionals at B2B companies. It should be no surprise that B2B interactive marketing spending continues to grow – and quickly at that. We project B2B interactive marketing spending to hit $4.8 billion in 2014, over double an estimated $2.3 billion in 2009. That’s no number to sneeze at, but what impresses me most is that historically conservative B2B marketers are not only investing in interactive marketing, but actually shifting budget towards online channels. While all marketers need to adjust marketing plans to suit their unique marketing goals and purchaser behavior, I think our forecast reflects a few universal truths for B2B marketers:

• Accountability reigns supreme. Even more than their B2C counterparts, B2B interactive marketers are highly focused on channels that deliver tangible business results. Search marketing has been an obvious beneficiary here and we expect B2B marketers to continue focusing on delivering quality leads through their interactive marketing efforts.

• But digital isn’t just for sourcing leads anymore. Paid search is still the top interactive line item for B2B marketers, but display, mobile, and social marketing are all growing quickly. As B2B marketers gain experience with interactive marketing, they are beginning to stretch outside of their comfort zone and turn to channels that can spark brand interest and help educate potential customers.

• B2B marketers can’t ignore social media. Consumer-focused marketers have been relatively fast out of the gate in adopting social marketing, but I believe that it’s B2B marketers who will ultimately gain the most from social technologies. B2B marketers have always understood the need to develop deeper relationships with customers, and while traditional sales and client service operations aren’t going to disappear, social media has emerged as key platform for informing decision makers during the sales process and engaging and supporting existing clients.

Beacon Contact Person: PatrickFlanagan at 336-232-5668

As we do with every new website release, the Beacon Team enjoyed donuts this morning to celebrate the successful launch of the new and much improved Robert Ham website!  Robert Ham provides America’s retailers with quality store fixtures, retail store displays for merchandising and packaging solutions (for 56 years!).  This was truly a cross-department achievement and everyone involved really put in extra effort on this one:

• Creative:  Beautiful design to perfectly compliment the client’s new print collateral
• Development / Database:  The site was designed & developed in record time using AspDotNetStorefront with several last minute modifications (fully tested of course) just prior to launch.
• System Administration:  Beacon’s Technical Support Group provided top notch technical and launch support, and went well beyond the call of duty by changing the DNS at midnight last night to ensure a smooth transition from the old site to the new one.
• SEO:  Web marketing setup tasks were performed to fully optimize the website for search engine friendliness.

This implementation of AspDotNetStorefront included some nice features:

• Product import of more than 2000 products from an existing paper catalog database (which will ultimately interface directly to their back-office systems)
• Custom-designed home, category, topic, checkout and product templates
• Client can edit virtually all of the home page body content area, including part of the header
• Advanced category and search filters that allow the client to segment the products by whatever attributes they’d like (color, price, etc.)
• Sortable and “View All” functionality on category landing and search results pages
• Related Products and Recently Viewed Product recommendations
• Dynamic product recommendations (“People Who Bought This, Also Bought…”)
• Product Compare on category landing pages
• Enhanced search capabilities (by price, category, etc.)
• Restricting admin users to certain menus
• Integration of  Constant Contact newsletter sign up
• Virtual catalog integration (coming soon)
• Custom Request a Catalog form

This was truly a cross-department achievement and everyone involved really put in extra effort on this one.  Big thanks to Wendy Honneycut who created a beautiful design to perfectly compliment the client’s new print collateral, Tiffany May who developed the site in record time!, John Wallwork for all the transactional work, William Nichols and Wayne Van Zandt for providing top notch technical and launch support (as usual)!, Andrea Cole and Brad Henry for completing all the web marketing setup tasks, Annette Fowler for Project Management and Justin Klingman and Tracy Dirks for consultation and advising.