A short introduction on utilising Motion Tracking in videos: by me, Danny Piercy (yes; that’s me in this test video).

Motion tracking; is it video footage, is it motion graphics or is it visual effects? I guess in a sense it can be all of those things combined, but one thing for sure is it’s a-w-e-s-o-m-e!

Motion tracking is the closest thing to the term ‘just photoshop it’ that you’re going to get in a video. It allows you to add things into the scene that weren’t previously there, or weren’t even possible.

You’ve probably seen motion tracking without actually realising it was there, today’s technology for tracking and camera solving is so advanced that it fools all but the highly trained eye.

The idea of ‘motion tracking’ isn’t new; it’s been around since about 1985. The US Defence Department actually first developed the concept of tracking for use in their missile guidance systems.

The fundamentals of use in video are basic: find a high contrast area, track its motion, and link the position keyframes of your track to whatever you’re adding to the scene.

However in practice it’s a lot more complicated than that. You really have to plan to use motion tracking in a shot before you shoot. Including it in a project as an after-thought usually ends up a bit messy, plus it’s nice to know what you’re going to add to the shot so that you can add tracking aids if needed.

There are different types of motion tracking that you can perform on a shot. There’s the standard 2D tracking, using a single track point to track position; there’s 2D tracking that will use two or more tracking points to help track position, rotation, scale and perspective and finally there’s 3D tracking, which will allow you to put 3D objects into the shot whilst maintaining the same perspective and orientation as other objects in the scene.

Motion graphics can be used for a number of different purposes, from displaying information in an engaging manner, adding objects into a scene, or even just tidying up a shot by removing distracting features. However, the more information and tracking options that are included, the more technical the process becomes.

Motion graphics can add a great deal of technical ‘swooshness’ to your production and final video, if you have information that you want to share about something specific in the video, being able to motion track it in is a great way to make the information stand out and become much more engaging.

Seeing text or information in the real world will catch a viewers attention, it will be something they aren’t used to seeing; it will be memorable and effective.

We used motion tracking in a video project for a manufacturing company that wanted to show off some of their new machines. They wanted the new, clean machines to be the main focus of the video, so cutting to dedicated motion graphic slides of text/information wouldn’t work – the machine also had impressive new features that they were eager to show off.

We overcome this hurdle by using motion tracking to incorporate the motion graphics into the filmed video of their new machinery. We filmed the new machines making sure to get clear shots of their specific new features so that we could add the information relevant to that feature into the video clip.

This was a benefit for a few reasons: one; it kept the new machinery on screen at all time, maximising the viewing time. Two; the information was easier to understand as you could not only read it, but also see the part of the machine it was relating to. Finally, the third way in which it benefitted the video was the contemporary modern look that motion tracking can bring, this helped to emphasise the fact that the machines and technology were new and state of the art.

We love using this feature whenever possible, hence our screen tests in the video above where we experimented on some new techniques. We predict more and more videos will incorporate motion tracking to support filmed footage on business-to-business video projects in the future.

If you’re thinking about a unique video project that incorporates this great technical feature then get in touch - we’d love to help!

Case Study: Filming, Editing, Interviewing and DVD/MP4 Production of Live Events

Client: National Lottery Fund / St Helens Concert Band

Background
Studiowide had been awarded a project as part of the National Lottery funding stream to document the history of one of the countries oldest concert bands; The St Helens Concert Band. The project involved the filming, audio recording, image replication, film restoration and then final production of 500 boxed DVDs, which would be distributed at the official 40th Anniversary of the band (in its current form).

The purpose of the video was to highlight the various stages the band had been through since it’s earliest members in 1849. This included restoring and editing footage from past members, whilst filming new band footage and interviewing present band members.

Challenges
The challenges that faced us as a company were; dealing with the sheer volume of archived materials and, as part of the Lottery Funding criteria, the project had to involve the band community as much as possible in the making of the films. Our main challenge was to film the concert band at two separate Live Events. Event number one was an official recoding session at Parr Street Studios, Liverpool, with event number 2 taking place at Proms in the Park, Liverpool 1. 

Solution
At the live session event in Parr Street Studios, we worked with the audio technicians and the studio managers to ensure that we captured the right footage and audio, without disrupting a very important recoding session. We achieved this by using the minimum amount of camera equipment, with compact sliders and tripods where necessary.

The Parr Street studio event also involved interviews with band members. We actively engaged the interviewee with relevant questions to enable us to capture the footage that was required.

The Liverpool 1 event was filmed from the ground floor using our own 5 metre Jib. This allowed us to reach up from the front and sweep across the main stage area. An additional 2 cameramen then supported this footage onstage and in the crowd. We worked with Liverpool 1 event organisers and audio technicians to ensure we captured exactly the right footage for our client.

Results
“Just to let you know that we held our 40th Anniversary Concert on 27th October at St. Helens Town Hall and started distribution of the DVDs. initial feedback is that the DVD is in great demand, with requests for more copies from those who attended the concert.

Your team's work on this project was professionally and enthusiastically carried out, and delivered perfectly to time. The filming and video production proved to be far more involved than we had originally thought, and I suspect the work you did on it went far beyond your initial brief, but your team never complained, and the end result is something they can be proud of (we certainly are).”
Keith Owens. St Helens Concert Band, Secretary.

Beautiful Brows Liverpool, eCommerce Website Design & Development Project.

Beautiful Brows Ltd is one of the fastest growing companies we have had the pleasure to be working with. Based near Speke in Liverpool the company has risen from a relatively unknown brand, to become a worthy competitor to the likes of MAC, Bobbi Brown and Benefit Cosmetics.

The secret to their success – and why they are a clear favourite as the preferred choice when it comes to the ‘scouse brow’ – is down to their unique semi-permanent eyebrow powder. That… and the fact they have amazing branding and a phenomenal presence at all of the major European beauty and cosmetics shows.

Studiowide began working with Beautiful Brows over 12 months ago following a telephone enquiry for product photography. We completed the photography project, and did such a good job, the guys asked us to design their first website for them. The remit at the time was to complete a micro-site that would give them a web presence to support their trade show promotions. Everyone wanted to know about Beautiful Brows, but they had no website to direct people to.

Fast-forward 12 months: in that time we have produced product demonstrational videos and promotional videos (filmed at the Clothes Show Live), along with brochures and digital interactive marketing packs.

The brand has grown exponentially over 12 months and the company quickly outgrown their first micro-website. We were asked to embark on a new eCommerce website design and development project to coincide with the launch of their brand new products.

The new website had to be built on a robust eCommerce platform that was fully scalable and could grow with the company. After a number of tests we decided to opt for the popular Open Cart eCommerce platform, with a bespoke design. Prior to beginning, we mapped out the customer journey – anticipating buyers requirements with a view to working out which components would be needed to support a seamless online transaction.

Because Beautiful Brows sells its products worldwide the company is looking to expand on Franchise opportunities. Therefore, the website had to support multiple currency and multiple language transactions. The Beautiful Brows UK eCommerce website would be used as a model for all other country specific websites.

We worked closely with the guys at Beautiful Brows to understand their needs exactly. We delivered a fully operational eCommerce website in under 8 weeks – this was timed perfectly to coincide with the launch of their new products.

What next for Beautiful Brows and Studiowide? As with most of our clients, things quickly turn from a supplier / customer relationship to one that mirrors a true partnership. (Once we have proven that marketing activities do generate measurable returns, our customers quickly see the value of this investment and use us more and more for their marketing activities).

Studiowide are currently 4 months into a social media campaign for Beautiful Brows and the results are looking very good (case study to follow). As for the eCommerce website design project, the return on investment, helped along by the social media campaign has not only rewarded Beautiful Brows with increased product sales, but has also elevated the brand and generated an increased interest from prospective channel partners from around the world.

You can view the new Beautiful Brows website here.

If you would like to discuss how Studiowide can help you with your eCommerce website design project, then please get in touch.

Creative Continuity Liverpool, Website Design & Development Project.

Creative Continuity is a highly specialised printing company who are doing some really remarkable work right now. Ever seen a beach effect that seems to be part of a solid floor? Well that’s those guys… or someone similar. Printing scenery and obscure pictures onto the most unusual of materials is their bag – any they’re good at it as well.

The company who are based on the outskirts of Liverpool had been planning a website for the past 12 months, and initially decided to engage a freelancer – at what they thought at the time was a reasonable way to get a website built. 12 months later and no website, it was time to call in the ‘A’ Team – or Studiowide to be more precise.

[We can generally turn small to medium sized website design projects around in about 4 weeks. Larger projects take slightly longer. This isn’t, what some may think, solely down to the surge in coding or website design hours (albeit that does add to the project), but more because of the time it takes for a client to produce and revise/review the additional new content, which is typical on a large scale website project.]

We’ve had the above scenario a couple of times, where companies have opted to use a freelancer on their website design project, only to find out that the moment they sign on the dotted line the circumstances change with the freelancer, either they get mad busy – because they are good at what they do, or they finally get the job they have been pursuing. Whatever the situation, it generally ends up in customers waiting for their work to be completed.

Now, we will say at this point that this isn’t the case of ALL freelancers; some freelancers are really good at what they do and have been freelancing for years. These guys are also very good at managing their client work. We’re only highlighting our experiences, and in particular, the situation that Creative Continuity found themselves in.

When we arrived on the project, the previous website designer had opted to use a Drupal Content Management System (CMS). As this was the chosen content management platform by the client, we too used the same system. However, that’s about all we could rescue from the project. It was time to go back to the drawing board and begin from scratch.

For the Creative Continuity website design project, as we were dealing with another ‘creative’ company, the remit was not to be too constrained by website design norms. Our customer had a clear understanding of the colours and look and feel the site needed. We merely helped to realise the dream.

The site uses some nice decorative fonts and some very effective illustrated assets. Overall the feel is funky and quirky, which is exactly what we were going for. The client is very happy with the new site. And, since it went live we have completed project number 2, which was an outbound email marketing campaign, plus, we are also in the process of undertaking project number 3; Search Engine Optimisation.

If you would like to talk to us about your next website design project, then please get in touch.

Click here to view the website

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“ Studiowide delivered our website design and development project on time and within budget – the end result surpassed our expectations. The whole team at Studiowide are friendly, responsive and knowledgeable, and a pleasure to work with.”
Graeme Wilson, Managing Director, Creative Continuity Ltd, Liverpool.

Filming of Production and Process Environments.

We have been asked to participate in a number of projects recently involving Lean and TPM manufacturing programs within production and process environments, due to our vast experience of working within these sectors.

Part of our digital media production service offer at Studiowide is to support manufacturing companies who are undertaking these types of businesses improvement activities.

The media equipment we use has been specifically selected to achieve the optimum results when working in harsh environments and where there are typically hard to access areas.

The Digital Media Production services that we currently provide to manufacturing and process companies are:

Internal presentations. This includes weekly walk-around meetings, specifically taking place on the shop floor. These videos capture Team leaders demonstrating successes or actions that have been closed off, and can also highlight new areas of concern. The video can then be used to present internally to stakeholders within the organisation who may not normally get the opportunity to participate in such meetings.

Sharing best practice. The main focus for any World Class Manufacturing program is centered around the use of Pillar Boards. We can film teams presenting their pillar boards at team meetings. The final video can be shared across multiple site locations to demonstrate best practice and support the development of teams and individuals.

‘How to do’ videos. We have filmed specific areas of businesses, including auditing and review meetings to use as ‘How to do’ videos. These videos can then be used to demonstrate a particular function or as a one-point-lesson.

Bringing presentation to life. We have also recently developed a whiteboard animation drawing technique – these types of videos can be used to bring non-visual instructions to life. Whiteboard animated, hand drawn videos are so much more engaging than PowerPoint presentations and generate a higher retention of information. Plus they’re an enjoyment to watch!

Internal Training. SOPs are a fundamental element of the manufacturing process. Studiowide can film intricate processes to support written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and help speed up the process of rolling out new procedures across multiple plant locations.

Production process analysis. The backbone to any improvement initiative is to identify problems in order to solve them. The camera equipment that we use can be set up to monitor in areas of high speed production processing or where an intermittent fault may occur at any point over a number of days.

If you would like to discuss how we may help with your next Digital Media Production project, then please get in touch.

Liverpool City Region Collective Switch Scheme. Case Study.

Studiowide have recently completed a marketing campaign project for Energy Projects Plus, on behalf of five local authorities: Halton Council, Knowsley Council, Liverpool City Council, Sefton Council and Wirral Council.

The campaign is for the Liverpool City Region Collective Switch scheme, which aims to help households across the region reduce their fuel bills. This is done by group buying through energy supply companies. The more people who sign up to the collective switch, the better the offers are likely to be.

We have worked with Energy Projects Plus to provide a number of marketing campaigns, in particular the award winning Warmer Wirral campaign in partnership with Wirral council,

The objective of the Liverpool City Region ‘Switch’ campaign was for Studiowide to design and build a website, including database and associated auto-responders, as well as create all campaign marketing materials to allow the scheme to be administrated smoothly and promoted as effectively as possible.

The challenge for this project was to satisfy a number of stakeholders involved in the project, as the scheme was spread over 5 Local Authorities. The LCR Energy Switch Scheme is the only Energy Switch Scheme in the region. For the project to move from concept to realisation in such a short time, we submitted ideas and working models of how the campaign would look, in order to obtain stakeholder buy-in along the way, from all Local Authorities.

The target audience in the development phase was our major stakeholder Energy Project Plus (EPP), along with Halton Council, Knowsley Council, Liverpool City Council, Sefton Council and Wirral Council. We worked closely with Energy Project Plus to ensure that the scheme was suitable to all partners – once the scheme was approved, then our focus was switched to addressing the needs of the user base, consisting of homeowners across the region.

The main purpose of the LCR Energy Switch Scheme was for Studiowide to produce a fully functional website and database to enable homeowners to sign up to the project, and to provide all associated marketing materials to promote the scheme.

We approached this project in stages due to the needs of the scheme partners. This meant building the website in various formats: from image concept onto a fully functional website.

Once the basic layout for the website had been agreed and signed off by all stakeholders we converted the site to run on a WordPress Content Management System and integrated all of the necessary database forms. This allowed the administration team to update the website as required, whilst also providing database functionality to export the relevant campaign information.

The target launch date for the scheme was 15th April 2013. In addition to a fully functional website, Studiowide designed all associated promotional materials such as roller banners, web banners, posters and leaflets.

All campaign materials were delivered to the client on time and on budget and the switching scheme went live on the 15th April, as planned.

Within the first few days the project had attracted over 1,000 subscribers and will continue to be promoted across the region via local TV and media.

Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, who leads on low carbon issues for the region, said: “We know that people in our region are concerned by rising fuel prices. This scheme could help people save hundreds of pounds a year simply by switching to a cheaper tariff.

To view the project and, more importantly, if you live in the region, to sign up to the scheme, please visit the website here.

Corporate Promotional video for Beverages Direct, Speke, Liverpool.

Beverages Direct are one of the largest independent beverage distribution companies in the UK. We were asked to produce a promotional video which could be used to support their sales presentations to new and potential customers. The video would demonstrate the extent of the services that are offered by Beverages Direct.

The main objective of the video was to demonstrate the full range of products and aftercare sales service that is available. From initial contact through to order handling, packing and delivery, the brief was to capture it all!

Beverages Direct plan to rebuild their website (Coming soon – also from Studiowide) and utilise the new corporate video, along with other campaigns, to drive awareness and generate leads as part of their overall marketing/advertising programme. The new promotional video will play a key part in their website and will be shown on the home page slider and in other prominent areas of the site. 

One of the key issues which we wanted to address with this project was to ensure that we captured the diversity of the Beverages Direct operations, whilst also highlighting the key brands that the company represent, such as Nestle and Lavazza.

We set out to produce a 2-3 minute video that would show the complete operation in a linear format, mirroring the customer journey, from beginning to end. This involved us visiting their offices and filming the staff and workplace, including some of the machines that were set up as demonstration units. Of course, we made sure we had to test the coffee from each one whilst we were their!

Each step of the process was captured and the 'coffee story' was communicated through a mixture of filmed video, motion graphics and a narration (voice-over). Combining audio and visuals in this way, backed up with a subtle music track, is proven to deliver effective, immersive and engaging experiences for the viewer.

If you're planning on commissioning your own corporate video, then please get in touch to see how we can help. 

We’ve just completed yet another of our amazing Whiteboard Animation videos!

Home Build Help are a company that provide expert advice and personal consultancy services to assist with home projects. They needed a company video to show new customers exactly what they do, how they do it and why they are good at what they do.

The video was to be placed on their website so that visitors to the site could watch it before browsing the site and would have a much better understanding of the professional services that Home Build Help provide.

Video does so well at getting the message across – much better than written text. Did you know, people are 75% more likely to watch a video than read text? This makes it an ideal way to communicate your message online.

The challenge for home build help was to convey exactly what services they offered so their customers could see the immediate benefits of planning a home build project with the correct contract in place.

The target audience for the video would be potential customers looking at using the Home Build Help services to assist them with their home build project. The overall aim was to help drive awareness and provide an increase in business.

Because Home Build Help are a service company, they don't actually have anything tangible to film, therefore, a standard filmed video was not an option. In instances like this some companies choose presenters to rattle of a script. In our opinion, these types of videos are becoming just as flat as a page of text. 

We have met the exact needs of Home Build Help by offering our White board animation videos, where we bring the script to life on a virtual whiteboard. The concept mixes hand drawn illustrations, photographs, video and motion graphics into one super engaging video. 

This style of video is great for companies like Home Build Help who don’t necessarily physical to film but still want a video to deliver their message. It allows them to deliver a message and information that is accompanied by illustrations in an exciting and original manor. 

We completed this video project as part of a wider marketing programme we are undertaking for Home Build Help, this includes a fully dynamic website which we also launched recently. 

If you’re interested in having your own whiteboard animation video done, then please, do not hesitate to get in touch!

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"The whiteboard animation makes me smile every time I see it. It’s so simple in its ability to convey our message and looks amazing. Thank you very much for all your hard work, dedication and creativity throughout the whole website design and video production process. The team have always been very welcoming and understood the message I am trying to portray. I am really excited and looking forward to the future successes of Home Build Help, which is largely down to your ability and vision." Colin Kimmins, Managing Director, Home Build Help Ltd.

What is Whiteboard animation? Quite simply, it is the visual recording of someone drawing on a whiteboard. You may also hear it referred to as video scribing or video doodling. Whatever title you prefer, this format of communication is currently achieving fantastic results in the business world because it’s so effective at visual storytelling!

Here at Studiowide we have been flexing our creative muscles to come up with the perfect way of developing the most effective whiteboard animation technique.

Our whiteboard animation adopts mankind’s earliest known communication; the scribing of imagery on walls. This method dates back to prehistoric man, so I guess it’s safe to say its effectiveness has stood the test of time.

Without question, drawing is great for visualizing an idea and connecting with people. If you then adapt this artistic action onto a whiteboard, and combine it with the use of modern technology in the form of a high quality digital cameras and professional editing; you not only capture the hand drawn animations but also the undivided attention of your viewers.

But why stop there?  The videos can also contain handwritten messages, incorporate real life video footage and animated motion graphics to create additional impact. This combined method of storytelling is a persuasive assault on all of the receptive senses. It appeals to, and stimulates the "left brain" (the decision-making bit) – this certainly assists in persuading the viewer to sit up and take notice. What a great way to deliver effective messages – using visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning styles!

As part of our research into the marketplace, we’ve witnessed quite a few whiteboard animation videos online, all with varying degrees of quality. Some of these videos are amazing and awe inspiring (these are the ones that have that magical ingredient of creativity), some are quite interesting and of a reasonable quality, however there are a plethora of companies out there offering poorly executed videos, where actual animation is rarely used but an attempt is made at substituting this with clip-art and pre-drawn assets. Be aware of this whiteboard animation ‘style’ of video – this can be interpreted as representative of the quality of your company, your service and/or your product.

The three main principles required to produce whiteboard animation video are actually the strongest creative skills that we at Studiowide, have in our arsenal. We have full control of the process – allowing us to do everything in-house, effectively and efficiently, and more importantly they are all bespoke! Once again, your target audience will view this bespoke standard as a positive indication of the high level of service they will receive from your company, your product and/or service.

We have applied every animation, videography and photography technique we’ve learnt over the years and combined them with the essential creativity to craft our whiteboard animated video. Finally, after a few months of practice we settled on what we think is the winning technique.

However, having the video production capabilities to make this style of video doesn’t automatically ensure success; producing the video is just a small part of completing a whiteboard animation project. For creative work of this nature it is essential that the production studio understand the topic in order to scribe the right imagery. This is where the strategic element comes into play.

In order to produce a Studiowide Whiteboard Animation video our first task is to sit down and identify exactly what the message is you want to communicate? Who you want to communicate to? How best to reach this target audience? We then carefully plan each and every scene prior to putting pen to board.

Once we have created a storyboard for each scene it is time for us to work the magic and start producing the final video. We’re not going to give away our trade secrets and disclose the finer details about our techniques, but, as you can see on the video sample above, every scene and every asset is hand drawn in true Whiteboard style. Only this way can we match the pace and the sentiment of the overlaid audio.

If you like this style of video and want to consider this as part of your teaching, training or promotional materials then get in touch. We’re looking forward to working with you!

Client: Project7 Consultancy

Case Study: Web Design and Web Development 

Project7 is a leading professional services consultancy who specialise in Lean Manufacturing and Lean Leadership Training & Consultancy on a global scale. The company came to us with a specific brief which required a complete overhaul of their existing website – providing a more dynamic system that would allow easy updating and maintaining of site content.

The main objective for the website was to complete a visually appealing site, in-line with corporate branding guidelines. The new site also had to combine content from 2 separate websites, brought together in one easy to use portal.

The website also needed to work as an inbound marketing tool. It was important that any changes to the design and structure had to support the wider marketing objectives, including social media.

As part of our bidding process, Studiowide submitted a number of design outlines for the client to consider. One of our designs was a clear favourite, paving the way and assisting us with securing our bid.

The first stage of the project, as with all of our web design projects, was to submit a project master plan document. This forms the outline for our work with our clients and acts as a roadmap for delivery.

Step 1 in our master plan is the client briefing meeting. It was at this meeting that we discussed expanding the ideas which were previously submitted as part of our tender.

After our client briefing meeting we came away with some firm ideas which were then developed into wireframes and detailed mock-ups.

The corporate colours for Project7 are black, white, grey and orange. In addition to considering colour palettes we were also handed a remit to develop the corporate DNA asset as part of the brief. This DNA strand is part of the Project7 corporate branding which runs through all marketing communications.

Our client wanted to expand their DNA imagery to incorporate a DNA fingerprint. This would support their 'Evolve to Survive' tagline and was also to be incorporated into the new site, hence is currently featured prominently on the homepage.

The overall design that we proposed for the new website was quite a radical change from the Prtoject7 current site. This consisted of white text on a black background. We proposed to flip the colour palette (for the website only), and submitted our design for a black, grey and orange palette on a white background. Our client immediately liked the design.

Once this was approved we started work on the internal layout and design. We worked closely with Project7 over a 3 month period to gather and shape the necessary content required to complete phase 1.

The biggest challenge for Studiowide on this project was to replicate an interactive world map detailing all of the Project7 current customers spread over the geographical regions. In addition we had to incorporate the details for each office, including images and contact information. The challenge was to create this functionality without using the Adobe Flash platform.

We recommend refraining from using Flash in website projects as this is not supported by many devices, mainly Apple operating systems. Because of this, we developed the interactive map function using jQuery/Javascript only, which is fully supported by all operating systems and browsers.

The final web design project was built on the DRUPAL CMS platform and completed exactly to the requirements of the brief. Our client was extremely happy with the result and as a consequence Studiowide have now been commissioned to work on additional web development projects for other areas of their business.

Click here to view this project

Above is an example of our 360 degree product photography. Go on… have a go! Click and drag to rotate the item a full 360 degrees. You can also double click to zoom and click on the 'hotspots' to reveal more information about specific areas of the product. 

This is a great way to show off your product online, especially if you have an online shop! Before buying anything, you always want to have a good luck at it and make sure you're making the right purchase. However, this isn't really possible online as you can never actually see the item until you have bought it and it's been delivered. Using a 360 degree image viewer to show off your product is the next best thing, customers are able to look at every angle and detail of your product – making sure that your product is what they want! 

Not only can customers see every possible angle of the product, but textual information and images showing close ups of detail can also be added!

We can take 360 degree photographs of anything – from the size of a coin, to the size of a person, we can make it spin! 

The 360 degree image viewer can easily be inserted into your website for people to use!

If you want to find out more, or get in touch with us about taking some 360 degree photography for your website, visit our ‘Product Photography’ page or contact us on 0151 708 5678.

Project: Website Design and Development.

Client: Energy Projects Plus, Wirral.

Energy Projects Plus (EPP) is an independent non-for-profit organisation and a registered environmental charity, formed in 1995. They have a team of over 20 staff delivering front-line projects which include advice, awareness raising, training and education work, promotion and management of grants, resulting in installation of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures.

We have worked with Energy Projects Plus on a number of campaigns in the past, including the Warmer Wirral and Sefton Insulation schemes. The company had a specific requirement for the re-design of their website and chose Studiowide as their partner to work with them on achieving their website development goals.

The brief stated that the website needed to reflect the range of activities the charity is involved with and show how dynamic the organisation has become. Our client wanted a modern style with colours and themes based around recognisable elements of the corporate colours; yellow and green.

The style of the site also needed to be clean and uncluttered, having a modern look, but without any gimmicks or major animation.

One main requirement for this project was that the site had to be designed with ease-of-use in mind. EPP had specifically requested that we provided a full Content Management System, so that EPP staff could easily update and maintain the website themselves.

Our contemporary approach to this website design and development project focuses on the companies strengths, which is its extensive project portfolio. Each page layout was planned to ensure maximum user-ability, illustrating key services and related imagery.

Additionally we linked all relevant services to the projects pages. This provided depth and increased engagement for users – not only did we list the capabilities and strengths of the company, but also linked through to real project examples and results.

The website was built on the popular WordPress Content Management System (CMS) platform. This allows the simple updates and changes, from main body content and images to posting news and projects.

WordPress is our CMS platform of choice. Mainly because there’s an abundance of support, but also because there is an extensive knowledge base available. This accelerates the learning curve for new users. We like WordPress so much it’s what we use to power our Studiowide website and the sites for most of our clients.

The simplicity of use within the “back-end” (admin side of WordPress) means that our clients not only received a great website design, but they are also easily able to edit their site themselves, saving on additional costs which may have been spent in the past for basic website updates and amends.

Overall we provided a great bespoke design and content management system that our client loves. The website meets the brief exactly to their requirements and was delivered on time and within budget for EPP Wirral, over a 6 week period.

Content marketing is the creation and sharing of content which is then used to promote ideas, engage targeted audiences and encourage them to take action – This is integrated marketing at its best, but it’s not new.

It’s the latest phrase for something many of us have been doing for a long time; which is planning, managing and developing all of our text, images, video, and other content that goes into creating our online presence.

Good content should be used to inform target customers about key industry issues, whilst weaving in company product information at relevant times. The motivation behind this is the belief that educating customers results in greater brand recognition and ultimately an increase in profitable sales. 

This type of marketing strategy has been around since the dawn of advertising. We’ve been preaching it for nearly four years. The problem now is that content is reaching a bit of a saturation point; spurred on by the social nature of the web.

Buyers are paying less attention to what companies put-out in online spaces – gone are the days of creating standard print and display adverts or email newsletters, hoping that the world is going to get excited by it.

Good content marketing should sit right alongside the strategic marketing planning process.  To get started you will need to understand where you are now and where you’re planning to go – this happens before any content is even thought about.

Only then should you move into the creative phase – getting to grips with ways in which you can make images, words and stories become so engaging, that your customers will want to share with others.

The best content marketers are part editor, part producer, part project manager, part information architect, part quality control and above all else, most love a good story. However, finding great stories and content-ideas is only part of the process; being able to turn that content into rich media that will excite and engage others is equally important. This is where having access to a range of technologies will help.

Take this post for example. We have created a whiteboard animated video to support the information we are conveying. Only as recent as 2 years ago, this type of informative content would have been sufficient to put out, supported only by a single image. For the information to stand any chance of permeating the plethora of daily news and information nowadays, we have had to get creative with our style of video.

We have used a mixture of stop motion and cartoon style hand drawings to create quite an educational piece of video with impact. This type of content will be more memorable for its uniqueness and hopefully result in greater brand recognition for us online.

If you’re not already doing so, then try adopting creative thinking around the types of content you produce in future. Our number one recommendation for this year would be to stop wasting valuable time producing run-of-the-mill landing pages, emails, newsletters or flyers that give little or no value to the recipient, and start thinking creative content.

This post is the first in the Studiowide Content Marketing series. The up and coming posts will delve into the details behind content marketing, hopefully inspiring and helping you to make your marketing communications stand out from the crowd in 2013.

Case Study: Magazine / Magalogue Design Project. Prinovis, Liverpool

Prinovis, Liverpool is part of the largest printing group in Europe; the company prints catalogues, magazines and brochures for many of the leading high street names. We have worked with Prinovis on a number of projects in the past, such as motion graphics videos and on a similar magazine catalogue design projects titled ‘The Catalogue’.

The purpose of this project was to create a magalogue / magazine publication to use as a promotional tool. The aim was to communicate every aspect of the printing process such as technical specifications and new processes, to a diverse range of customers. The publication also needed to provide statistics, facts and figures to highlight that printed media is still part of everyday life, within a consumers daily routine.

Prinovis came to us with a creative design brief which would aim to re-affirm to their customers the importance of using print – printed magazines are still very much a great marketing channel, and if used in the right way can educate and inspire customers in ways that most digital communications cannot.

The main objective for the publication was to promote the power and relevance of print. This would be achieved by educating the market and reminding our clients’ customers of the benefits of using print as part of a multi-channel approach to marketing.

The overall remit was to design and layout a 60-68 page piece. In order for it to be an effective marketing promotion within the printing industry we had to ensure that it was visually stunning and also very different to what was already being produced. The biggest challenge on this project was to produce a publication which was engaging enough to retain the interest of the reader all of the way through.

A lot of the emphasis on producing a unique magazine was placed on the creative element. Prinovis approached a number of agencies, Studiowide being one of them. We were asked to submit creative ideas around potential magalogue themes. The challenge was to come up with a unique approach in order to address the brief and hence win the project.

We jumped right in and got to work on some great ideas, two of which stood out as contenders. Our favourite idea, and the one which secured us the project, was to create a children’s themed book which would be laid out in chapters, each chapter determining the various subjects that needed to be covered, such as sustainability, innovation and general technical aspects.

As soon as we started on the project, our first job was to match potential chapters with aspirational adult job roles. This allowed us enough scope and variety to be creative without tying us down to a single ‘theme’ (within a theme).

The project was then aptly titled “When I grow up I want to be a….” In the first section we focused on the role of a baker and included information on print colours, control, credibility and personalisation. There were six sections in total, including: baker, athlete, doctor, farmer, being famous and fashion designer.

The final piece of work was to create the front and back covers. We proposed the idea of approaching a primary school and getting pupils involved in the project. Our client immediately loved the idea so we set about finding a suitable school that could turn the project around in 3 days.

Hill View Primary School in Runcorn agreed to participate with 2 of their classes; year 3 and year 4 pupils. The School very kindly agreed to work with us on this project and submitted 60 designs in 3 days!

The brief which was passed onto the pupils was to create a colour drawing that depicted someone they each would like to be when they grow up. We then selected 26 final designs to use in the front and back cover design. Prinovis kindly made a donation to the school for books, as well as a truck load of chocolate, as a thank you for all their help.

Creating a children theme styled magazine, with the front and back cover utilising real drawings by children, helped to offset the business to business nature of the publication. 200,000 copies were then printed by Prinovis on their gravure presses and are currently being used in all of the company’s promotions.

Out of the 200,000 copies that were printed, an additional 1,000 had special tea cup inserts in-between pages 2 and 3. The idea behind the folding cup inserts is that the cup would carry a tea bag and have the message, “Relax, make a brew and read-on at your leisure”. This helped to re-enforced the point of difference between print and online publications.

All of the design and layout work on this project was completed by Studiowide, including post product and manipulation of images, and also the design and production of the tea cup cutter guide. The total design time was approximately 3 weeks, including client review and briefing meetings. We thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and creative diversity which it brought us, however, the most important outcome of all… our customer loved it!

Note:
We have created a digital interactive page turning version of this magalogue to view. This sort of goes against the whole point of using print over digital and would like point out that this was produced as part of a portfolio piece for Studiowide, and not specifically requested by our client, Prinovis. View the Magalogue Design Project

The Liverpool Business Initiative Event

In November 2012 we were asked by Keepoint Ltd to work with them on a joint venture. This involved a new initiative aimed at business start-ups and SMEs in Liverpool. Keepoint currently offer a range of services to help small businesses and start-ups with their back-office duties.

The idea behind the new venture was to create a group of professionals who would provide expert advice to other businesses on a monthly basis, free of charge. The core specialities required to make up the team would consist of; business administration, marketing, accountancy, finance & funding and network support.

Keepoint selected Studiowide due to our range of strategic and creative services and the advice we could offer as a result. Other partner organisations were approached and asked if they would also like to help. The final list of contributing partners were: Studiowide (Chartered Marketing), Keepoint (Virtual Office and PA services), Liverpool Vision (networking support), MSIF (Merseyside Special Investment Fund), Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and JPO Accountancy (Chartered Accountants).

The overall objective of the planned events was to bring professional advice and support to small business owners who were setting out in business, or whom were already in business and required professional advice and guidance.

There are numerous schemes available to help small businesses and start-ups. However, most are highly fragmented and typically run by single organisations such as banks or government advisory services. We found there was a real need for a business support group, run by a collaboration of specialised organisations who were actually involved in offering the types of services SME and small business owners require on a daily basis.

This meant that the advice and guidance would be current and most of all, practical. Each attendee would receive 4 hours of guidance, tips and real advice on how to improve their business. The topics covered all fundamental aspects of promoting and running a successful business.

Once the format had been agreed by all partners it was then time to come up with the name. Everyone decided on The Liverpool Business Initiative Event which did exactly what it said. The core message was to offer insight to businesses and then give them the information required to take the initiative and make their business a success.

We then set out to create the identity of the event. We created a colour scheme and logo to be used on all collateral. We didn’t want to appear too corporate, plus we also wanted a logo which was memorable and versatile, as The Liverpool Business Initiative Event would be promoted via a variety of channels.

Each partner agreed to promote the event to their contact databases in either printed and/or digital formats. A Twitter account was also set up to assist with creating awareness. We also created an event landing page and registration process, including auto responders to capture attendees registration requests and to manage the subscribe and acknowledgment process.

The landing page is a single-page microsite containing the main event information, the key partner details, the schedule of the morning and other ‘house-keeping’ items such as address and contact information. (view the Liverpool Business Initiative site) 

Within the first week of the event being promoted, not only did we manage to successfully fill all 20 available seats, but we also fully booked the December event and part of the January event at the same time – result!

The first Liverpool Business Initiative Event was held on the 1st November 2012. We incorporated quite a rigid confirmation process and kept in touch with all registrants’ right up to the day before the event. This proved to be extremely effective in ensuring that the drop-out rate was zero. The team were fully prepared and ready to go.

All of the partners presented their specialist subjects and engaged a variety of small business owners and new start-ups throughout the morning – we helped with advice and valuable tips and techniques to help in the day-to-day running of their respective businesses.

Overall the event was a success; in part, because we were lucky enough to secure talented professional who could deliver engaging and informative information which proved to be of real value; and partly because there was no singular overall agenda. Each presenter had given up their time and was there to offer the very best advice they could give, in the hope that it would help someone at some point in the development of their business.

Anyone who is interested in signing up to attend a Liverpool Business Initiative event can register online here

Here are just a selection of comments and feedback received from our first event:

“I'm very impressed that you all did today voluntary – well done to you all that was just great” 

“Really enjoyed your presentation this morning and SO glad I came along to the event – a great bunch of really interesting people!”

Twitter stream following the event:
@VadisTraining
I attended a great event today @LiverpoolBusIni very informative presentations and great networking opportunity.

@Word_Lady
Great presentations at the @liverpoolbusini event today. Highly recommended to new business start-ups in the North West. #in

@RMDMemoryMatter
Really helpful morning at spent at 'Liverpool Business Initiative Event'great to finally meet @RMDMemoryMatter followers too .#Merseybiz

@StrangeCaseC
@studiowide @LiverpoolBusIni @Karenpodesta @Word_Lady@VadisTraining Great morning. Looking forward to the follow up email re: marketing

@TourDePost
Great day at the @liverpoolBusIni event yesterday. Learnt so much. Onwards and upwards now.
 

We've done quite a few pull up banners recently. These ones we did were for a local company here in Liverpool to use at a specific event. Keepoint are a virtual office support company who deal with small business back office duties, and more.

Keepoint came to us with a design brief; to create 2 pull up banners, both sharing a similar design style and theme, but with 2 totally different messages.

Graphic design projects like this which involve marketing collateral materials, we find that the best place to start is by looking at current designs used on websites or in a brochure.

For this client we used the company colour palette, then utilised some elements and shapes from their website. Our main objective was to create a design which was consistent in look and feel and would complement/enhance existing promotional materials that they have.

Professionally designed pull up banners are a great way to create an impact at any event, particularly when you want to make a great first impression.

Not only that; these banners are great for presentations, trade shows, small exhibitions and office reception areas – pretty much anywhere that you want to get noticed.

Most companies use these types of banners to support particular campaigns or focus on simple messages, such as a new product launch or service offer. 

They’re also quite durable and easily kept clean as the main banner area is PVC.

But the best thing is about these portable stands (we think anyway), are they are just that – portable. You can set one up in under 30 seconds (sounds like a challenge). So there’s really no excuse to turn up at an event un-branded.

Even the cost of these types of banners will make you want to smile.  You can get them for around £60 (Design fee extra). Lay the right design onto them and you have yourself a highly visible and very cost effective promotional tool. 

Over the last few months we have covered some great topics in online marketing, and also provided access to downloads for those who wanted to dig deeper into the individual topics. Having now come to the end of this series, I wanted to take the opportunity to bring everything together in a final post by summarising the highlights. 

In post 2 we explained the best way to get ready for online marketing. With only a few seconds to make a meaningful impression – and the competition just a click or two away – connecting with your website visitors is vital. This post focused on the 5 key areas of: credibility, usability, visibility, sellability and scalability. This proved to be a great intro into the series. 

Following this we touched on what is possibly still the best and most established tool in the online marketing toolkit – Blogging. Blogs or news updates as we like to title them, like other social media outlets have become an integral part of life for most people. In this post we explained the value that we believe blogging can bring to your business and provided insight into exactly what blogs are.

After blogging we discussed how videos can be weaved into the online marketing mix in the title post ‘using videos for online marketing’. (As an addendum to this post we will be demonstrating some great examples of how videos can be used to provide a creative angle to your marketing message – helping you to stand out from the crowd. Look out for this early in the New Year.)

This then led us into content marketing. Content marketing fits snuggly with the concept of blogging – simply defined as content that educates and empowers web users. Readers of this post would have hopefully picked up that good content will create, connect, and spark conversation, and… those who truly understand the concept will reap the rewards of the new web. Content marketing is currently a hot topic at the moment – definitely worth going back and re-reading. (Also, see series 2 details below on our follow up to content marketing.)

However, having great content, either via a blog or video is useless if you have nowhere to stage it. At this point in the series we explained the importance of getting your website ready for online marketing. When embarking on a website project for the first time, or even undergoing a re-design, there are certain paths one can take. Knowing which route is the route to take will save costly mistakes in the long run. We also covered topics such as content management systems, domain names and using your website as a hub.

We then delved into the old favourite, email marketing. Email marketing is still quite relevant in digital marketing circles, more so in business to business rather than business to consumers markets. The key things here to remember are content and contacts. Without the right content and contacts your email campaigns are statistically more likely to fail. We explained more about this in post 7.

The last section of the series was focused on social media marketing. You might say we saved the best till last :) We demonstrated how to set up and run successful online campaigns on social networks like facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Whilst we were due to write our LinkedIn post there was a major update to the LinkedIn platform, which was extremely handy. This meant we were timely with our post in providing instructions on how to setup the new LinkedIn profiles. If you haven’t changed your LinkedIn profile for a while then I highly recommend going back and reading that one.

Finally we signed off on the social media posts by discussing online media strategies. For those who thought a full strategy was too overwhelming, we also added a bite sized, 3 stage plan of: Assess – Optimise – New. This hopefully provided an alternative to a full online strategy by creating an online marketing focus which could quite easily be managed by anyone.

Where to next?

This series of online marketing is the first series in a line of topics which we will be writing about in the coming year. Our format for posting will remain the same – we practice what we preach with regards to re-purposing content. This means that the post will be published first and foremost on our news and updates pages of our site, under the category of ‘How to To’ guides.

This will then be shared over our social streams and pinged out to our email contact database. There are enough ways in which to grab these posts so hopefully you won’t miss any. Sign up to our list if you want to be certain to be included in all future posts then sit back, relax and ‘let the good-“posts” roll’.

Series 2: Content Marketing.

Content marketing is an extremely hot-topic at the moment. We have conducted a number of contact strategies this year for clients and content has proven to be the biggest talking point. If you’re making the transition from nowhere, and by this we mean undertaking little or no content writing or sharing (blogs, news, ‘how to’ guides) then this is for you.  

Our planned posts in this up and coming series will cover topics like; content strategy; tips on creating and managing content; choosing the best medium for each topic – ie. video, infographics or just plain text and imagery.

We’ll also help you to keep on top of the vast range of options which are available for publishing, such as blogs, newsletters and social media. And, finally, as always there must be an evaluation stage to any activity. We will cover this with surveys, polls and split testing ideas.

Watch out for series 2: content marketing, starting January 2013!

This post is part 11 of an 11 part series.  

View other posts in this online marketing series:  

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Client: The University of Manchester. Motion Graphics Project

The University of Manchester, High Voltage Technology department recently commissioned our motion graphics team to add animation into a power systems video for student training. 

The purpose of the video is to assist in the teaching of Manchester University Students who are studying High Voltage Power systems. The footage which had been previously filmed in-house now required additional animation throughout in order to add depth and detail to the learning experience. In addition, the video had utilised standard image screen shots of complicated graphics which needed bringing to life.

The brief was to produce a final video, combining our motion graphics onto the original footage, resulting in a 10 minute educational teaching video which would be engaging and interesting enough to keep the student’s attention, whilst supporting learning. Our remit was to ultimately re-create complex diagrams and display/animate them in a way that was easy-to-understand and easy-to-grasp, by a wide range of students. 

As with all projects, we began with a detailed client meeting. At this meeting we discussed which parts of the project required the most focus, and which parts were not so important. We have experience of working within the technology sectors, so luckily, we already understood the principles of electrical power systems – this was a bonus for our client and meant that they were not wasting any time explaining the basic principles of electrical power systems. 

Once we got into the project, step 1 was to identify the areas and points in the original video that warranted the motion graphics animation. We particularly looked for clips that contained a lot of informative narration, in particular, areas that would benefit from being illustrated and animated. 

We also took a look at the diagrams and illustrations that were going to need to be included in the video and looked at how we could recreate them in a way that would make them easier to understand and more effective. 

As with any motion graphics projects, there is obviously a lot of graphic design work involved before we get to the animation stages. It’s at this point that we also agreed a graphical style that would make a complicated subject, easier to understand.

Following our research, we concluded that a cartoon style would suit this project as the bright colours and fairly simple illustrative style would lend itself well, supporting the content, making it the main focus of the animation.

Additionally we latched onto key phrases from the video’s narration and integrated them into the motion graphics to highlight a particular point. Phrases such as: ‘The UK’s Electricity system is vast, over 1,000,000 miles of overhead lines and underground cables’. This was perfect to create a moving power distribution network to help re-enforce the point. Our image above represents how large power distribution is transformed down to small voltages for managing over smaller networks. 

Combing real life video footage with motion graphic elements in this way proven to be visually engaging and the end result was a video with enough diversity in the display of information that it now had a better chance of holding the attention of the viewer. 

Alive & Dirty clothing, based in the new Liverpool 1 shopping area, came to Studiowide with a brief for fashion product photography images to go on their new website. The sports and casual wear retailer wanted potential customers who were visiting their eCommerce site, to be able to see professional images of their products in detail before making a purchase.

Professional Product photography for online shopping websites helps bring products to life, giving customers a much better idea of what they’ll be buying. If a great product is displayed badly then the likelihood of it selling well is low. However, a great product presented in the best way possible stands a far better chance of moving off the shelf.

We presented Alive & Dirty with a few examples of product photography styles which were typically used to promote fashion items on eCommerce websites. We discussed the different options for backgrounds and models/mannequins and finally settled on a style that would be perfect for them. 

When undertaking this type of product photography project it’s essential to take photographs of the clothing from multiple angles. This allows the images to go into an image gallery on the website so that the buyer has a clear idea of how the clothes would look from a number of angles. 

When clients are using online image viewers, particularly those that come with a pan and zoom facility, it’s important for us that we get the detail in the shot. This means when the image is uploaded to the website users can zoom in and check out every bit of detail. To do this we have to make sure that the lighting and clarity of the images is 100% right. This can sometime prove to be a challenge, especially in instances such as this where the project is at the client location.

The first thing when arriving on site is to set up the studio. Since the customer wanted the mannequins to be cut-out (placed on to a brilliant white digital background) there was no real need to get the backdrop perfect, so we concentrated on putting all of our time and effort in to the lighting. 

We used three studio softbox lights for this shoot. We set one light up behind as a backlight, this went on a boom stand slightly above the mannequin. We then positioned a key light to the front, on the top half of the mannequin. Finally we added a fill light pointing slightly up to diffuse the shadows and help to make the items ‘pop’. 

To help us achieve as much detail as possible we set the aperture on the camera pretty high, keeping everything pin-sharp and in focus – we used at least f/11 (something for the photographic boffins who are reading this). We also kept the ISO as low as we could; in this project we shot at ISO160. 

Finally the shutter speed: since the mannequins weren’t moving we could set this quite low at 1/6th of a second. Once the camera and lighting was all set up, it was then a case of getting the mannequins dressed, ready to take the photographs.  

Once all of the photographs had been taken, it was back to our studio to start editing. We had to be careful at this stage because we wanted to give the buyer the most realistic visual representation of what the clothes would look like, so we couldn’t alter too much. 

We corrected the levels, balanced the lights and corrected the white balance. The final step was cutting the images out and placing them onto a plain white background; this would allow the focus of the image to be the clothes, rather than having a distracting backdrop our background. 

Nearly 400 product photography images were delivered on time to the customer, exactly as they wanted them, ready to go on their website for the Christmas rush!

9 November 2012

We recently completed another custom label design project for our client who is a speciality fine food manufacturer.  The Label is part of a series of 7 custom food labels which will form part of the new Grim Reaper chilli sauces range. 

Customers choose us for their custom label design projects because of our extensive knowledge of packaging design formats and labelling requirements. This puts us in a perfect position to create packaging solutions for a wide range of retail sectors such as food, drink and general retail goods. 

Having a professionally designed label will not ‘break the bank’ but can sometimes be the difference between making the sale or not. Packaging with shelf appeal can transform a product from a ‘me too’ range into something with serious impact. 

The Grim Reaper Alchemy Sweet Chilli sauces labels were made using a vector illustrated image of the Grim Reaper, surrounded by flames whilst holding a potion bottle. The potion bottle is to signify the product contents, and on the final print version, the yellow spot colour was replaced with a gold coloured foil, creating a simple but unique bottle label.

This label design for the Grim Reaper Sauces fits alongside the rest of the Grim Reaper products, including Organic Chocolate and Chilli Oils. We utilised elements from previous designs to create an instantly recognisable brand with a consistent message. 

When taking-on any label design project there is no one size fits all with regards to labelling requirements – this changes depending on the type of product.  There are legal requirements which need to be taken into consideration for some products more than others, such as food. 

Any information that is included on retail labels must not be misleading – providing false or misleading information in an offence. Our experience within the food labelling sector means that we can help our customers to create the right label first time, prior to be submitting to the relevant bodies for approval. 

Over the past couple of months we have provided overviews, downloads and in-depth information regarding what we believe to be the important areas of online marketing. Now that you have a basic understanding of the topics that fall under this online marketing umbrella, you should start to think about ways to incorporate these into your overall marketing strategy.

Step 1: Understand the unique characteristics of each channel

Each type of online marketing channel comes with a different set of rules, a different audience, different user expectations and different preferences – social media is different to email marketing. Read through our previous posts about these individual channels (see links below) to refresh your understanding of what makes each one unique. 

Step 2: Examine your target audience in this context

Understanding the different channels is the first step; however, it's not the tools, but how we use the tools, that makes marketing matter. When you plan your marketing strategy remember: strategy first, delivery second. 

In order to formulate the right strategy for engaging your core audiences, research the online demographics of each channel and perform a customer segmentation analysis.

However, in order to participate in the process of segmentation you have to start profiling customers – you need to answer questions about your target customer groups, such as; 

1. How often are they online?
2. What social media sites do they frequent?
3. Do they participate in user-generated content?

Step 3: Agree your online marketing goals/objectives

First, start with the nucleus of your business. Why are you in business? Really get to the core of what gets you up every morning and why you go to work every day.  

Next, look at your brand. Who are you? What do you do? Whom do you serve? What kind of positioning power do you want to have? This is going to come through in the way you design and produce the content around your communications. Work out if/how you can you align your general marketing objectives with online marketing including social media. For example, do you want to:-

1. Enhance brand reputation and image?
2. Improve organic search rankings?
3. Drive traffic to brand locations, both online and offline?
4. Grow your fan base?
5. Communicate with a small group of brand advocates? 

Or

1. Do you just want to generate awareness, drive purchases and provide regular communications? If so then a Blog might be appropriate.
2. Are you after greater brand resonance and want to test new ways to connect with your audience? If so then third-party social networking sites may be appropriate. 
3. Do you want to interlink your social sites, communicating with fans on Facebook but asking them to visit your Pinterest page for photos, or YouTube page for videos? 

Step 4: Allocate the right amount of budget and resources

Next, think about the people. Not just the people you want to reach with online marketing, but also people within your organisation. Who is going to manage all of these online marketing channels? If you don't have the available resources then you might want to start really small and build as time and resources become more available. See mini plan below regarding: Assess, Optimise & New. 

By engaging in online marketing, in particular social media, you are entering a conversation with your prospects and customers. This is an on-going, often daily commitment. If you do it right you will be welcomed into the conversation. Do it even slightly wrong and you will be throwing your money away.

Step 5: Policies

Sometimes you may ask people within your company to say certain things on behalf of your organisation – you may even already have some guidelines in place for your Facebook page; things that people can or cannot post.

Think about what policies work for you, document them, and weave that into your online marketing plan. Establish an operating procedure/policy. Ask questions, such as:

1. What is the policy to manage any negative comments received on the blog?
2. Is a process in place to manage the uploading of inappropriate or copyright-protected material?
3. What other policies must be agreed and put in place?
4. Are all appropriate internal departments briefed/involved?

Step 6: Agree how to measure your online marketing impact

The best results come from listening, understanding, monitoring feedback, participating, and actively managing your online marketing efforts. To do this you must be able to measure how much increased traffic you’re getting to your website and from social media, and really get an idea of what's working for you and what isn’t.  It is important that you have a measurement plan in place.

1. Start by looking at your usual measurement options.
2. Review your social media campaign objectives.
3. Map your campaign.
4. Choose the criteria and tools of measurement.
5. Establish a benchmark (KPI).
6. Analyse the outcomes and propose changes.
7. Continue to measure.

Summary 

Ultimately, what brings the whole online marketing strategy together is content. Your brand, the people, the metrics, the policies, the game plan, the strategy, all comes through in the content that you're publishing.

And remember, with online marketing you can always start small, and snowball. Little steps can make a big difference. If you prefer a much smaller approach than a formal strategic plan, then the Assess – Optimise – New mini plan may suit smaller businesses and companies who may not have the resources required to develop a full blown online marketing strategy. 

Assess – Optimise – New

This helps create an online marketing focus which you can manage.

First things first; assess your situation. Revisit your marketing goals. What do you have to work with? What are you missing? Look critically at where you are at and where you want to go. 

Next step; optimise. Fix things that need fixing. Hopefully you have read through the previous online marketing posts and you may have notes of things you are doing which you can tweak and make better. So, before you move on to new marketing channels you should make sure you are working off a solid marketing foundation. 

When, and only when the assessment and optimisation phases have been addressed is it time to move on to new channels. 

If you ever find yourself overwhelmed with the whole online marketing process then I recommend you come back to the Assess, Optimise and New, mini planning process. This will help you manage the steps that you want to take in a smart and logical order.

This post is part 10 of an 11 part series.  

View other posts in this online marketing series:  

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It's a fact; the use of social networking for business is growing every day – business owners know they need to be where the people are. This means, if you’re not part of these conversations then you might be missing out. However, in saying that, it does come with a caveat: Facebook and Twitter are good social media networking tools, but they may not necessarily be the best tools for your business. It really depends on the type of your organisation and industry sector. 

With hundreds of millions of people on Twitter and Facebook, chances are extremely high that your customers are using one or both of these services, and even higher that many prospective customers are there also – but which one should YOU choose?

As a general rule, we slice the social media cake like this:

• Facebook: Business to consumer products and services
• LinkedIn: Business to business products and services
• Pinterest & Instagram: Image driven consumer products
• Google+: Thought leadership and industry knowledge sharing

Sprinkle all of the above with a bit of Twitter, and, this covers the most popular social networking spectrum.

Twitter

First of all, let's take a look at Twitter. Twitter is a service similar to blog posting but you only have 140 characters to work with. If you want to post a picture or a video, you post a link to a picture or a video. 

There is really no distinction between a personal Twitter account and a business Twitter account, you just create an account. You could create an account in your personal name and post about things to do with your business, or you could create an account in the name of your business, and post what you had for lunch. Really, there is no division between the two – because of that, it also makes life much simpler. 

To have your tweets go viral, and by viral we mean to have it spread, is called re-tweeting. So, for example: you post something of value to others, (in under 140 characters remember) maybe a link to a competition or a voucher to use for your business. Then your followers who like that will re-tweet it, which is basically the same concept of copying and pasting, but it's done automatically by the service.

Your followers just click the re-tweet button, and then all of their followers who may have never heard of you before will see what you've tweeted. They can then jump directly to your link – whatever it was, and end up on your blog or to your Facebook page.

Facebook

Now, let's take a look at Facebook. Facebook doesn't limit you to 140 characters like Twitter. There is also a facility called Notes where you can essentially use like any kind of standard blog and write as many words as you like. Most of the time you’ll be entering information into your status area. 

With Facebook you're not just limited to text – you can also include pictures and videos and all sorts of great content. There is actually a lot more you can do with a Facebook page for your business than you can with a Twitter business account. Such as; 

• Have applications written just for your Facebook page 
• Change the overall design of a Facebook landing page 
• Include a lot more interactions that users can engage with 

Unlike Twitter, there is definitely a division between personal and business accounts on Facebook. On Facebook, when you have a regular Facebook account, you have friends, people want to be your friend and you accept their friend request. 

With a Facebook business page, people who like your Facebook page click a ‘Like’ button and are called your ‘likes’. You don't need to accept their like request; they just automatically become a like. 

Everyone here at Studiowide has their own personal social networking profile on Facebook, as well as managing and contributing to our company Facebook page. On our Facebook page we share our blog content, showcase our portfolio, answer questions and post links to other useful articles that tie into the interests of our community. 

Social networking works wonders for four main reasons:

• one, it's an easy communication vehicle;
• two, there is a growing community factor that makes networking fast, easy and global;
• three, it has a great entertainment factor and four; you will enjoy the added search visibility of having your posts show up in search engine results pages.

If you ‘re ready to dig-in, get past the basics and start showing the rest of your company what Twitter and Facebook can really do, then we recommend to read the attached eBooks. 

This post is part 9 of an 11 part series.  

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This is a recent web development project which we completed for Central Waste Liverpool, Merseyside The website is a basic brochure website that outlines the general services that the company offers. We have also integrated a blog into the site which the customer will now use to help drive traffic to the site.

The client was particularly specific about colour schemes and layouts and worked closely with us on the theme, colours and structure. 

The website was built on the popular open source platform, WordPress mainly due to the simplicity of use. This allows our customer to update content if required. In addition, the website includes a company news blog.

Central Waste who operate right across merseyside originally came to us with a specific creative need for their web development project. They initially requested us to develop a website for the company. After working closely with the client and demonstrating our knowledge and enthusiasm in helping to grow small to medium sized businesses, the client has now asked us to undertake their full range of marketing activities.

TESTIMONIAL

"Being the owner of a waste company, I felt that I was being left behind on the sales/marketing side and was unsure of which way to go to move my business forward. Studiowide are a very forward-thinking group of professionals who gave me good clear sound advice, looked at my business with a fresh pair of eyes, and helped me to develop a new marketing strategy.

I have been very impressed with the web development service received from Studiowide.  They took the time to listen and developed a good understanding of what I was trying to achieve.  After completing our website, tailor-made for our business, we have now asked them to complete a marketing campaign for us, and look forward to continuing our relationship. I would thoroughly recommend Studiowide to other small to medium businesses as they have been very supportive and helpful.  Their support has been invaluable to us". 

 Sandra Salim, Managing Director, Central Waste. 

Project Title: Web Development Merseyside
Project Tags: web development, merseyside

This month, LinkedIn announced a refresh of its company pages due to roll out very soon, This update is aimed at bringing a better user experience to its members. In this post we will highlight the importance of using LinkedIn as part of an online marketing strategy and provide you with a detailed view of the changes coming up.

LinkedIn represents a valuable resource for business owners. The initial attraction for most users is that they can quickly find contacts within certain companies. However, this is a powerful platform and should be used to develop and grow relationships, rather than as a 21st century rolodex.    

With 161 million registered users in over 200 countries, more than two million companies with LinkedIn company pages and professionals signing up at a rate of approximately two new members per second. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social networking platform.

It's also an online environment that contains the career details of over 75 million people that have already created a profile for themselves. So, if you’re looking to connect with industry professionals and generate leads for your business over time, LinkedIn should be an integral part of your online marketing strategy.

Your network of connections are people who you can help, and equally, who will seek help from you in their own particular areas. As with all online marketing activities, LinkedIn should be approached with a strategy. Whatever route you take, it all begins with a user profile.

LinkedIn is a professional social platform, so keep your profile above board. It is appropriate to add depth by sharing your interests, but make sure you have the right balance. Review other profiles from people who are well-established and successful in your field. If you have privacy concerns, you can restrict certain parts of your profile from public viewing, and share these with only your connections by creating a private profile, as well as a public profile

Businesses use LinkedIn effectively to promote awareness of their brands, people, and services, by using Company Pages. You can set up a Company Page that allows you to share details of your business with the LinkedIn community. These details also get indexed and are discoverable via search engines that list the profile. This could be used to build the awareness of your company and its focus areas in several ways.

For marketers: LinkedIn Company Pages provide excellent opportunities to highlight products and Services; tell your company’s story, generate leads, engage with your audience, share career  opportunities and drive word of mouth at scale.

For your audience: LinkedIn Company Pages is a place to conduct product and service research and learn about company updates, industry news, job opportunities, and companies of interest.

LinkedIn Company Pages got a nice, refreshing design makeover recently which we will all be seeing very soon. The changes you see will affect only the design of your company page. No new features have been added; just the look, feel, and the way you navigate are a bit different. You still have complete access to your Overview, Careers, Products, and Insights pages, so make sure you’re taking advantage of them!

LinkedIn’s new cover image capability has taken some inspiration from the other big 2 social platforms; Facebook and Google+, by allowing a large cover image to take centre stage. This cover image has replaced the company summary box or the ’About Us’ section. 

The About us section has now been moved to the bottom of the the overview page – below the page’s company updates. It is worth noting that users who are trying to learn about your company for the first time will see your cover image first, then your company updates, and will finally have to scroll all the way down to find out more general information. 

This focus on the cover image means that it is worth spending time on creating an engaging image. If you already use Facebook pages or Google+ like us, then you will already have gone through this process, so it will be a case of inserting the same image as before.  

Company pages can now also be accessed on iPhones, Androids, and iPad apps. This is great news for business owners who are actively engaged in online marketing of their business through LinkedIn. It also reinforces the importance of an updated, optimised company page.

While the new LinkedIn company page design isn’t dramatically different, the design is definitely more customisable, similar to the business pages of Facebook and Google+.  This gives businesses a better opportunity to create a more branded, unique-looking LinkedIn page that stands out from other LinkedIn pages.

We hope this post has highlighted the power of LinkedIn in building a solid professional profile and a great company presence, through LinkedIn Company Pages. We recommend reading through the attached free eBooks provided with the original email for step-by-step guide.  If you are not already receiving these posts then you can access this and future information by registering your details below. 

This post is part 8 of an 11 part series.  

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Make Information Security a Reality. Client: USS, Liverpool.

Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is the principal pension scheme provided by Universities, Higher Education and other associated institutions for their employees. The company approached Studiowide with a design brief for an upcoming campaign, aimed at highlighting the importance of Information Security to employees within their business. 

The purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness of the risks associated with the potential mishandling of important company information. USS requested a 6 poster campaign, including a 16 page booklet – used to support the communication in each of the posters.  

The first engagement for us on any campaign of this nature is to conduct a strategy review meeting with the client. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the brief and to brainstorm initial ideas. Following this meeting we submitted two strong concepts. Of the two ideas we put forward, the ‘Make Information Security a Reality’ concept was chosen. 

The idea behind our ‘Make Information Security a Reality’ concept is that the campaign features a non-conforming cartoon world – a cartoon world that lives outside of ‘reality’. In the non-conforming cartoon world, characters (wrongly) choose whether or not to conform to any information security policies (they don’t have to conform because the cartoon characters and scenes are not ‘real’ – they perceive there is no ‘real’ risk).

We then highlighted across all 6 posters: as a result of this non-conformance or neglect of data, there are a number of ‘incidents’ which occur, due to data/information being carelessly abandoned or left unguarded (in the non-conforming cartoon world). 

The real world images are used to highlight the ‘reality and risk’ and the consequences of what can happen as a result of a security breach when data has been obtained, stumbled upon, stolen etc.

The campaign message is translated across all of the security themes. Each poster depicts a different scene and a different risk. To illustrate each scenario we manipulated a number of photo images and placed these into a cartoon environment. The final composition of illustration and imagery make up a scenario which is aligned with each security topic. 

Our inspiration for this style is a reverse format of Roger Rabbit: instead of a cartoon character in the real world, we are working with real characters in a cartoon world.

The Information Security booklet and poster campaign was produced within 4 weeks. The client is very pleased both with the overall creative concept and the final design pieces that we have submitted.

TESTIMONIAL

"We commissioned Studiowide to help design and produce a series of posters to highlight the key risks in relation to information security and to support this with a pocket guide for staff summarising some of the key messages.  

We knew the themes and messages we needed to get across, but what we didn’t have was the creative skills to design a campaign that would convey these messages in the most effective way.  The staff at Studiowide were always approachable and would listen to our ideas, but more importantly they brought their own ideas to the table, using their experience and creative skills to help produce an original theme for the campaign.  

This was the first time we had launched an internal campaign like this and a key consideration was always going to be timeframes and costs, to this end Studiowide were very professional and where possible worked to our schedule, they were also very clear about costs and any decisions which could of impacted costs were always discussed with us up front.

The effectiveness of the campaign will only tell over time, but early feedback from those staff who have received the booklet has been very positive with staff reporting that the key messages have been achieved. 

We believe that with the excellent work from Studiowide and the quality and clarity of the final material they have produced for us we have given ourselves the very best chance of achieving the goals of our campaign.  I would not hesitate to use them again and would certainly recommend them to other organisations".

 Robert Lee, Data Manager, USS Ltd. Liverpool.

Client: CryoClinics, London.

One of our latest advertising campaigns is due to be launched in the executive and professional sports magazine: AtTheMatch. The publication runs cutting edge features, articles and interviews across a wide range of topics, from within the business and sporting sectors. 

CryoClinics, who are based out of BMI The Garden Hospital in London, came to us with a requirement to produce an integrated advertising campaign. The aim of which was to promote Whole Body Cryotherapy, in particular, the companies Cryotherapy chambers. 

The campaign is to be published in the quarterly magazine: AtTheMatch and is to run over 4 editions. Furthermore, the promotion is to be supported with relevant website landing pages and accompanying literature inserts.

Whole Body Cryotherapy is the exposure of the entire body to extreme cold, usually between -80 to -120 degrees Celsius. The treatment stimulates the body’s natural response to decrease inflammation, pain, spasms, and consequently promotes faster healing. The company has featured recently on national TV and the treatment is favoured by major football and Rugby clubs in the UK.

Following a strategic review with CryoClinics, we set about producing the overall design and communication message for the campaign. The target market for the magazine is passionate professionals and executives involved in the sporting world. 

The campaign is supported by A5 inserts which would also be part of the magazine; this allowed our creative team to get quite abstract with the communication. We decided on a simple but impactful image with the message; Relight Your Fire. 

The magazine advertisement campaign is linked to the website landing page with a QR code. The landing page holds the details of the services which CryoClinics are promoting, along with a call to action; to contact for a free consultation and trial. 

Studiowide provided strategic marketing advice to CryoClinics on this project. Our in-house marketing, graphics and web development teams worked in unison to deliver an effective campaign, meeting and exceeding the expectations of our client. 

"I would like to extend my thanks to Studiowide for their work recently. CryoClinics offers a very unique service, but this did not deter the team at Studiowide – they probed with numerous questions and in my opinion grasped what it is I offer and how it can benefit people very quickly. With this knowledge they were able to provide me with some great ideas and developed a campaign to grasp people’s attention and ensure they acted upon it. I will definitely be using Studiowide again and would not hesitate in recommending them."
Iain Casey – Managing Director CryoClinics Ltd.

Getting Started

Email is a great channel for building customer relationships affordably, mainly because it's such a familiar part of day-to-day communication, but also because it's so cost effective.

But, in order to get the highest possible return on your email marketing campaigns, you need to understand where to use email in your overall marketing plans. You can use email to educate people about the features and benefits of your products or services, differentiate your business from your competition, and to ask for the sale. You should also use email marketing to help increase customer loyalty and referrals by sending emails that strengthen your customer relationships.

To run successful email campaigns you'll need at least two pieces of software. The first is the  authoring technology to create the content of your emails in HTML and the second is a delivery technology that has the ability to deliver and track emails sent to a large email list. 

One of the most crucial assets of your email marketing strategy is your email database. When choosing an email delivery partner, make sure you use a company that secures your email database properly and protects the privacy of your email list subscribers. 

Types of Email Content

The information you send in an email has to be valuable to the reader on a consistent basis or your readers/subscribers will quickly become un-subscribers. And, while it's great to send promotional offers and incentives to make your emails more valuable, the general content within the email needs to add value as well. 

Only a small portion of your prospects and customers are ready to buy when they receive one of your emails. So, if you limit your email content to promotions and offers your emails will be irrelevant to the majority of subscribers.

Examples of general content that can add value of your emails: 

• Information about products, services, or about your company in general can be valuable, especially for new prospects or for people who are interested in learning about new products or the latest industry trends

• Tips and advice can be valuable if buying your products and services involve research, expertise, or sound reasoning

• Installation instructions and best practice advice can tell your customers how to get the most out of your products or services, before and after a sale

• Entertaining content can include humour and engaging stories. If you use entertaining content, make sure it has something to do with buying your products and services

Promotional Offers

The first rule regarding email promotional offers is to know your customers. Different groups of people may respond differently to the same offers. For example, some people love to know about a discounted product, because they like to save money. However, some people associate the word discount with discontinued, cheap, or end of line. 

Here are some of the best forms of promotional offers for emails, along with some advice for matching the incentive to the type of buyer:

• Vouchers included in an email can be printed out or shown on a mobile device for in-store redemption or linked to an item in an online store. Use vouchers when your prospects or customers want to be rewarded with prices that aren't available to the general public

• Giveaways are free products or services offered in exchange for information or a purchase. Use giveaways in combination with another product purchases when you want to offer more value without discounting the value of the featured product. 

• Loss leaders are another form of giveaways. A loss leader is a promotional price that results in negligible profit to the business when the product is purchased. Why would you offer a product in an email at a price that effectively loses money? Because you want to acquire a new customer with an extremely low price, so you can generate profits later on through growing a relationship and hence, repeat sales.

Once you have an offer that gets people to respond, it's time to help them take the next step by suggesting one or more actions via a call-to-action.

A call-to-action is a statement that prompts your readers to take one or more specific actions in favour of your objectives. There are lots of reasons to include a call to action in your email. For example, you can use a call to action to ask people to read your email, by beginning your email with a statement like "Read this email before you order" You can also use a call to action to highlight a specific portion of your email – as in the statement "scroll down for a limited time offer."

Automation is a Good Thing

One of the best features of email marketing is the ability to automate your marketing communications.  The first type of email automation is called an autoresponder. An autoresponder is a single email sent automatically in response to a specific event or action. Examples include;

•  An email triggered by a specific date such as a policy renewal 
•  An email triggered by a specific time such as lunchtime 
•  An email sent a few hours following the delivery of a product
•  An email sent in response to filling out an online form 
•  An email sent in response to a click such as a click on a link to a website page or a video

To set up an autoresponder, you need to create an email with content that will be the same for everyone who triggers the autoresponder email. Once you've created the email, you can use your email marketing software to assign it to one or more triggers or events. 

Sometimes it's appropriate to send multiple emails automatically in response to an action or event. An automated series of multiple emails is called a sequence, and is perfect for targeting email content to individuals with different behaviours, interests, or contexts.

For example, when a new prospect joins your email list you may want to set up a sequence that automatically responds with the following four emails: 

1) A welcome email thanking the person for joining the email list sent immediately after joining

2) A follow up email with links to specific product information, company information or other helpful resources, sent three days after the welcome email

3) An email newsletter with the best articles and advice sent one week after the follow up email

4) A promotional email detailing their trade discount off the standard list price, as a thank you for joining the email list sent two weeks after the email newsletter

Sequences make your emails more relevant because you can base them on a variety of relevant events and triggers such as clicks, dates, and periods of time since a prior action or event.

Email automation takes a little extra time to set up, but hopefully you can see the potential for making things more productive in the long run.

Now that you're familiar with effective email marketing, it's time to put these strategies into practice. Start by building your email list, you don't have to send all of your emails to every subscriber while you're learning. Try sending a few emails to a portion of your list until you're confident in what works for you and what doesn't.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks post. Due to the recent changes to LinkedIn; next week we will take an in-depth look at using LinkedIn for business. 

This post is part 7 of an 11 part series.  

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Liverpool 8 street art

We don't condone – but we do admire

Liverpool 8 street art.

We don't condone – but we do admire

When embarking on a website project for the first time, or even undergoing a re-design, the first decision you will probably make, will be whether to build the site yourself or to hire external help. 

There’s no right or wrong answer to this – it really depends on a number of factors, based on individual situations. However, there are 3 important points you can consider to help you decide: time, money, and expertise.

Do you have the time to build your own website? There are more and more people who are responsible for marketing and know enough about the foundations of a website, or have invested in a website platform such as Dreamweaver, to allow them to build a site on their own. However, being able to build a website and having the time to build a website can be two very different things, so be realistic with your availability.

Even if you hire someone to do the website for you, prepare to budget enough time in which to manage the project. This may require writing website copy, reviewing design revisions and gathering website assets that the designer may need, like photos or videos.

The second point is money. Will the budget be able to accommodate outside help? If not, the decision on how to proceed may be determined by your budget alone. 

When deciding whether to take on a DIY website project or to hire in help, you also need to consider expertise. If you have the expertise and confidence to go it alone, then great. If you don’t, bringing in external help could get the job done on time and on budget. 

Also, if making the right impact for your brand is critical, then maybe going down the DIY route is not an option. If this is the case then it it’s time to get some outside help.

When seeking assistance with your website project. Do your research for suitable web design and web development companies. Ask for examples of work. Remember, not every website designer or website developer is professional in their approach. Being able to do the work is one thing; delivering the project in a professional manner is another.  Ask for references from their last 2 clients.

Content Management Systems

The next item to consider when getting your new website up and running, is deciding what platform to build the website on. There are a number of different platforms, like Dreamweaver and Content Management Systems (also called CMS). Some popular CMS are: Joomla!, Drupal, and WordPress. 

Each Content Management System varies from platform to platform. The consistent theme with a CMS is that you have the ability to make a lot of your own website edits. Some of you may want to make your own site updates, in which case, the CMS platform you choose will be based on the ease of use for adding content.

There are so many additional benefits to having a CMS website. Not only can you add your own content, but most CMS platforms come with blogging facilities built right in – blogging is a must if you want to get found online. Each blog on your website is one extra page. Businesses with 401 to 1,000 web pages have 9 times more traffic and 6 times more leads than those with 51 to 100 pages. 

Domain Names

Domain names are important to get a handle on. Whether you already have a live site, or are building one from the ground up, domain names should be selected for the following reasons:

• Brand protection

• Search Engine Optimisation

• Online marketing campaigns

You can buy domain name/website addresses based on your company name. If your company name is a bit long-winded as a domain, you might also want to choose a shorter version. This will be easier for customers to type when e-mailing and can go on business cards. The shorter domain can always redirect to the longer domain URL; it just spares someone a bit of typing time.

Sometimes you may want to secure misspellings of your company name if the name can be commonly misspelled. 

Domain names can also be selected to support search engine optimisation. Some companies also choose domains that have descriptive search phrases in them, and then use them to help pull in searches. 

And, the length of time you buy a domain name for can impact search engine optimisation. (This is explored more under the topic of Search Engine Optimisation.) If you have a domain name that you know you will keep for a long time, then if you can, buy it for at least 5 to 10 years, versus renewing it annually. This can show your commitment to that URL. Some major search engines factor this in to their search engine result pages.

Keeping Records

With all this new domain name and online log in information, we recommend keeping a central file in your main folder. This should be easily accessible should you need it quickly. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just needs to be a word document or similar. 

The document should contain records of the list of domains you own, how long you own them, your domain company logins, your hosting records, FTP access for your websites, email system logins, access to your logo files, blog login and password, social media logins, and even your web analytics login. 

You never know when you might need these for online marketing management. The easier they are to find, the less time you'll spend digging around, and the more time you'll spend on actual marketing.

Summary 

Some final things to consider when preparing a new website: Remember that websites don’t run themselves. The more you discover about online marketing, the more you will understand that there will be a need for periodic website updates, page additions, optimisations and new technology integration.

Lastly, don’t forget to have website analytics built into your site – add this to your brief… and it’s worth repeating; keep track of all your online logins to make your online marketing management easier!

This post is part 6 of an 11 part series.  

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Content marketing is simply defined as content that educates and empowers Web users. Good content will create, connect, and spark conversation, and… those who truly understand the concept will reap the rewards of the New Web. 

Whether you’re a start-up business, an established company or even a sole trader; authoring content on a regular basis can elevate your expertise in the eyes of your customers (and potential customers) and raise your online profile in general.

We view content creation as the online marketing glue that brings together the success steps, previously discussed in an earlier post: credibility, usability, visibility, sellability and scalability.

Visitors to your website or followers of your social media streams will get to know and more importantly, like and trust your online content, if they see a value. It’s this combination of the know, like, and trust factors where the future selling power lies.

Content includes everything that’s on your Website, in emails, press releases, on frequently asked questions pages, shared on blogs, videos, posts to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and can also include expertise shared on article sites.

Obviously the details of content marketing lay within the content itself. We divide our content in to four main areas; Articles, Social Media, Online PR and Website & Email Content. 

ARTICLES

Publishing content in the form of articles on your website, or on article sharing sites, can multitask as an awareness, communication, connection, service, and selling tool. Do a search for article marketing sites to see all of the content sharing options out there. 

There are loads of article publishing sites on the Web; however it’s also important that you know how to write articles that will engage your target audience.  Search ‘writing tips for articles’ on the web and you’ll quickly learn the basics of how to get to grips with articles.

Creating articles is only half the fun. Sharing them is where the real online marketing magic begins. Articles can be shared on your Website, on a dedicated article page, or they can be posted to your blog and article marketing sites. They can also be sent out to your email list on a regular basis. 

Another idea for articles is to reach out to Websites that you have a shared, common target market with, and offer to guest write articles for them. This could help you get visibility on other sites, and help to elevate you as a ‘thought leader’ in those circles.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Content marketing has gone to a new level with the onset of social media. For example; once your articles are on the web they can also get socialised, meaning that links to the articles can be shared via social media.

Social media content can also cover things like blog posts, Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn posts, videos, and podcasts. Search engines are quick to pick up social media contents, so the visibility potential is quite significant. 

When you leverage content creation through social media, we cannot stress enough the importance of adding value. Your content needs to have value to the reader and should not just be a pushy sales promotion. 

And, unlike content within articles and press releases, social media content is more conversational, so it needs to be driven with a human voice – share content in the way that you would talk naturally.

ONLINE PR

It’s important to start thinking about the power of online public relations as part of your overall content marketing strategy. You can educate the media and your prospective customers about your company news, your point of view on current events that relate to your industry, or share new product or service information. Anything that is newsworthy!

It's a great exercise to write your own releases to share the; who, what, when, where, why, how, and ‘who cares’, to get to the real heart of the story. 

12 months ago we predicted the rise of content as a key factor to online marketing. In response to this we created a Free Press Release Generator Tool to help content creators format their online press releases. The tool will give you tips on how to write a good press release and will automatically format the content into the standard Press Association layout. You also get the option to publish via social media channels for free or to national news desks. (Our press release tool has published 3,272 press releases to date) 

Here are some ideas for online press releases. You can write about company announcements, like new hires, or new projects that you may be working on. Or you might want to do a release about current events and what you’re doing as a company to tie in to support that event. You can share thoughts about new industry initiatives or maybe offer a point of view on newsworthy events which also tie into your industry. 

WEBSITE & EMAIL CONTENT

Last but not least, content marketing can be put to work with strategic messaging on your website, or to your email list, and is the soul of a website. Content is comprised of the words or text on a web page along with the graphics and structure of a website.

The most important aspect of website content is related to search engine ranking.  Search engines look for content more than anything else and will pick up on quality content. This is quickly becoming one of the key factors search engines value most when ranking a website – makes perfect sense when we stop and think about it. 

The job of the search engine is to find the very best and most useful content on the Internet, for any given set of keywords, and present it back to the user. They’ve been getting very good at this lately. 

Also having a dynamic website with a built in blog is critical for building up your online website content. This is covered in detail in the blogging post which we created last week.

A quick tip when working on content marketing on your website is to bullet point anything of importance. Web surfers scan more than they read, so when you’re expressing something of importance on your site, try to summarise it into bullet points. 

Email marketing is covered in more detail in week 8 of this 14 week series, but start thinking now about how to tie email into your website content marketing. 

This is our longest post so far in the series – but it was worth it as I hope you’ll agree. Content Marketing IS important, hence the need to go a little over our target word quota, but as they say, content is king!

This post is part 5 of an 11 part series.  

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Our studio has been put to the test over the last 2 weeks on a recent product photography project for our client, Taps & Showers Direct Ltd. The company is updating their website and urgently required product photography shots to be taken, of over 120 different taps & shower units, including a variety of scenery and stylised images.

Our first challenge was to overcome a small issue with REFLECTIONS. The surface on each of these products was highly polished chrome, and it wasn’t until we looked at the variety of shapes and sizes that we realised just how tricky this project was going to be. We were effectively photographing items that each had its own unique shape and consequently unique reflective areas. 

The main concern when working with reflective surfaces is catching unwanted reflections in the final image. The issue was probably more difficult to overcome than the actual taking of the photograph – we were essentially photographing a six sided mirror. Lighting the taps was also a little tricky as direct light on highly reflective objects tends to create hotspots (sections of the photograph which are over-exposed due to the amount of light in one specific area). 

To overcome any hotspots we positioned the overhead lights directly above the products and then diffused the light to give a nice mellow fall off. We also placed some additional lighting next to the taps and then bounced the light off a defused surface, providing a reduced harshness to the light.

Once we had the lights set up, our next problem was to figure out how we were going to keep each item free of fingerprints. This is where the office marigolds had a chance to steal the show.  These actually proved to be the perfect solution for keeping everything gleaming. As you can image, even the smallest fingerprint or piece of dirt on a highly polished surface would show up in the photographs. Of course, it’s possible to remove these in post-production; however, it saves a whole lot of time and messing about if you can get it right in the first place.

To assist with the shoot we used our remote timer on each photograph, this allowed us to step out of the area when the photograph was taken. Also, we wanted the image to be as clear as possible – we were shooting at the lowest ISO we could, with an aperture of around f/11 (this ensured that the entire tap was in focus). Combining these two settings in this way required a slow shutter speed to let in the correct amount of light, in order to expose the photograph. By putting the camera on a tripod and using the remote timer to take the photograph, meant that there was no chance of the camera moving, or the tripod getting knocked when the shutter button was pressed. All of this attention to detail resulted in a clear and correctly exposed photograph.

Overall, we created a mixture of scenography and standard plain shots on this product photography project. For the scenography images we used a variety of tiled and wallpaper backgrounds, along with a number of sink units and props, such as aftershave, soap dishes, dispensers etc. To bring some of the stylised shots to life even further, we also applied running water to some of the images in post-production.

Once all the photographs were taken we then moved into the post production phase to tweak the white balance and a few other settings (since we shoot everything RAW) before importing it into Photoshop. As soon as we were happy with the final image we then added a clipping mask. This was applied to the standard plain product shots so that the tap or shower could be placed in a variety of coloured backgrounds.

The product photography project went extremely well. Our client is very happy with the overall result. Plus, we learnt a few more new tricks and techniques to help us get around the issue of highly reflective surfaces on future shoots. A great win win result!

TESTIMONIAL

"We were looking for a product photography company to shoot our range of Kitchen and Bathroom stainless steel brassware, to then be published on our website, brochures and other marketing materials. 

It was of the upmost importance that the quality was of the highest degree.  The project was far from straight forward: the guys would have to assemble all the products and also set the various different background props in situ for the taps, showers, wash basins, etc, and then finally edit all in Photoshop. 

After receiving 7 quotes from companies across the UK, some afar afield as London, we decided to go with Studiowide for three reasons; 1st) The cost compared to quality was the most competitive. 2nd) The location was fantastic for us and the guys also allowed us to call in and tweak the studio shots. 3rd) We had confidence in the guys after talking to them and also looking through their portfolio. 

All in all we were very pleased with the final work. As a result, I would highly recommend Studiowide. We will be using their services again in the future. Thanks guys!" Damien Golden, Director. OPTIMA Bathroom Solutions Ltd.

Video works wonders as an online marketing medium, because the way we take in video messaging is more show me, rather than tell me. Plus, watching and sharing videos is one of the main activities happening online now!

The main reason video works so well as a marketing tool is because of the entertainment factor. We’re not proposing that all videos need to be funny to work; they just need to be enjoyable to watch. This can mean that they are fun, funny, educational, useful, or just thought-provoking.

Enjoyable and engaging videos can act as a communications vehicle in this fast growing marketing channel, and as an overall great way to engage consumers with your business. 

The Detail Outside the Video

Most videos designed to support online marketing are short; 15 to 45 seconds in length. If you have videos to share, you can create an account on a video sharing site to share content, and then embed the links to the video into your Web site, blog, or add them to social networking sites, like Facebook or LinkedIn.

YouTube is the number two search engine on the World Wide Web. An added value point to having videos on video sharing sites like YouTube, is that you can potentially help increase search results if you use search rich descriptions when you upload your videos.

Just like Web site pages have meta-titles and descriptions that help tell search engines what each page of the site is about, video titles, descriptions, and tags work in a similar way.

Be sure to use descriptive phrases when you upload videos to reap the additional search visibility benefits of this social media channel.

Sharing videos can be a great online marketing addition if the videos are planned in advance.  However, we cannot emphasise enough how important it is to make sure that your videos have good content in them.

DIY or Pro

Some people may be able to produce videos on their own, and some may decide to hire professionals. Either way, just make sure that what you share is on-brand, and on-purpose, meaning that it is edited and produced in a way that does not detract from the value which has been created by your other professional marketing materials such as website, brochures etc.

Overall, videos can be compelling content to support online marketing. Here are 10 great tips on getting more from online video marketing.

Top 10 tips:

1. Make your title count

Just like a headline to a blog post, video titles can pull powerful traffic.  There are two main reasons why the title is so important: One; a great title can instantly grab a viewer’s attention and two; When you use the appropriate keywords in your title, you are more likely to show up on search engines when people are searching for your topic.  And remember Google owns YouTube, so there’s a connection between video and searching.

2. Provide excellent content

Take some time to think about your ideal viewer.  What do you know that they’ll find valuable?  What can you teach them?  “How-to” videos are extremely successful because not only do they offer great value to your viewer, but also you’re able to showcase your knowledge and skill, thus positioning yourself as an expert.  This is key as you continue to grow your brand.

3. Take advantage of video’s branding opportunities

For branding purposes, have your company logo displayed prominently somewhere on the screen.  You can do this at all times or during key times in your video

4. Always provide a HTML link

When you post on YouTube, you have the option to write a short description of your video.  Always start with the link you want to drive your viewers to so you don’t miss this key opportunity.

5. Go beyond YouTube

Most people post their videos on YouTube.  In addition to this, make sure to always embed your video on your own website.  This will increase the amount of time people spend on your website and help grow a captive audience.

6. Create a Campaign

In order to get noticed, think beyond stand-alone videos.  For greater reach and exposure, create a series of content-rich videos that you publish regularly.  Not only will this create a great synergy around your content, but it will also allow you to build upon your brand identity as each video is released.

7. Call to Action

Always Include a Call to Action: Never miss the opportunity to ask your viewers to take some type of action at the end of your video.  You can ask them to sign up for your newsletter, go to a specific website, leave a comment about your video or visit your blog.  If your video is good, you’ll likely have their full attention; make sure to take advantage of it!

8. Have a Clear Purpose and Structure

Your keywords will help make sure you target your video on the right purpose before you start. Does your video answer the questions your visitors have in their heads when they’re searching for solutions? Make things crystal clear.

9. Write Articles, Forum Posts, Blogs and Emails about Your Video

Write a short article (500-1000 words—like this one) on the same topic as your video. Then create a short blog post that links to your article and/or video.

10. Be transparent and authentic

We recommend being as transparent and authentic as you can be when expressing yourself and your company on video.

This post is part 4 of an 11 part series.  

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The Sefton Insulation scheme is funded by Sefton Council and E.ON, and administered by Energy Projects Plus. Studiowide were approached by Energy Projects Plus and commissioned to develop a dynamic website, including Content Management System, to be used as part of their home Insulation campaign.

This is our third home insulation marketing project that we’ve been involved with in the last 6 months. We’re getting to be quite the experts even if we do say so ourselves. Our previous projects were for Guardwarm (Isothane Ltd) and Warmer Wirral (Wirral Council). Both of these projects also included similar requests for us to provide web development services, along with video production, graphic design and direct marketing.

Stage 1 for any of our website design and development projects consists of detailing the brief with the client. We build up a picture as to exactly what the site requirements are as part of our initial tender/quotation discussions. This makes it easy for us to transfer the information into a formal brief document once the project commences.

Once the brief is agreed we set about producing a masterplan schedule, highlighting all of the important stage gates within the project. The client receives a copy of the masterplan. This acts as the roadmap for the rest of the project. 

At this point we begin working on some design mock-up ideas for the home page. The homepage is the most important page on a website – getting more page views than any other page. Of course, users don't always enter a website from the homepage: a website is like a house in which every window is also a door. 

The Sefton Insulation project was designed to fit around the marketing brochures which are currently used in the campaign. We lifted the colour palette from the brochures and adapted some other elements which we felt would work really well on the website. 

Once the design mock-ups are completed we begin wireframing. This is the process of creating a basic visual guide to depict the layout of a website, its navigational properties and how each of its pages interacts with one another. 

As soon as the mock-up and wireframe have been signed off we set about mocking up the inside pages of the site. Our web development team then began setting up the back-end content management system. 

We use a number of content management systems depending on the functionality of the website and whether or not eCommerce will be a feature of not. 

Sefton Insulation website project was built using the popular WordPress content management system (CMS). This open source software is extremely easy to use and has well documented guides all over the web on how to get the most out of using WordPress as a CMS.

Once the back-end of the site had been developed we moved over to the front-end. This process begins with the slicing up of graphics from the mock-ups and is where the first stages of a functioning website come together. 

Once we have set-up the CMS and adding the functionality across the pages, we then begin the process of adding content. The Sefton Insulation site was a brand new website, so in this instance there was no previous content to use. Our client issued us with the content and we transferred this into the website.

As this project is only running for a limited period, the only interaction required is the facility to apply now! Blogs and social feeds were not required. The apply now function is handled by a standard form which posts the contents to Sefton Insulation ready for processing.

We really like this site because of its simplicity and ease of use. The message is clear and the information contained within it is just enough to guide the consumer along the decision making journey, when choosing a home insulation scheme.

View the Sefton Insulation live site

Blogs, like other social media outlets have become an integral part of life for most people. In this post we’ll explain the value that we believe blogging can bring to your business and provide an insight into exactly what blogs are.

The word Blog is short for web log and begun life as a form of writing journal, where the entries or posts where shared in chronological order to the online masses. It is the collection of thoughts, media, links, etc. shared with others online and is firmly established as a big piece of the social media marketing umbrella. 

However, nowadays, Blogs are no longer just online journals; they can become a powerful marketing asset to any company. They have the potential to become the core of social media marketing campaigns, particularly where blog posts can;

1. Show authority
2. Serve customers
3. Build a community
4. Support public relations

Blogs are also very good at increasing search engine results as they have the potential to get shared via links through social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. This is why, when planning your online marketing strategy (particularly social media marketing), blogs should feature as a big piece of this channel.

Content is King

One of the best ways to get people to focus on a brand is keeping them constantly informed. Just like a good book, when a business or company offers up quality content it is going to entice people to read more, learn more and eventually buy more.

If you look at our own Studiowide blog you will see an example of varied content, written in a conversational tone. Our posts average around 500 – 800 words. Any less than 500 words and they have very little value to the readers. On the flip-side, any more that 800 words and you run the risk of taking up too much of your audience’s valuable online time. 

What Does it all Mean

Blog posts are a great way of sharing the values of your business, serving as a voice in today's social Web. This will help to boost awareness, distribute information, educate, create connections, serve customers, support sales and help boost search engine visibility. 

The more blogs you write, the more content grows and compounds, providing more content to be searched on, boosting visibility and long-term online marketing scalability.

Overall, Blogs are a fantastic online marketing resource with the right strategy in place. This can prove to be an amazing piece of marketing collateral, helping to build brand loyalty and drive long term customer commitments. Benefits aside, blogging is a responsibility; it requires commitment and dedication to customer understanding. 

Microblogging

Now that you have an understanding of what blogs are and the benefits they bring, let us look at Microblogging. This stemmed from the concept of the traditional blog, in that it shares content, but unlike a blog that has unlimited typing space, the posts are shorter in length. This allows users to exchange small elements of content, such as short sentences, photos, or video links.

Twitter is the most commonly recognised social media outlet for Microblogging. It then becomes part of the online marketing mix to share information, ignite conversations with like-minded people and it can indirectly boost visibility.

When thinking of Microblogging, remember how we text on mobile phones; the length of messages are short and easy to type. We operate our Studiowide Twitter account by sharing the posting responsibility between all staff. This leads to a more frequent posting schedule and takes the pressure off of having just one person write posts. 

When using Twitter, It’s common etiquette to use URL shortners, like bit.ly, or tinyurl.com, to create a shortened URL. Microbloggers love to share links but don’t like wasting characters on lengthy URLs. 

Still on the Fence?

It's a fact; the usage of blogging and sharing via social networking sites is growing every day, so it's naturally getting the attention of organisations as a great marketing vehicle – marketers want to be where the people are. 

Blogging works wonders for three main reasons: one, they’re an easy communication vehicle; two, the communication community surrounding the distribution of blogs makes networking fast, easy, and global; and three, it's entertaining. 

Please note: if you decide to post a company blog on your website or through social networking spaces like Facebook and LinkedIn for marketing reasons, do remember your etiquette. Online communities are a place to communicate, collaborate and enjoy your networking time, not to be salesy through directly pushing products or services.

In the next post we will focus on the use of video as part of an online marketing strategy, and how the use of engaging and informative content can help not only with your communications, but drive interest into different channels which may not have been considered previously. 

This post is part 3 of an 11 part series.  

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St Helens Concert Band recently won lottery funding in order to document, film and promote the history of the band, tracing back to its roots in 1874. Studiowide tendered for this project and we were delighted to be selected as the video production and marketing, chosen supplier.

The St Helens Concert Band project focuses on the history of the band since its formation and involves recorded and videoed interviews. These will be carried out with current and past members of the band as well as family members.

As part of the project we were commissioned to design and develop a new website, complete with a Content Management System. This would allow the band members to be able to update the website with images, stories and further videos.  The band also took the opportunity to update their logo at the same time as re-doing their website. We also provided the new logo which they love.

The new website includes an integrated dynamic events calendar which allows the band manager to add upcoming events and information. Each band member can go online and check the schedule of the next performance. (View the new site here)

The website was produced using the open source WordPress Content Management System (CMS). There are many benefits of a CMS website, the main being YOU are in control. A CMS gives you direct control over the content on your web site.

Sites that change and update their content on a regular basis not only give their business or service the appearance of being alive and more active, but search engines give higher emphasis on fresh content.

Also, we find when reviewing websites with clients; once they have a content management system set up, they are more likely to add more content to the website because it's now so much easier. The result is a much more robust site with more pages than before.

The bottom line with a CMS website is that the client saves money. Plain and simple, in the long run our clients save money versus paying a 3^rd party provider to make all changes and updates by hand. This is why all of the websites that we build are fully dynamic sites built using a variety of content management systems, depending on the complexity of the website.

The overall project has been finished in stages. The website is now complete and the next stage is the design and printing of brochures, whilst the documentary and filming process goes on in the background. The client is extremely pleased with the progress to date and is looking forward to the final DVD product.

With only a few seconds to make a meaningful impression – and the competition just a click or two away – connecting with your website visitors is vital. Which is why, in order to create a healthy foundation for future success, all online marketing activity should be approached with a plan.  

So what do you put in your online marketing plan and what do you leave out? Our recommendation is to focus on the following five key points: 

Credibility  -  Usability  -  Visibility  -  Sellability  -  Scalability

Credibility: this refers to the impression that your company makes online. Credibility can be gained through your website, including; blogs, content, videos, PR, social media and reviews. 

Usability:  how well people access, use and manoeuvre through your online content is termed usability. All online marketing collateral needs to be user-friendly. This comes from appropriate and professional design, site architecture, clear navigation, call to actions, e-mails, content and even social media.

Visibility: an absolute must as you build your online marketing plans.  You can offer the best products and services, but if nobody knows about them, what's the point? Visibility can come from a number of marketing channels, including; advertising, natural search, social media marketing, online PR or e-mail. 

The ideal scenario is to have a variety of visibility options planned into your marketing mix. Having an idea of what future visibility channels will be used is critical. These should be planned up front, as some options may require space on your website or may need to be integrated into the overall design. It’s much better to work these in at the beginning, rather than having to redo your website at a later stage.

Sellability: this is a critical online marketing planning piece. Sellability is about how attractive your company is to do business with. You can achieve this by showing, telling and focusing on the benefits of your products and services. That way your potential customers will understand why your company is worth working with.

You can achieve sellability through video, testimonials, press releases, taglines, and photos. By understanding the ‘sellability’ angle of your business you will ensure that your value proposition is woven into site pages and overall online marketing communications.

Scalability: your online marketing efforts can last a lifetime on the Web, building and growing your digital footprint. Small and consistent investments made over time can grow to support your overall web presence and marketing goals. 

When you incorporate all of the above: credibility, usability, visibility, and sellability, then you will benefit from scalability.

Knowing Me Knowing You

The next step in getting ready for online marketing is to understand who your target market is? Who your ideal customer is? What are their needs, wants, problems, and how can you help them?

But remember; you want to attract ‘ideal’ prospects. Far too often business owners get wrapped up in wanting traffic and lots of it. The key is to focus on attracting and connecting with people who really matter, so you don't waste your time, energy, and money with people who are not necessarily the best prospects.

Measuring Success

Online marketing is a creative process. In order to truly succeed, not only do you have to create and then execute your ideas, you must also monitor the process. The create, execute and monitor cycle should be on-going. If done correctly it will help you to decide how to best use your time, energy and budget.

Both qualitative and quantitative success metrics should be used when measuring success. Examples of qualitative metrics could be things like branding, credibility building, supporting future business goals and generating PR interest.

Quantitative success metrics could be things that are mathematically measurable like leads or web enquiries, number of emails signups, site traffic and sales revenues.

When you’re planning your online marketing it’s best to use statistical tools which are built in from the start. One of the great distinctions of online marketing as oppose to offline marketing is that it’s nearly all measurable. 

But, you can only measure the results if you have the necessary systems in place. Google analytics is a great start. The free web analytics tool from Google will help you measure traffic volume, referring sources of traffic and quantitative goals like sales, leads, emails signups, conversion rate, and even referring search keywords. 

We hope the above will help you on your way to getting ready for online marketing. In our next post we will investigate the topic of Blogging. Whether you’ve just decided to launch a blog for your business or you’ve been blogging for a while, our blogging information can help prevent you from falling victim to some of the most common business blogging mistakes.

This post is part 2 of an 11 part series.  

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Containers direct, based in Garston, Liverpool, supply a wide range of new and second-hand shipping containers, site cabins and site offices across the UK. They came to us recently for assistance with their mascot design as well as a logo and website redesign.

As this was a rebranding project, the client was open to suggestions. This included change of colour theme, illustrations, icons, fonts, etc, In fact, a whole new identity  -  naturally, we saw this as a brilliant design opportunity!

We are huge fans of using characters in web design; they can work really well if utilised in the correct way; not only do they work for visual impact, they can also steer an audience in the right direction and provide a deeper connection. 

Mascot design and illustration is not just limited to the gaming community. Businesses of all types are reaching out to illustrators to provide them with their own mascot – making them stand out from the crowd. A good mascot design icon can help make  your business friendly and approachable, and like our little chap with wide eyes and a cheeky smile, this can appeal to a lot of people.

However, some companies get the use of mascot design in their projects all wrong. Some end up taking the easy option by going down the stock image route. The end result is a mascot which is rarely a hit – it’s impossible to create a memorable and recognisable brand if the images are not unique to the company.

Containers Direct did originally have a mascot on their webpage. It was our remit to redesign him and give him a makeover. The plan was to have the mascot to appear in each of the 8 homepage slideshow banners of the new website.

On projects like these, the majority of work goes into planning and sketching out ideas. This helps to create the simple shapes. We then build the form and composition to get the feel for the character. 

Once we’re happy with the final sketch, it’s then over to Adobe Illustrator where we begin building up the layers using vector shapes. To finish off, we add smaller detailed assets and gradients to create depth and make the mascot come to life. 

The aim of this mascot was to not detract too much from the main brand identity. We had to compliment the design and allow the mascot to be worked into on-going promotions and information boards. To achieve this, we gave him a smart uniformed look, dressing him in a black t-shirt with the rebranded logo on his chest.

Studiowide provided all graphic design services on this project, including mascot design, logo and website design. On this occasion we worked with our client’s web host package provider, who then placed our design into the current website template.

Overall, the customer was extremely happy with this rebrand project, especially the mascot design!

Guardwarm Home Insulation is a new consumer brand from leading polyurethane manufacture, Isothane Ltd. We were successful in securing an exciting project earlier this year. This involved the creation of a new consumer division with the company.

Part of the brief required us to work alongside the Isothane senior team to come up with a new identity for their consumer home insulation service. Included in this brief was website design and development, in addition to the following; Logo, cases studies, data sheets, Leaflets, brochures, business cards, letterheads, identity cards and appointment cards.

One of the critical factors for this project was the ability to turn a website project around in 4 weeks and the whole project in under 2 months. We love challenges, so off we went, burning the midnight oil to come up with a completely new brand. 

We opted for a micro website as ultimately we would be promoting only one aspect of the Isothane business. Isothane have a main website which contains all company and product range information. The home insulation brand was purely product specific and business to consumer oriented, as opposed to the main site which is business to business; this therefore suited the style of a standalone Micro Website.

While there’s certainly a place for complex websites – with advanced features, flash animation and complex navigation – many businesses are starting to realise the benefits of micro sites. These are relatively simple websites which can be used for many purposes and can be highly optimised for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Micro websites are small sites, often with around 5 -10 pages – sometimes less. As they sit outside of the normal website you can get quite creative with ideas. And whilst some people would argue that micro sites have limited functionality, in fact, it’s their simplicity that makes them so versatile.

The name that was chosen by the team to move forward with was ‘Guardwarm’. The agreed theme was ‘Feather Your Nest’ and included a vibrant line-up of feathers, bringing a burst of colour to the design. As we had already created this imagery for the direct mail leaflets, it was a simple choice to then carry this across to the website homepage.

The client preferred bold imagery taking up the majority of the home page, rather than heavy text. We set about illustrating an additional 4 more images to graphically represent each benefit of the Guardwarm insulation system; repairing wall tie damage; protecting from wind driven rain; protecting from windstorms; securing against flood risk. Our in-house graphic design team worked alongside our in-house web developers to create the perfect gallery of homepage images.

The Micro Website was delivered within the required timescales and the client was extremely happy with the result! View Guardwarm micro website

"Studiowide have designed and produced a marketing identity for our brand new division. This is from name, logo, colour scheme, right through to multiple literature pieces, co-ordinated with a great website. All in under two months – with a very down-to-earth attitude and a commitment to both excellence, and the schedule!" 
Craig Treanor –Technical Marketing Manager, Isothane Ltd, Accrington

Motion graphics can be a great way of communicating your company message to your audience. It’s particularly useful to businesses that perhaps don’t have physical products or processes to shoot and so a traditional filmed video wouldn’t achieve the right result. 

When Liverpool based gravure printing company, Prinovis asked us to design and produce another motion graphics video, we jumped at the chance. This motion graphics video was planned for reveal at an upcoming exhibition: The In-Store Marketing Show, London. 

In most cases, videos containing motion graphic design are an excellent way to deliver a message, whilst maintaining the engaging and diverse qualities that video provides. They can be extremely powerful when combined with video footage and can used to create rich multimedia training videos, or videos with a lot of information.

Motion graphics works really well with text and information heavy content, as it allows you to tell a story through moving graphics, animation and kinetic typography. Some content can often be over-whelming when delivered via narration or flat diagrams/imagery. 

Combining visual animation, graphics and sound in this way provides an overall much more engaging experience, resulting in greater retention of information. 

Our brief was to produce a 2.5 minute video which would support the company’s new campaign; ‘Bringing the Customer Journey to Life’. Prinovis requested that this motion graphic design project was to be in a similar style to the first video we did for them, but with a different story.

In this project our remit was to focus on the relationship between print and mobile phone couponing. Our client wanted to show their print customers such as Argos, who invest heavily in the Argos catalogue, that they can also bolster the customer consumer experience by providing multichannel touch points, via the use of the Prinovis mobile phone coupons.   

To make the connection between print and digital we opted to design the final motion graphics video around the look and feel of a digital catalogue. The pages of the catalogue would then contain all of the relevant information that Prinovis wanted to deliver, in an animated form. 

Our intention was to bring the catalogue pages to life and provide the viewer with unique imagery that would catch their attention. Our animated catalogue was positioned on a coffee table in the digital scene. We proceeded to introduce additional items that would normally be found around the home. 

We utilised typical ‘real world’ objects normally found offline to give the video a much more realistic feel, bridging the gap and helping viewers to make the connection between the familiar physical catalogue and a digital form.

Our in-house graphic design and video production teams worked closely on this campaign.

This is the 2nd project which we have recently undertaken for Prinovis and was part of a wider marketing campaign of work, which included a 28 page booklet, done in a magazine design style and an exhibition back wall design.

If you would like to discuss how motion graphics could help your promotions then please get in touch!

One of the largest Gravure Printing companies in Europe, Prinovis, liked our last exhibition stand design so much… they came back to us for their next one! The In-Store Marketing Show, London has attendees from a wide variety of retail sectors. Our client wanted an exhibition back wall design to make them stand out!

The project brief was to promote how multiple location retail outlets should consider a multi-channel approach when planning their sales and marketing activities. This project was produced in conjunction with our Prinovis magazine design project; both part of the same campaign: ‘Bringing a Customer Journey to Life’. 

The initial part of the brief was to conduct a creative strategy meeting with Prinovis, who are based in Speke, Liverpool. The strategy meeting gave us the opportunity to establish the exact message which we then needed to communicate through the design. 

Our initial concern at this stage of the project was the possibility of mixed messages occurring through the combination of online and offline promotions – using them both in the one campaign.

We presented a final idea of ‘Bringing Products to Life’ which the client really liked. This was developed further into ‘Bringing the Customer Journey to Life’. The concept idea was to illustrate a retail themed background, utilising a flat silhouette environment and then apply a burst of colour, springing out of a tablet, mobile device and a retail catalogue.  

Our use of colour signifies both mediums being ‘brought to life’ – ultimately enhancing the customer purchasing journey.  The eruption of colour acts as a fountain of energy, engulfing the (previously) monochrome retail consumer, also in the image. 

The stand space was slightly smaller in length than our last project, coming in at 5m wide x 2.5m tall. The Prinovis logo remained central within the exhibition design, signifying that Prinovis is the source and driving force of both online and offline types of media.

Visitors to the In-Store Marketing Show exhibition will be met by this large illustrated back wall art, filling the complete Prinovis stand. The main objective for our graphic design team on this creative piece was to come up with a visually striking image – without being too obtrusive. And to have just enough thought provocation to arouse a positive curiosity.

Overall, the client was very happy with the outcome, and so were we!

We recently finished designing and developing a micro website for our client, to launch their brand new product: Walking Stick Mate. 

A micro website is a perfect solution to focus on a specific product or service and can be deployed in only a few days.  On this project we opted to keep the content minimal, keeping the focus on the actual product itself and designed everything to be displayed above the fold of the web page. The main product information is contained within a motion graphics video. 

Overall, this micro website contains 3 product information pages – which is really all you need to focus on one product or a specific campaign – we also integrated a pop-up payment page and 3 additional pages for legal stuff, plus a contact form.

Those Businesses who are looking to quickly promote a product or launch a new service, can use 5 to 6 page micro websites to create a straight forward and cost effective solution. The simple approach makes these types of sites ideal for start-up websites or single product or service promotion.

Our client also required a payment system integrated into their website so users could purchase the Walking Stick Mate on-line. In this instance we recommended PayPal Pro, due to the ease and speed in which it takes to set the account up and begin trading.

PayPal also happens to be the most widely used online payment system in the world, considered by many to be the most reliable for money transfers. However, It’s a bit like marmite, you either love it or you hate it. We actually love it! But, as they say, it’s ‘horses for courses’.

We designed and built this micro website using the very popular WordPress open source platform. WordPress runs unbelievably smoothly as a Content Management System (CMS), but what makes it great is how much control you have. We can code any part of WordPress to function the way our clients want.

Our client has now taken ownership of the website and has full access and control in order to adjust content and Meta data very quickly and easily – making updates a breeze –  the WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) editor provides complete control over content. 

All of the websites that we offer now come with Content Management Systems. This type of system removes the need for any additional 'web content' update costs, as it’s all handled in-house by the client, through the Content Management System.

On a final note; not only did Studiowide produce the micro website on this project, we were also responsible for the complete product development and marketing strategy of this product launch. We utilised the following services overall on this project: Graphic Design, 360 Product Photography, Motion Graphics and Strategic Marketing. 

Infographics are a great way of visualising information, or in this case for our client Plastic Closures, we created an infographic to show the manufacturing process of plastic caps, in a fun and creative way.

This particular graphic is utilised in a specific website landing page as part of a wider marketing campaign. Users are drawn to visual content, and as the concept of an infographic is still fresh, there is less chance of the website visitor bouncing off the page. 

Infographics can be a great asset to a website landing page. They can help inform, educate and entertain users. We can produce graphics for clients to be used in a variety of forms, either online or in print.  

We have completed a report writing brief for a Neighbourhood Energy Watch Survey, as part of a project undertaken by Studiowide to design and print leaflets, flyers and questionnaires for the charity; Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough. 

The partnership between Transition Village Eastham and Bromborough, the charity Energy Projects Plus and the social enterprise Healthy Cities Community Interest Company has investigated why people may face difficulties in installing energy efficiency measures. Our remit was to design and compile a final report which would be presented to the funding providers and the general public. 

The main aim of the survey team was to find out why people might not be ready to fit home insulation. The study will also enquire whether health or disability issues may impede households from improving energy efficiency. On the other hand residents will be asked whether they are aware that cold, damp housing can exacerbate poor health and may be a greater problem for people with disabilities who may spend longer in the home.

The data was collected over a 4 week period and then presented to Studiowide for inclusion into the report. Our role was to bring the data to life using infographics imagery and various elements to communicate the findings.

Report writing and presentation of data doesn’t have to be boring and can be done using text and infographics. Infographics are visual representations of data, information and knowledge. They have become increasingly popular and consumers find themselves attracted to the ability of getting the "full picture" at a glance without reading a lot of wordy text.

We completed the project on time and the client was more than happy. Studiowide provided graphic design and copywriting services on this project. We also published this report to a digital interactive brochure format.

We have Just completed another successful magazine design project for our client. The design brief was to produce a creative piece that could be used in a promotional campaign, highlighting the benefits of using print as part of a multichannel approach. The concept is a ‘magazine’ about ‘magazines’. Now that’s a paradox if we’ve ever seen one.

Our client, Prinovis,  is one of the largest gravure printing companies in Europe, producing magazines and catalogues for big names like Argos, Boots and John Lewis, to name a few.  They will be handing out these promotional magazines to potential customers of major blue chip organisations, as part of their upcoming exhibitions in London.

The magazine design highlights the fact that although customers are investing in web, mobile, tablets, social…etc, at a time when digital is developing so much, there is also evidence that the printed page is still strong in the decision making process and should be used as a unique and complimentary tool in a multi-channel marketing mix.

Our client believes that a magazine and catalogue encourages decision making. They feel personal – a direct connection with the brand – beating any web search optimization campaign for grabbing attention and standing out from your competitors. Therefore, our remit in creating the design and content was to work with Prinovis to come up with something that was unique and different, in order to communicate this message.

We worked closely with the team at Prinovis for direction and feedback of the specific content, and we utilised a variety of graphic design principles, including image manipulation and illustration. The magazine design project was finished, front to back, on-time and in under 5 days.  

The client is extremely pleased with the final result and have the completed magazine / catalogue in hand, ready to be distributed at the In-Store Marketing show – Marketing Week event – held at Olympia, London.

We have also published the magazine to a digital page turning format for online use. View the digital publication here

We are currently working on a strategic marketing campaign for a specialist insurance services company.

The company approached us to handle their direct marketing activity, through a variety of digital channels, including direct email. 

We wanted to create a campaign with a difference. As the initial contact strategy was to be predominantly through email and SMS, aimed at 5,000 consumers per month, we had to get our creative thinking caps on to bring something to the table which produced great results. 

We decided on building a unique micro web site for each contact. Then set about presenting a mini-story based around a comic strip, featuring the contact person as the main character.   

The first product we were tasked to promote was Life Insurance. We created buying personas, which are effectively profiles of the people who will receive the emails. Once we stepped into the shoes of the customer we could then work out the details of the offer.

Personalisation of content is key to the success of such personalised URL campaigns. Whilst we were fortunate to have quite a lot of ‘opt-in’ data to hand, we were also very wary that such campaigns containing too much personal data can ‘spook people out’.  

We opted to use some opt-in information such as; the local area the contact person resided in, gender, street name and their current make of car.

This information meant not only could we personalise the character’s name, street address and car, but the main character in the comic also changes, depending on the gender of the person visiting the page!

In order to add further impact to the campaign we used one of our campaign domain names: www.thisis4.eu to host each of these personalised websites on. 

The first stage of the campaign is to notify each of the 5,000 contacts per month via email and SMS, informing them that our client has made them a very special web site, and why not go and check it out by visiting their own unique web site address at: www.thisis4.eu/name.surname. 

The person then visits their own ‘individually created’ web site and views themselves in a paradox style comic. There are 3 call-to-action options available on page 2 of the micro site, including scheduling in a call-back or using the on-line Life Insurance quote and buy tool. 

It’s early days yet to report any figures, however we’re extremely confident that we’ll get higher than average response rates on this campaign. Purely for the fact of curiosity – not many campaigns are utilising personalised URLs and landing pages at the moment – then we have the creative element to back it up. Studies have found that personalised URL campaigns typically increase response rates by 50 to 100%.

However, if you are considering such a campaign then please note: personalised URLs are not a quick fix to poor email campaigns. If you place a personalised URL on top of a poorly executed campaign, it will still be a poorly executed campaign.

Personalised URL campaigns can bring in around 40% response rates. However, it must be said that such great results are achieved with campaigns that have up-to-date contact lists, good use of creative visuals and a relevant offer.  

If you would like to see how a personalised URL campaign can benefit you, then please get in touch

We are currently in the process of creating an audio and video compilation DVD for St Helen’s Concert Band to promote and celebrate their strong historical roots. As part of this project we were also asked to film the band playing a recent live show to represent the members in the present day line up.

The band were asked to play at Liverpool One Proms in the Park over the bank holiday, Jubilee weekend, so we went along to film.

The morning of the concert was glorious; the sun was out, there was a nice cool, slow breeze and the skies were blue -perfect! We got to Chavasse Park a little early to check out the stage and start setting up our equipment.

When we arrived it was already busy with people lounging on the grass and reclining in the special Liverpool One beach chairs. It was a great opportunity to test out our new Jib with remote pan and tilt head. We set this up just to the side of stage, allowing us to pan up and over the band getting some great shots looking down on them and from behind the conductor.

We also used our Canon DSLR and slider to get some establishing and general shots of the crowd and park. The band played for a total of 40 minutes, indulging in some of their favourite songs for the Liverpool crowd.

The entire set was filmed from a variety of angles and we managed to get some great footage!

Overall, it was a great day out! A big thanks to Liverpool One for putting on such a great concert!

We have just completed a web site design & development project as part of our full service marketing brief for one of our clients. This project is one of two retail products which we have developed and launched over the last 8 months for the same customer. This product is a game called the Darts Practice Rings and is unique to the market. The game comes fully endorsed by Eric Bristow! 

The website has been designed to reflect the style of the packaging, which was also designed in-house by Studiowide. The brief was to create a fully editable dynamic website with content management system, integrated with a payment system to allow customers to purchase the Darts Practice Rings, direct from the web site.

We had a choice to use either the Drupal or WordPress platform as a content management system. Typically, our decision of which one to use normally comes down to; the intricacy of the site, what the client will be using it for and which platform the customer is already used to. If it's a multi product and complex web site then most certainly we would use Drupal. In this case we used WordPress.

Now that the Darts Practice Rings web site is up and running we have moved into the promotion stage, ready for the full product launch in July.

The range of Studiowide services used on this project in order to get the idea from concept to retail stores where; strategic marketing, digital marketing, web development, product photography, graphic design,  video production and motion graphics. All of these services demonstrate our in-house capabilities.

Over this long Jubilee weekend I discovered that we, as a company, operate in a very peculiar business landscape. On one hand we’re constantly aiming to excel; to ensure that as a service provider we’re at the forefront of our marketing and promotional technology; constantly reviewing and learning the next big app, tool, widget or social media site, which we can then add to our toolbox in order to ‘help’ our clients in their online endeavours. 

Then, on the other hand we’ve been faced with the reality for some time that our target market of small to medium sized enterprises in Liverpool and the North West, lag behind many rival cities in the use of the internet for business.  Source Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

I guess my post today is as a result of the community spirit which is flowing through the UK at the moment and reminds me WHY we exist as a company: to help small to medium sized businesses in our local areas (first) and wider county boundaries (second) to promote themselves in the best possible way. At the moment, it seems like the best possible way to help our target market is to go back and revisit some basic fundamentals of online marketing.

This post is in essence a reality check. Yes, we CAN bring a whole host of new media tools to the table – and we’re very good at it when we do – but if some businesses are just not ready for it, then are we really helping them or overwhelming them? 

So, as of today, we’re making a conscious effort to rewind a little and go back-to-basics to help those businesses who feel overwhelmed by online marketing.  For the next 100 days we will be making regular posts as part of a campaign here at Studiowide, to help local businesses promote themselves more effectively online. 

Each post will feature a separate sub topic to online marketing, and where relevant will also include links to some great e-books that we’ve come across over the last few months, all of which will help provide further learning for people who want to get stuck in.

[SERIES NOW COMPLETED]

View all posts in the online marketing series:  

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