Today alone, I have received over 100 emails about products and competitions and without reading them they have all been deleted!

So what can you do to make sure your email marketing campaigns don’t meet the same fate? Here are a few tips to help ensure your emails don’t end up being deleted without at least being read first.

Include an unsubscribe option Peoples tastes, needs and requirements change, so even though they may have signed up to receive your updates 6 months ago, they may no longer wish to receive them.

By law, you need to make sure that all marketing emails include an unsubscribe button, and that when a recipient requests to be removed from your list it is actioned within 10 days.

Spell check and proof read your email There is nothing more annoying than receiving poorly written, generic spam! It immediately creates an unprofessional image.

Proof read your email, spell check it and ask at least one other person to read through it as well.

Include a call to action So you have written an amazing email full of relevant information which has really caught the attention of the recipient, what do they need to do to find out more? Don’t forget to tell them, it may sound simple but just like attaching that file to an email it often gets overlooked causing the recipient work to actually get what they need!

If you have a landing page make sure you provide the link at various stages throughout the email, if you want them to call you make sure the telephone number is clearly visible, but most importantly make sure this information is included at the bottom of the email as this is where they will be when they have read the information and want to know more!

Test your email before you send it Before you send the email to anybody else, send a test to yourself, this will allow you to see how your email will appear to your recipients.

View the email in your chosen program, email programs may display the email differently to how it appears whilst you are creating it so this will give you the opportunity to go back and amend anything that doesn’t display correctly. You can also use this test email to check that any links in the email are working, and forwarding to the correct destination as well as asking somebody else to proof read it.

Have a snappy but relevant subject line People are more likely to open an email with a snappy yet simple subject line. Make sure your subject line is honest and hints about the content of the email, don’t attempt to mislead the recipient into opening the email as this will more than likely annoy them and cause them to unsubscribe!

Keep your emails relevant Make sure that any emails you send are relevant to the recipient, ‘if they AREN’T relevant – they ARE Spam!’

Avoid spam triggers Anti-Spam software looks for various words and phrases that are commonly used in Spam emails, if you want to avoid having your email marketing classed as Spam it is always wise to avoid trigger words.

A simple way to do this is to use an email marketing system that allows you to Spam check your email and identify problem words or phrases. Innocent words such as ’specialise’ can cause your email to be classed as Spam as it contains the word ‘cialis’, this may not even occur to most people but a Spam checker will highlight these problem words.

Avoid attachments The easiest way for unscrupulous people to infect your computer with a virus is to send an email promising further information if you open an attachment. The majority of people are now wise to this and don’t open emails from unknown senders if they contain an attachment.

If you want to offer further information in your campaign, include a link to a landing page on your website.

Make sure your identity is clear to the recipient Masking your identity, or attempting to make recipients believe you are someone else is a no no! Make sure that your display name is either that of yourself or your company and that your email body includes your contact details.

People are less likely to open or respond to an email if they cannot identify the sender.

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Internet Marketing Specialists Midlands

Twitter is a great site for meeting new people, swapping useful information and um… some not so helpful information (such as the daily pictures of one Twitter friends thumb!), anyway, even I was surprised the other day when I visited and noticed that ‘Ecommerce’ was a trending topic.

Clicking the link, I found that it was trending because people were retweeting an online article called 15 common mistakes in ecommerce design and how to avoid them.

Want to see how Studio 2 Online ecommerce websites check out against this list? Why not visit our latest design Pineapple Shoes to find out!

Studio 2 Online websites are built using Magento, so all of the features mentioned are available on all of our websites, please contact us on 0116 2758456 if you would like a demonstration of the Magento system or to discuss how ecommerce can help to boost your companies enquiries and sales.

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Ecommerce web design Midlands

The Leicester Mercury believe the problem is location, but then continues to report that 15% of units in the new Highcross Shopping Centre are also empty and this is retail space in a prime location.

So then, how do retailers save their dwindling sales and survive the recession? We believe the answer is through the use of ecommerce.

Online sales have been steadily growing for a long time and continue to do so despite the recession. Recent surveys have shown that online selling has risen by nearly 20%, and 64% of internet businesses are confident to expand their online trading this year.

Ecommerce offers retailer reduced overheads whilst having the ability to display a larger range of products, this in turn gives you a much higher return on investment. Online selling opens you up to a larger target market and allows you to attract more relevant sales enquiries offering you a greater chance of conversion.

Generally, online selling allows retailers to offer better prices and enables comparative shoppers to research products in greater detail before purchasing. Online selling is not only a way of saving customers money but also time. Online stores make shopping more convenient, allowing visitors to purchase 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Our ecommerce websites are built using Magento, a great system that allows shoppers to get much more from their online shopping experience, and we all know that a good user experience makes shoppers more likely to return!

Magento allows our web designer to do what he does best – create visually striking designs that incorporate the company branding, whilst offering shoppers tools such as product comparison, wish lists, recently viewed items, clear pricing and multiple delivery addresses for a single order – an especially good tool for shoppers looking for great, no hassle gifts!

And best of all, our in-house copywriter Chris, can write the copy for your site at no extra charge. To quote Chris “If great web design is your enticing shop window, compelling web copy is the sales assistant who converts ‘just browsing’ into ‘buy now’ ”.

Our main focus is to create a website that is not only visually attractive but also encourages sales and achieves a Return On Investment. If you would further details about Studio 2 Online ecommerce websites, please call Andy for a no obligation chat and predicted ROI on 0116 2758456.

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Ecommerce Leicester

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• A link to your website is seen as a vote of confidence for your website
• In recent years this has been abused -some reciprocal linking partnerships were created specifically to con search engines and search engines have recognized this
• Reciprocal linking dilutes your “link juice”, e.g. if you have a link from a site of  page rank 1 into your site, and then you create a link from your page rank 1 site back to that site, link juice = 0
• If you obtain a link from a site with higher page rank than your own, it can be beneficial for your site
• Bearing this in mind, you can link to other related sites if you feel it will benefit the user of your website and add to their experience

So when acquiring your website design in the West Midlands, web design in Leicester, web design in Birmingham or anywhere in the UK, bear these linking points in mind!

Harpreet Seehra
Studio 2 Online – Web designers Leicester

Hosting packages come in all different sizes, with all different types of additions. Some of the terms you may come across when setting up your hosting package are:

Disk Space – Disk space is the amount of data you can add to your website, the larger the disk space your hosting package has, the more you can add. Text pages usually only take a small amount of disk space, the addition of pictures and music to your website will use larger amounts of space, so if you have a very image rich website you will require more disk space.

Bandwidth – Bandwidth (also known as monthly data transfer) relates to the amount of people that can visit your website, the larger your bandwidth allowance, the more people can visit your website. Every time a person visits your website, bandwidth is used to transfer the data to and from the server. Once your bandwidth allowance has been reached, websites will become unavailable and usually display a ‘bandwidth exceeded ‘ page until the amount resets. If you are expecting lots of visitors to your website it is important to make sure you have a large bandwidth allowance to make sure your site is available when people visit.

Pop boxes – Pop boxes or Pop3 boxes relate to your emails. When you set up the domain name for your website, you may also choose to set up an email address on that domain e.g. if my domain was danicass.com my email address might be dani@danicass.com. If I wanted to use my email address with a program such as Outlook or Incredimail (my personal favourite email program – any program that lets me add animated smiley faces and glittery backgrounds gets my vote!), I would need a Pop3 account to make my email address work. Usually setting up an email address is as easy as going through the steps on a setup wizard, or your hosting supplier should be able to help you do this if it requires anything more technical. Once everything has been set up, your emails will then be received directly to your computer when you connect to the internet rather than having to sign into websites such as yahoo and google to retrieve them. The only real downside to Pop email addresses is the emails are stored on your computer so if your computer breaks, your old emails that you may be keeping will be lost.

Ftp access – FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. When you have created your website, you will use ftp access to transfer the pages, images, music, etc, from your computer to the server that displays your website on the internet. Some hosting packages allow you to login to a control panel and upload your website directly, others will provide you with the details to transfer the files using third party software where you ‘drag’ the files from left (your computer) to right (the server).
If using CMS you shouldn’t require ftp access as the changes will be made directly to the site and will update when you save.

MySQL or MS SQL – These are databases used to run applications on your website. SQL is the ‘language’ used to communicate with the database. MySQL is an open source application, this means you don’t need to have a licence to use it, and it will run on any kind of server. MS SQL is the Microsoft version, Microsoft products require a licence and the database will only run on a Microsoft server.

Forwarding – Forwarding packages are used when you have multiple domains to transfer the website and/or emails to the main domain name, for example, if my website was at danicass.com i may also register dannicass.co.uk (people often try to guess a company’s domain name so it is good to register the variations they may type), the forwarding package means that when my visitors type in dannicass.co.uk the page will automatically change to danicass.com, so they will still see my website, meaning that I wont lose my visitors. Forwarding is also good if you have various company names operating under an umbrella company. If someone sends me an email to dani@studio2dani.com I could forward it to dani@danicass.com so I don’t need to set up and check lots of different emails, and I could still use the company name that my visitors know, making it less confusing.

If you come across any other jargon whilst setting up your hosting, please reply to this post and I will try to explain what it means. I may not know, but we have a brilliant technical team that should certainly be able to make sense of it!

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Web Design Leicester

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CSS 2 went some way in expanding what was possible with web interfaces; allowing for easier positioning and layering of elements, and numerous new ways of targeting certain elements and giving them unique attributes (making things such as accessible drop-down menus to be created). Pre-built open source JavaScript libraries though, have put even more power into the developer’s hands.

JavaScript libraries have given developers easy and fast ways to target and manipulate elements, making them grow, shrink, and change colour. As well as changing their appearance, it is also easy to attach behaviours to elements; making them react to mouse hovers, clicks, and key presses; and using these reactions to trigger changes in other elements. And why stop at working with just the elements already on the page? JavaScript libraries give you the power to easily manipulate the very structure of the HTML page itself, adding elements here, taking away elements there, wrapping elements in other elements, changing content, re-ordering lists, and even using Ajax to pull something in from an entirely different page… the possibilities are quite literally endless.

Prototype JS, Mootools, JQuery, Extension JS – all have become familiar tools for the more savvy developer over the last few years – and all have their strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. Developers will debate forever about which is ‘best’, but most of the time a developer use whichever he learned first, as it will usually be the quicker solution. Personally, I tend to stick to using the JQuery library (for reasons I won’t discuss, as I’m trying to make this post as non-geeky as possible), but all seem to be able to achieve similar results and make adding interactions a lot less hassle than coding JavaScript from scratch.

I can remember about JQuery a couple of years ago and thinking “That’s all well and good, but if I don’t see where I could use it!”, but it was surprising how after I’d investigated and tried a few examples, I was passing ideas to the designers about how information could be re-arranged and space could be managed differently. Soon we began to think outside our normal flat-picture mindsets, and began to think of elements having actions and reactions, areas hiding and showing when requested, certain areas scrolling and moving in response to interaction. It’s made the websites we create now better and more functional than anything we were building before, and for that – I love it!

I was asked a few days ago ‘What does CMS and OSB stand for, and what do they do?’, this is an extremely good question and worthy of a jargon free blog!

What do CMS and OSB stand for?

CMS stands for Content Management System.

OSB stands for Online Store Builder, and is a type of Ecommerce System. Studio 2 Online ecommerce websites were built using the OSB system prior to the change to the new Magento system.

What does CMS do?

CMS systems allow users to login to their website and update the content rather than paying a third party to manage the site for them. CMS systems are usually WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) systems, this means that users simply enter their content and images into a ‘template’ and the system does the rest.

Templates for the CMS system are created by a website designer, and the code for the template is created by a website developer. Once the system has been set up, you will require little or no technical knowledge to update the website.

Using a CMS system to manage your website allows you to update your website as often as you like, adding new information in real time so that your visitors have the most up to date information available.
Regularly updated websites also rank higher in search engines!

CMS systems also allow you to apply consistent branding throughout your website. You only need to design the template once, then apply it to the whole website. Templates create uniformity through the website, allowing your visitors to familiarise themselves quickly with your website and easily locate the information they require.

What does an Ecommerce system do?

Ecommerce systems work in a similar way to CMS systems by allowing the user to add new products, images and descriptions to their website. Again, the templates and formatting are created by the website designer and builder.

Using an ecommerce system allows you to offer new products quickly, providing detailed descriptions and an enhanced user experience.

Our new Magento ecommerce system allows you to easily offer your customers product comparison, product upgrades, cross selling and multiple delivery addresses in a single order. Magento also allows you to track sales statistics using drop down menu’s, meaning that not only can you find those all important figures for sales reports, you can also see which products are best sellers and which are your most viewed products as well as customer details such as orders placed and average spend.

CMS and Ecommerce systems make operating a website very simple and effective in terms of time and money. The systems are easy to use and require only minimal training – if any. Studio 2 Online CMS and Ecommerce systems are partnered with unlimited support contracts meaning that we are there to help you should you need it (we also support the technical bits, so you don’t need to worry if anything goes wrong!).

So why not change the way your website is managed? Call us on 0116 2758456 for a FREE demonstration of our CMS and Magento Ecommerce system.

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Ecommerce Web Design Leicester

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There are three main types of website, these are brochure sites, catalogue sites and ecommerce websites.

Brochure Sites

A brochure site is perfect if you want a web presence and you want it fast! Ask for a brochure site with Studio 2 Online, and we typically deliver this between 4 to 6 weeks, faster if you take advantage of our FREE website copywriting service.

Yes, you read that right, we will actually complete all the copywriting for your website for you, at NO cost! Writing the content for your website is often the most time consuming part, and most web design agencies expect you, the client, to do it for them or charge you extra for it. However, it isn’t just about the cost or the time, good copy can be the difference between success and failure. When using our in-house copywriter our clients have seen a real difference to the effectiveness of their websites because the copy is written professionally.

Brochure sites are exactly as the title suggests, they are an online brochure telling people about who you are, what you do and the products or services you supply. A brochure site isn’t an eCommerce website, so it isn’t designed to sell products. It is however designed to sell your company and how you can solve the needs of your customers. After all, these days your website is usually the first impression of your company a potential customer, supplier, or future employee will have. 

A brochure site is also a perfect partner for email marketing campaigns, allowing you to link your emails to your website providing further information and allowing you to track what paths visitors are taking through your website. 

These days you need your Brochure site to be updateable by you. This means you can keep your company and product information up to date, adding new information as required. This saves you time and money compared to having to go back to your web agency every time you want to make a change to your website content.

Two brilliant examples of brochure sites are Buffalo Socks and Central Systems.

Catalogue Sites

A catalogue site is an online library of your companies products, very similar to an eCommerce website but without the ability to purchase the items online. Catalogue sites also usually contain the elements of a brochure site but can contain large amounts of pages detailing product information. A catalogue site is perfect for allowing people to view all your products but where you want buyers to order through a call centre or an online order form.

To get the most benefit Catalogue sites should be updateable sites, which allow you to add new products and amend product details as needed.

A great example of a catalogue site is Kookaburra Reader

Ecommerce Websites

eCommerce websites include all of the elements contained in a brochure site and a catalogue site but with the additional benefit of your customers being able to buy the items online. Ecommerce websites link to a ‘payment gateway’ which enables the buyer to make a fully secure payment by credit/debit cards, Paypal, Google checkout or other payment options you can choose for your site.

Ecommerce websites have many advantages over bricks and mortar shops, including the ability to show your whole range of items, 24/7 shopping, lower overheads and opening you up to a worldwide market!

Ecommerce is quickly becoming the major growth area for businesses, even during the recession. Local workwear manufacturer and client of Studio 2 Online, Grahame Gardner, recently reported a significant boost in orders thanks to a rising number of online shoppers. They are one of many online retailers and wholesalers who are cashing-in on the online shopping revolution. The Federation of Small Businesses recently reported online sales growing at an average of 20%. Can you afford to miss out on that type of sales growth?

Ecommerce websites are also updateable websites which means you are able to add new products and amend product/price details. We can even create discount and special offers which can be integrated in to the website. eCommerce websites can also be used to offer customer specific pricing, where a customer can login and view products at their own pricing. You can even restrict the availability of certain products to specific customers, e.g. if you make a specific type of product just for one customer. Another key feature often used on eCommerce websites is “Promotional Codes”. Promotional codes are used to help you track the effictiveness of your marketing. For example if you put an advert in Yellow Pages, you might say “enter code Yell08 to receive free delivery”.

Two brilliant examples of ecommerce sites are Merchant Gourmet and Grahame Gardner

If you would like to discuss the different types of websites available to you in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact Andy on 0845 6187342.

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Web Design Leicester

Below is my RSS reader of choice – the Safari Web Browser (fig. 1.). It has an RSS reader built right into the browser, so I never have to leave the window when I’m online and a new story is sent out by a website. On the far right of the menu bar I have a folder named ‘RSS’ (fig 2.) – and you can see that right now I have ‘91′ unread updates to the websites I subscribe to. When I click on that folder you can see a menu appear with the different websites I’ve subscribed to and how many individual web updates there are (fig. 3.).

Fig. 1: Safari Web Browser

Fig. 2: Safari in-built RSS

Fig 3: RSS Menu Showing Updates

When I click on any one of those individual websites I’m shown a screen that lists the new updates – I can click on any of those and go directly to that page on the website (fig. 4). Without ever having to go to the website and trawl around for the latest updates, I can have them delivered to my web-browser and instantly get access to the most current information.

Fig. 4: List of new RSS feeds, with corresponding article

So how can this help you and your ecommerce website? Magento, our powerful new ecommerce back-end allows you to automatically generate an RSS feed for things like new products, special offers etc. Whenever you add a new product to your site, your users can immediately know. If you have a special offer you need to push out to your customers, you can use an RSS feed to get it in front of them straight away. Alongside other marketing, your RSS feeds will become a compelling method for your customers to interact with your website – instead of waiting for a weekly or monthly mailshot telling them of your latest offers, they can subscribe to your RSS feed and instantly take advantage of your offers as soon as they are online. It also increases social interaction with your website. For example, if you have a special event coming up you can create a wish-list of perfect gifts, and then let your friends and family subscribe to that list as an RSS feed. And because it’s dynamic – the RSS feed will update whenever you update the list, and let everyone in your party know instantly! You can even forgo being sent emails regarding your orders; simply subscribe to the RSS feed and whenever your order status changes you’ll be updated vis RSS without clogging up your inbox!

All in all it’s a great way of keeping in constant contact with your customers, without being too overbearing, and letting them feel like they are in control. It’s an even better way of increasing your sales potential.

Parb Johal
Web Design Team
Studio 2 Online eCommerce web site designers Leicester
Always designin’ for the masses, because none of us are as powerful as all of us…

If you read our blogs on a regular basis, you will often find us going on about how wonderful ecommerce is and how ecommerce sites can significantly boost sales. We have been designing ecommerce websites for 10 years this year, and think we do them pretty well! You may have noticed over the last few days however that we have been blogging about a great new product called Magento, and we believe that now we are using Magento as our ecommerce back-end, our ecommerce sites will be even better!

We are all very excited about this new product and the amazing features it can offer our clients.

Yesterday, Kevin discussed the benefits of user generated content and on Monday, Parb discussed user powered ecommerce. There are many more great features which will be discussed by the technical team over the next few weeks, so check back regularly to find out more! We are sure that you will be as impressed with Magento as we are!

With the addition of Magento to our ecommerce websites, we have also reviewed our packages and pricing, and are now offering bespoke, feature rich ecommerce websites from just £3,000.

What is ecommerce?

Ecommerce, or electronic commerce is the name given to the buying and selling of products and services over the internet. Ecommerce websites can offer various payment methods including paypal and credit cards, and through the use of an SSL Certificate allows you, the retailer, to make the transaction more secure.

What are the benefits of an ecommerce website?

Ecommerce websites allow your customer to shop 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Whilst high street traders are reporting losses, online retailers are reporting increased sales. During the recent bouts of bad weather, online traders reported some of the busiest days on record.

Purchasers are better able to research products online before they buy, as well as comparing prices to find the best deal. Also, as a retailer you are able to display a larger range of items giving your customers a greater choice.

Using an ecommerce website with a back-end such as Magento allows you to easily add and amend products without being dependent on a third party, this allows you to update your website in real time giving your customers accurate information. Being able to update your own ecommerce site will also allow you to reduce costs by completing the work in-house.

As I mentioned above, our ecommerce sites are totally bespoke, so we can work with you to achieve a website design that you can really be proud of. Our in-house copywriter will also work with you to ensure your ecommerce site is not only user friendly, but also search engine friendly.

If you would like to arrange a free demonstration of our new Magento system and find out more about how a Studio 2 Online ecommerce website can help to increase your sales, please call us on 0116 2758456.

Dani
Studio 2 Online
Ecommerce Websites Leicester