Redmandarin, who specialise in ‘strategic, integrated sponsorship’, approached us to redesign and restructure their website.  The new year often calls for change and Redmandarin had just this in mind when they came to us with their very definite brief.

Not only did we completely redesign the site, as you will see from the ‘before’ shot below (and visiting the site to the revamped version), but the entire site was restructured and reorganised. 

Utilising the advances made in the open source blogging tool and content management system WordPress, we developed a website that is 100% manageable via the back office and, as you would expect, completely bespoke to Redmandarin!

The client is also pretty happy with the result too…“Magnetic Works have an unabating ability to deliver great websites which work for the reader, the business, and the search engines alike.” – Adam Colthorpe, Redmandarin

For further information on what we did, visit Our Work section or head over to the new Redmandarin site at www.redmandarin.com.

During the month of January we are offering our clients, their friends and some of our new friends 20% off all services.

Perhaps you’ve considered jazzing up your brand logo, or maybe you’ve decided that 2012 is the time to set up that online shop you’ve always wanted and get stuck into some serious e-commerce entrepreneural endeavour.

Well, now is the time to get Magnetic Works on board to help realise your new year ambitions.

Our 20% discount can be used on any of our services (subject to terms and conditions below, of course) including web design, web development, search, and email marketing.

The offer is open to all work we agree quotes on during the month of January. Once agreed, we’ll schedule your project in and off we go – we’re taking on new projects on a first come, first serve basis so move fast and get in touch with us about your plans.

Just to give you a taster of what we might be able to do, below are some examples of projects and time-scales that we are regulaly asked to undertake.

Email Marketing

You have a looong list of customer and client email addresses and would like to send them a Happy New Year message and a quick peek at all the new products, services and opportunities you have available.

We can do the following for you:

1. Design you a sumptious email template combining your branding, copy and imagery
2. Develop the HTML template for the above design that can be imported to an bulk email system
3. Test the template and make amends for different browsers and email clients
4. Import and check your email list
5. Send the email to your client list and report on open and click-through rates from the campaign.

All that would take 2 days of our time from brief to completion.

Want more info, read about our email marketing services.

Branding

It’s 2012 but your brand looks a bit 2002. What to do? What to do? Well, we can give your brand imagery new life. Our design teams are experts at visually capturing the essence of a company and locking into a memorable and effective brand logo.

Whether you are repositioning your business or starting at the beginning, we can create a visual identity that encompasses what you do and gives a sense of who you are.

And how would we do that? Well, we would do the following:

1. From consultation with you on your brief, we will design your logo – from experience, we find we usually we need two rounds of submission and feedback to get exactly what our clients want.
2. Design of templates for company letterheads, continuation sheets and compliments slips
3. Design of business cards
4. Deliver all branded material to you in three popular image formats – EPS, JPG and PDF

Estimated timescale: 3 days

Want to know more? Then read about our Branding Services.

E-Commerce

Is this year the year that you make your fortune with that line of products you’ve been developing? We’re experts when it comes to e-Commerce, so let us help you set up shop and get trading ASAP.

We like to use a system called Magento to realise all of our clients online shopping needs – it’s versatile, scalable and comes in pretty much any colour you can imagine.

We get a variety of requests when it comes to e-commerce solutions so below are just two examples of how we might be able to help.

The ‘Out of the Box’ Solution
The ‘out of the box’ solution suits start up businesses and those who want to test the water or find their audience with an online store.

An ‘out of the box’ Magento e-commerce site, is based on the built-in Magento themes which are widely available and involve a one-off payment.

There is no design customisation involved in this, but we do add your logo and of course change the branding colours and call-to-action elements to suit your identity and products.

Typically, an ‘out of the box’ solutions would work as follows,

1. We customise the Magento theme of your choice with your branding and minor elements such as colours and call-to-actions.
2. We “skin” the shop with the chosen Magento theme – at this point you’d be able to see how your shop looked and worked.
3. We configure the Magento back office for your business requirements (shipping, tax, contact details, etc.)
4. We import twenty of your products
5. We test the website in a secure development environment.
6. We launch your website.

A project of this sort would take us 6 days to complete from project brief to site launch.

The ‘Slightly Customised’ Solution
The step up from the above option is a customised solution – this is not a fully bespoke solution as we would focus of the design of the site and leave the functionality of the store as standard.

To achieve this we would do the following,

1. Take your brief and produce a design for you including submission and feedback
2. Develop the HTML template for the store
3. Skin the Magento store as mentioned above
4. Configuration the site for your business
5. Import twenty of your products
6. Test the site
7. Launch the site

The design and HTML work would add an extra 4 days on top of the ‘Out of the Box’ timescale, so the total project time would be 10 days.

For more information on our e-commerce services and examples of previous projects that we have undertaken, please read about our e-commerce services.

So as you can see, there’s a lot we can do and a lot we can offer AND if that wasn’t enough, we’re giving everyone who comes on board with the good ship Magnetic Works a 20% discount on our services.

Don’t miss out – get in touch today!

And now for the Terms and Conditions
1. The 20% discount is applicable ON any quotes for web design, web development or marketing work agreed by Magnetic Works Limited and the client, between receipt of this email and the 31st January 2011.

2. Application of the discount on any quotes provided is at the discretion of Magnetic Works Limited.

3. This offer can not be redeemed against any quotes received / agreed, or any outstanding balances on current projects. The offer cannot be used in conjunction with any discounts already offered.

4. Initiation and completion of quoted work is subject to Magnetic Work Limited schedules.

5. A deposit of 50% of the discounted quote is required prior to initiation, on all projects quoted at more than one day.

Have a wonderful festive time, with plenty of mulled drinks and turkey and we will see you in 2012.

Merry Christmas!

The Magnetic Works Team x x x

If you want to take a peak at our silly Christmas card that we made with JibJab.com, then please click on the image below:

So if you like cheese or want to pop in and see us, we are now located neatly at:
34 – 35 Western Road
Hove
BN3 1AF

AND we have a new number!

Want to chat? Call us on 01273 827560 between the hours of 9.30 – 5.30, Monday to Friday.

The site has had an entire design overhaul, a Magento software upgrade and all was complete in time for the iPhone 4S launch.

We love the new design, which uses vibrant neons to highlight products and offers.

The new slider gives Maikai the opportunity to showcase new ranges and the integration with social media means that the Maikai customer base are always kept reliably informed.

Take a look for yourself.

www.maikai.co.uk

The website showcases the BEST ‘About Pages’ from a variety of sectors and from all over the globe. BestAboutPages.com, gives you a glimpse into how you can be creative with how you represent yourself, your company ethos and the individuals in your company.

We appreciate that for some companies a picture of the MD in a Christmas hat, after a bit too much brandy might not give the right impression, but there really are so many ways to give your company a ‘face’ and create a sense of who you are. Take a look for yourself and get some inspiration on how you could bring a bit of personality to your website.

Don’t forget to have a little read about us and let us know what you think.

We know that some words instantly get spam filters backs up, but did you know that even sending an email out with the subject line in capitals is enough to stop your mail getting through? And you thought that you were making your point!

It is worth bearing in mind that there are several factors that go into making your email appear as though it is spam. Some of these will no doubt be a surprise and others will be obvious. We are not about to tell you that there is a way to get around spam filters, so that your recent promotion for Viagra gets to your mailing list. What we do want to do is impart some information on how to produce an email campaign that works – and doesn’t get stuck in someone’s spam folder.

Don’t trigger the spam filter

• Carefully consider your content and make sure it is relevant to your subject matter and not pushy or ‘spammy’. Making a blatant pitch for something like mortgage products or mentioning ‘money’ repeatedly in your content really riles spam filters. The filters know the email is unsolicited and that the content is unlikely to be of any help to the recipient. Straight to the spam box, do not pass GO, do not collect £200.
• Avoid calls to actions like ‘click here’ and ‘buy now’.
• Don’t use all capital letters, especially in the subject line. You are shouting and no one likes a big mouth.
• Avoid using bright red or green fonts in the email.
• Do not use the HTML that you find in Word to create your email (yes, some people think that they can). It is not compatible. Always validate your email code – there are guidelines for a reason.
• If the ratio of images to text is not equal or worse the email content is one big image, your email is likely to head away from the inbox of your potential customers.
• Don’t go crazy with the exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (See what I mean, it is annoying).

Once your perfectly coded email, with considered copy and design, is ready to test then there are some things that you should remember too. If you send a test email to several recipients within the same company at once, a spam filter will often think that this is an attack. Therefore perform individual tests periodically. In addition, using the word ‘test’ in the subject line is also a way to send your email directly to the spam box.

The score with spam

Spam Score – the number assigned by the spam-scanning rules. If you set a spam threshold of 6, any message scoring 6 or higher is flagged as spam, depending on your settings. So generally speaking anything below 5.0 points is not considered as spam

Points to consider

• Shouting in your email, or using capital letters will give you a score of 0.21 points.
• Keep your HTML tags down to a minimum. You could score anything between 0.31 to 1.78 points based on the frequency of your HTML tagging.
• Ensure that you use the http:// prefix in hyperlinks, or this will cost you 1.28 points. Substitute a URL for an IP number and you will tot up 3.1 points.
• Getting fancy with your ‘unsubscribe’ link could cost you up to 2.70 points – just tell it how it is. Everyone knows how one works.
• There are triggers that lower your spam score if, for example, sending newsletter and saying it is a newsletter in the subject PLUS including a date could reduce the spam score by -1.60 points!
• Finally, if your message is between 20k – 40k in size then you will find that you reduce your spam score again. Get too big or too small and it will have the opposite effect.

Every time we send out our emails, they are tested to ensure that they are not deemed as spam.

.

How much spam mail do you get on a daily basis? Thankfully since our move over to Google Apps around two years ago we no longer get any emails for Viagra

This does however indicate our desire to protect against spam and to put powerful safeguards in place against unsolicited emails.

The last thing that anyone who is embarking on an email marketing campaign wants is to have their email offering considered as spam, however this can happen regardless of whether individuals on your mailing list are part of an opt-in list or not.

ISPs use routers to detect where an email has come from and can block it. This is usually because the particular domain has been blacklisted and it can also block emails that use ‘Spam Trigger Words‘.

Whenever we send out an email, we run a test using email software to analyse the email’s spam score. Anything under 5.0 is generally not considered spam, therefore it is worth knowing which words can increase your spam score and stop you getting through to the people that matter to your business.

We have compiled a list of known spam trigger words to help ensure that your email marketing campaign reaches your target audience.

The major spam filter trigger word offenders:

$$$
100% free
Ad
Affordable
Amazing stuff
Apply now
Auto email removal
Billion
Cash bonus
Cheap
Collect child support
Compare rates
Compete for your business
Credit
Credit bureaus
Dig up dirt on friends
Double your income
Earn $
Earn extra cash
Eliminate debt
Email marketing
Explode your business
Extra income
F r e e
Fast cash
Financial freedom
Financially independent
Free
Free gift
Free grant money
Free info
Free installation
Free investment
Free leads
Free membership
Free offer
Free preview
Guarantee
‘Hidden’ assets
Home based
Homebased business
Income from home
Increase sales
Increase traffic
Increase your sales
Incredible deal
Info you requested
Information you requested
Internet market
Leave
Limited time offer
Make $
Mortgage Rates
Multi level marketing
No investment
Obligation
Online marketing
Opportunity
Order Now
Prices
Promise you
Refinance
Remove
Reverses aging
Save $
Search engine listings
Serious cash
Stock disclaimer statement
Stop snoring
Thousands
Unsubscribe
Web traffic
Weight loss

Other spam filter trigger words to be aware of:

4U
Accept credit cards
Acceptance
Accordingly
Act now! Don’t hesitate!
Additional income
Addresses on CD
All natural
Amazing
Apply Online
As seen on
Auto email removal
Avoid bankruptcy
Be amazed
Be your own boss
Being a member
Beneficiary
Beverage
Big bucks
Bill 1618
Billing address
Billion dollars
Brand new pager
Bulk email
Buy direct
Buying judgments
Cable converter
Call free
Call now
Calling creditors
Cancel at any time
Cannot be combined with any other offer
Can’t live without
Cash bonus
Cashcashcash
Casino
Cell phone cancer scam
Cents on the dollar
Certified
Check or money order
Click below
Click here link
Click to remove
Click to remove mailto
Compare rates
Compete for your business
Confidentially on all orders
Congratulations
Consolidate debt and credit
Copy accurately
Copy DVDs
Credit bureaus
Credit card offers
Cures baldness
Dainty
Dear email
Dear friend
Dear somebody
Diagnostics
Different reply to
Dig up dirt on friends
Direct email
Direct marketing
Discusses search engine listings
Do it today
Don’t delete
Dormant
Drastically reduced
Earn per week
Easy terms
Eliminate bad credit
Email harvest
Email marketing
Expect to earn
Fantastic deal
Fast Viagra delivery
Financial freedom
Find out anything
For free
For instant access
For just $ (some amt)
Free access
Free cell phone
Free consultation
Free DVD
Free grant money
Free hosting
Free installation
Free investment
Free leads
Free membership
Free money
Free offer
Free preview
Free priority mail
Free quote
Free sample
Free trial
Free website
Full refund
get it now
Get paid
Get started now
Gift certificate
Great offer
Guarantee
Have you been turned down?
Hidden assets
Home employment
Human growth hormone
If only it were that easy
In accordance with laws
Increase sales
Increase traffic
Insurance
Investment decision
It’s effective
Join millions of Americans
Laser printer
Limited time only
Long distance phone offer
Lose weight Spam
Lower interest rates
Lower monthly payment
Lowest price
Luxury car
Mail in order form
Maintained
Marketing solutions
Mass email
Medium
Meet singles
Member stuff
Message contains disclaimer
MLM
Money back
Money making
Month trial offer
More Internet traffic
Mortgage rates
Multi level marketing
Name brand
New customers only
New domain extensions
Nigerian
No age restrictions
No catch
No claim forms
No cost
No credit check
No disappointment
No experience
No fees
No gimmick
No inventory
No investment
No medical exams
No middleman
No obligation
No purchase necessary
No questions asked
No selling
No strings attached
Not intended
Off shore
Offer expires
Offers coupon
Offers extra cash
Offers free (often stolen) passwords
Once in lifetime
One hundred percent free
One hundred percent guaranteed
One time mailing
Online biz opportunity
Online pharmacy
Only $
Opportunity
Opt in
Order now
Order status
Orders shipped by priority mail
Organization
Outstanding values
Paste
Pennies a day
Percent
Perpetual
Please read
Potential earnings
Presently
Print form signature
Print out and fax
Produced and sent out
Profits
Promise you …!
Pure profit
Real thing
Reciprocal
Refinance home
Removal instructions
Remove
Remove subject
Removes wrinkles
Reply remove subject
Requires initial investment
Reserves the right
Reverses aging
Risk free
Round the world
S 1618
Safeguard notice
Satisfaction guaranteed
Save $
Save big money
Save up to
Score with babes
Section 301
Sincerely
Somebody
Special promotion
Statements
Stop snoring
Urgent

1. Understand your Audience

Get inside the mindset of your audience. You need to understand what they find interesting and what will grab, and hold their attention. This is the fundamental underpinning of email marketing and determines your message and how you are going to say it. Get this right, and you are halfway there.

2. What is your subject line

This is the second most important factor in email marketing and is the difference between an opened email and a deleted email. Appeal to the individual in your audience and inspire them to take action. Think about the group of people that you are emailing; what they have got in common? Personalise the email to interest them, even split the email database by their interests.

3. Consider who the email is from

Are the recipients going to recognise who the email is from? Do they know your brand? If they do, then why not consider sending the email from someone that they would know from within your organisation. If they don’t know who you are, then remember that email marketing also works as a brand exposure exercise, so if they don’t know you that well right now, they soon will.

4. Your Message

Make sure that your message is clear, worth reading and original and not just someone else’s words regurgitated. Make it worth the recipient’s while to open your newsletter; whether it is a discount, some top tips or a recipe for treacle tart. Give them something to think about.

5. Consider your email design

Once you have got people to open your email, you want them to read what you have got to say. A well thought-out email, with a nice design and clear layout will do just that and can even inspire them to visit your website. If you want them to visit your website, then emulate the look and navigation of your website to get some coherence, which will help them to work their way around your site.

6. Personality

Emails with a personality and an actual person behind them help to build an affinity between your business and your audience. If you are sending a newsletter, then keeping it corporate might not be the way to go, so why not try and introduce a human element into it that people can identify with. One of my favourite examples of giving an email personality has to be the Christmas E-card that we put together for Jackal Advisory. Click on the links here to see what I mean: Merry Christmas from Jackal Advisory… email then leads to “Message from Simon at Jackal Advisory”

7. Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

This sounds obvious, but check for typos, spelling mistakes and that the links work. My favourite email faux pas is a ‘personalised’ email, gone wrong. You know the kind I mean. ‘Dear Jen’ reads ‘Dear [company name]‘ etc. Not good for your image. Everybody makes mistakes, and everyone knows that, but it does make you look a bit daft, so test it and send it to your colleagues.

8. Signing up

There are several ways in which your email database could have signed up to receive your newsletter. They could have gone to your site and opted-in, in which case they are probably counting down the days until they get your next newsletter or they bought something from your site and never opted-out. Make sure that you manage your database and give people the ability to opt-out should they so desire to do so. Give them the option to tell a friend about you with a ‘forward to a friend’ facility, always allowing your database to grow. A well-maintained database is an engaged database and a strong platform from which to talk to your audience.

9. Sending

There are lots of myths about when to send out your email. When is a bad time? When the best time is? There is no real ‘general’ good day or perfect time; it just has to be right for your audience. If you are a B2B type of business, then try sending out an email on a Tuesday mid-morning or look at when your existing audience is hitting your site and that should give you a good indication.

10. Spamming and Filters

There are certain words that are looked for when you send an email that will inhibit an email from getting into someone’s inbox, so don’t spam your email. Equally do not spam your database, emailing them every week. In the same vein, if you are emailing your audience every month, then keep them engaged by varying what you have got to say.

Budget: Magento works with every budget. Whether you are a start up looking to take your first steps into e-commerce or whether you are an established brand, keen to give your customers something that they can get their teeth into, Magento has it covered. Don’t take my word for it, have a look at our Magento packages.

Scalability: Magento is a scalable e-commerce piece of software, meaning that as your company evolves and changes, your site can change and develop with you. Regardless of the number of products or the size of your company, Magento is bespoke to your needs.

One roof: Magento gives you the ability to manage all content and pages, sales and invoicing, categories and products under one roof and from one back office. You can have several logins all with different levels of access for multiple users.

Open source: Magento is an open source piece of software. This means that the code is open to the public and therefore if there is an issue you are not bound by Magento in a service agreement if there is a problem.

Features and modules: As mentioned Magento has all of the functionality that you require to run a successful online store, but if over time your requirements grow there are several modules and plug-ins that can be utilised to enhance the site. If there is something that you would like, there is probably a module for it. AND a lot of them are free.

Search engine friendly: Magento is 100% search engine optimisable. Search engine friendly code, URLs and meta data for products, categories and pages. There is also a built in Google sitemap. This gives a sound basis and foundation for further search engine optimisation.

Reporting: There is a built in reporting system for exporting information relating to sales, products and customer activity. Analytics is also installed as standard, so you can fully track user behaviour.

Promotions and marketing: Built in Newsletter functionality for quickly communicating with your subscribed customers. Magento allows you to set up discount vouchers, tiered pricing, up sells, cross sells and related items, send to a friend, tag products and integrate Google Base to sell your products through Google Shopping too.

Versatile design: The look and feel of Magento comes in three offerings; out-of-the-box theme, an out-of-the-box theme with some customisation or completely bespoke design, fully customised. There is also a wealth of Magento themes available to purchase which can be used to skin your website.

Recognised platform: The Magento e-commerce platform provides the scalability, flexibility and features required for an online business to grow whether they are a start-up company or high street giant.