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Websites

In today's world, your online web pressence will often be the first impression your customers have of you or your organization. Cicada Graphics will use modern programming tools combined with classical design sense to ensure that your website looks and performs as professionally as you. We can move forward on almost any budget, so don't hesitate to contact us and see how we can help you.

Branding (Logo, Messaging, etc.)

Speaking of first impressions, your organization's brand is one of the most important elements in your marketing mix. While a clear and asthetically-based logo is part of your brand, it's only one aspect. Cicada Graphics will generate a beautiful, professional, modern logo for you, but then we will complete the brand ID process by helping you establish your mission/value statements, your slogan, your color palette, your font set, and even your preferred advertising elements checklist.

Web-Hosting/Domains/Email

If you don't currently have an email account that reads "yourname@yourdomain.com", then you're giving a less-than-professional impression of yourself to anyone who decides to email you - especially if you already own yur own domain. Choosing, securing, and setting up your own user-friendly domain name and set of domain-based emails can seem like daunting tasks - but Cicada does it for clients all the time! We make it easy to start using your domain to make you look as professional as possible to your customers.

Social Media

If you are not using Social Media to reach out to your customers, then you are missing out on the opportunity to meet your target audience on their own terms, and where they have already decided to interact with others. They're just waiting for you out there... but which accounts/services should you use? How should you establish your online Social Media pressence? What should you say? ...or not say? Cicada Graphics knows the answers. Let us help you add this powerful tool to your marketing efforts.

...and Everything Else, Too!

If it has to do with defining the way you are perceived professionally by your target audience, then Cicada Graphics can help. If you would like to talk with us about any of the items above or in the list below, just click here and ask Jeremy (owner of Cicada Graphics). We will get back to you right away to discuss your needs!

- Logo/Brand ID
- Business Card/Stationery Set
- Ad/Page Layout
- Email Blast Design & Distribution
- SEO Consulting
- Brochures, Signage, and Collateral Materials
- Photo/Video Editing
- Photography/Videography
- Ad Messaging/Scripting

If you don't see it here, but it's a marketing-related service, there's a good chance that we do that, too - ask us here, and we'll let you know if we can help!

Need a website by August? - Join Cicada Graphics as We Develop CicadaQuickSites THIS SUMMER!

Need a website by August?

The next set of agents and/or agencies who join us as we continue to develop CicadaQuickSites this year very well may get just that! You see, Cicada Graphics is seeking a limited number of agents and/or agencies who are affiliated with Senior Marketing Specialists and who also currently need a website. Not sure if you're interested yet? You still have questions? Oh, right... we haven't even told you what CicadaQuickSites are.

What is CicadaQuickSites?

Allow us to back up and explain. It's no secret by now that Cicada Graphics & Web Solutions offers custom websites and other visual marketing materials - like logos, brochures, branded presentation items, etc - we've been doing that stuff for almost ten years now for hundreds of clients across the country.

But sometimes, you don't need a fully-dynamic and custom-detailed website for your organization. You just need a website... and you need it quickly.

That's why - by May of 2014 - Cicada Graphics will offer a new, fully-automated product called "CicadaQuickSites" online for SMS agents and agencies who just need a simple website that does simply the basic things they need.

Here's why we want YOU:

We know how to make websites. We even know what it will take to build a self-service system online that will produce an automatedly generated website... but you are the one who knows what that site needs to look like. As an agent or agency, you have a picture in your mind of what it would take to make a simple - but successful - agent-site via CicadaQuickSites.

So what we want is for you to get in on the "ground floor" of this project with us now and help us develop what will become the standards that the rest of your collegues will use in the years to come via the future roll-out of CicadaQuickSites. By joining us this summer, you will essensially have the opportunity to get a semi-customized website for the price everyone else will pay for an automatedly-produced site.

So it's a win-win! But there is a catch...

We can only accept a few agents and/or agencies to sign up this year as we continue to develop the system, so when we reach our limit, you won't get another chance to get a CicadaQuickSite until NEXT YEAR when we unveil it as a fully-automated product at SMS's next Sales Summit (likely in late-Spring of 2014)!

So, if you are interested, we need you to let us know now!

Just click the link below and sign up to be a part of the development of CicadaQuickSites starting this summer.

Click here to let us know if you are interested in CicadaQuickSites.

Cicada Graphics' First "Real" Week (an Explanation)

Ok, so for those of you who know of Cicada Graphics, the title of this blog may seem confusing. Let me help you by explaining that, no; this was not Cicada Graphics' first week of doing business. In fact, I am proud to announce that Cicada Graphics has just seen its 5th year anniversary. Cicada has seen a lot of growth since its inception, and continues to offer new products all the time. This - the fact that Cicada is NOT new - should put a few of you (especially on-going clients of Cicada Graphics) at ease.

So why then have I titled Cicada's first blog posting with such a seemingly disassociated set of words? Because a unique set of circumstances led to a change in Cicada Graphics as of this week.

Those circumstances being: I lost my full-time job last week.

It was unexpected, but surprisingly quick and efficient (as far as these things go, I'm assuming). It was laid out in very clear terms that the organization simply couldn't keep me, circumstances as they are.

As any "normal" person would, I found myself shocked, frustrated, scared, and - I dare say - a little hurt. But I moved past that to begin the next "normal" set of actions one takes when they find themselves in such a predicament - I started networking like my hair was on fire! Instinctively, my actions were aimed at finding another job - a "normal" nine-to-five to replace the one I'd just had taken from me. Anyone in my social circle quickly became aware that I was "available".

But an interesting thing happened as I blasted my message across every media I had at my disposal... the individuals who were responding were not coming to me with "normal" jobs as I had expected. Instead, they were contacting me with projects and opportunities for Cicada. I even had a few conversations that included those beautiful words every young business owner hopes to hear, but never really expects to until they've already made it: "product distribution" and "partnership agreement".

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. Within 48 hours of being what I would have considered "normal", my life had been turned upside-down - and now my wife and I were faced with an interesting delima: Do we take "the road less traveled", and seize these potentially life-altering opportunities (even while the rest of the world is looking down the barrel of a global recession)?

Or, do we do what's "normal" and send out resumes, texts, tweets, instant messages, phone calls and telegrams to everyone I meet in hopes of finding a "normal" job? That's the "normal" thing to do, right? I mean, the answer to not having a job is that you go find another one, right?

Well... I am happy to say that after many conversations with my wife and family (and at least as many prayers concerning the decision) I concluded that it was reasonable for me to be ab-normal. I decided that I would NOT look for another "normal" job, and that if it was to be that I should become successfully un-employed - then so be it!

So, as of this past Tuesday evening (08.25.09) I became gainfully un-employed by my own small business, Cicada Graphics, LLC! I am now officially and absolutely reliant upon my own determination and the successes that God allows me to have. I am now completely dependent upon the small business that I began over 5 years ago as no more than an outlet for my creativity.

While this is terrifying to me on its surface, it is also exciting in a way that have never experienced before. I have, in the last few days, felt a desire to achieve in a way that no other role has brought with it. I'm proud, grateful, and anxious.

I have no idea what the coming days, weeks and months will bring for me, my family or Cicada. What I do know is that this was Cicada's first "real" week... and I loved it!