How we work.
What can you expect from us? Our customers tell our story.
Nielson Complete™
An Educational Services business gains 20,000+ CPA customers in less than 3 years.
From idea to thriving profitable business.
They had an idea.
Two people had a great idea for a new business. Accountants, their employers, and instruction providers need a simpler, more efficient way to meet the legal mandates for continuing professional education. The idea: an online service to offer the courses and manage the record-keeping nightmare of tracking the credits.
Industry experts + fresh start.
Even before the new company had a name, the entrepreneurs, Erhan Aksoy and Sue Anderson, engaged Nielson Design to work with them on branding the business and creating the website that is the engine of the enterprise. Three months later, CPE Link was launched.
We need a designer who understands business and marketing.
“Our goal was not just to design a website, but at the same time to establish a consistent, compelling marketing message and identity across the board for the company. Jeff Nielson has the marketing mindset we need for that,” said Erhan Aksoy, founder and CEO of CPE Link.
“Jeff Nielson has the marketing mindset we need.”
Nielson became a part of the team from the outset, collaborating on naming the company, designing the logo, creating a simple and elegant web interface that converts visitors to customers, and strategizing an e-newsletter to drive click-throughs to the website.
A simple web interface that leads to purchase.
CPE Link — Online Education for Accounting Professionals
Easy to Use website that appeals to CPAs.
The CPE Link website delivers on the company brand promise. “CPAs aren’t technical. We needed to make the website very easy to use to gain their confidence and to give them a good learning experience, which is a very important aspect for measuring success,” says Aksoy. “We developed the code, but for the user interface; you need to work with a knowledgeable designer.” The result: A straight-forward, adaptable web design. Users say the interface is very user friendly and intuitive. Even better, the site is meeting the company goals for increasing conversion, the rate at which users purchase the company’s live and self-study courses.
An integrated marketing campaign that gets click-throughs.
Highly Effective Email Marketing Campaign
Above Industry Standards for Conversions.
CPE Link publishes a monthly e-newsletter. “We wanted to improve the rate at which subscribers open the newsletter and the rate which they click through to the website. We talked to Jeff about our benchmark objectives, and he created a new template,” says Aksoy. The click-through rate has more than doubled, and the team continues to refine the newsletter to drive the results even higher.
More than 20,000 customers.
In a little over three years CPE Link has gone from an idea to a profitable thriving business. They have added staff and are growing continuously even in today’s economy.
Establishing a Compelling Name, Message, Integrated Marketing Plan and Brand Identity.
The Nielson Identity™
A Silicon Valley business boosts the power of their corporate identity.
Clearly communicating a company’s capabilities.
Howell Electric looked like a typical small business.
The Old Howell Electric Logo and Website
Howell Electric’s logo, website and marketing communications collateral were out-dated and unprofessional. Ken Howell, the founder and president of Howell Electric, wanted to upgrade his identity to better match the level of service his business is capable of providing. He built his company with a Commitment to Construct the highest quality Electrical Work in the Industry today, while still meeting the most demanding Project schedules that our customers require.
We wanted to look bigger.
“Nielson Design came to us as a trusted referral. We have very high standards for design and wanted to work with someone who could elevate our image and make us look bigger. We are very satisfied with the results and plan to continue working with Nielson Design on an ongoing basis.” said Ken Howell, President of Howell Electric.
Nielson Design gave us the look we were looking for.
Nielson became a part of the team from the outset, collaborating on naming the company, designing the logo, creating a simple and elegant web interface that converts visitors to customers, and strategizing an e-newsletter to drive click-throughs to the website.
A re-designed logo that gets attention.
New Logo.
The new Howell Electric logo looks more professional and up-to-date. The design retains the original logos brand equity yet looks different enough to make a big impact.
A professional website that showcases success.
The new Howell Electric website
Updated website.
Howell Electric’s recently updated website positions the company as a much larger business with the necessary resources and capabilities. The site showcases Howell Electric’s successful projects. Each project drills down to specific industry categories which makes it very easy to track visitor behavior in Google Analytics.
Complete Corporate Identity System.
We developed a complete and integrated corporate identity system for Howell Electric. The designs included letterhead, business cards, envelopes, address labels, email templates, interior, exterior and vehicle signage, sales templates and ads.
Trade Ads.
Trade ads were designed to appeal to general contractors and construction managers.
Establishing a Compelling Name, Message, Integrated Marketing Plan and Brand Identity.
Nielson Corporate™
Cisco “unifies” the UCS Manager user interface.
Icons, photography and design create an elevated user experience.
Cisco’s enterprise application was not up to industry expectations.
Cisco’s in-house developers did an excellent job creating a user interface and application to manage their server/computing infrastructure. The problem was that they were not trained in graphics and design. As a result the benefits of the application were not communicated as clearly as they could have been. At first glance the application looks like it was out-dated yet the technology being used was state-of-the-art.
Old UCS Start-Up Screen
The Old UCS Manager Application Launch Page.
A stock photo of the San Francisco bridge was used as a focal point of the start-up screen. The Image was nice but not relevant to the product. Also the typography and identity was very generic for one of Cisco’s most high-profile solutions.
Cisco GUI Before
The Old Cisco Graphic User Interface.
The graphic user interface was based on Windows XP’s look and feel and color palette. The application icons consisted of a mismatch of image the developers could get their hands on. The result was an inconsistent look and unprofessional feeling.
Experience. Easy to get along with.
Nielson Design’s experience with application icon design, photography and brand identity enabled us to move forward at a very quick pace. Jeff Nielson worked with UI developers for Agilent and MSC Software for their flagship products. The fact that Nielson Design re-designed Rackable Systems website and identity also gave us confidence since they were of a similar market.
An integrated design from start to finish.
Elevated Product Line Identity.
A product logo was created for UCS Manager to help it stand out and attract attention. Nielson Design created icons and photo-realistic graphics to enhance the UCS Manager’s graphic user interface.
UCS Manager Web Launch Page
New Application Start-Up Screen.
The stock photo of the Golden Gate bridge was replaced by an interesting graphic background. Typography was addressed and the navigation options clearly identified. The site uses CSS styling to create a more professional feeling.
New Application Skin
New Application Skin.
Nielson Design worked closely with developers to create hundreds of unique icons for the UCS Manager interface. The templates were “skinned” and product photography was updated to give a more cohesive experience.