E-mail Campaign

First Design of Adventure’s Email Campaign

For my first design, I have used an outdoor scene photo with the text “Adventure” which is the website name and then the slogan “Where will your feet take you next?”.  Underneath I have used 3 separate photos which also have featured on my website to make my brand consistent. The wording underneath is very simple and provides a quick outline of what the business sells, I have also added about how delivery is free on orders over £75. I included this because it will make entice customers to go onto the website and have a further look.  At the bottom I have added another 3 photos, mainly of brands which the website sells. Then the social media links right at the bottom, which makes the social media accessible to customers.

Second Design of Adventure’s Email Campaign

The second design is quite similar in relation to the photos used. However the layout and content is different compared to the previous one. I have briefly outlined what the business sells and mentioned again about the free delivery on orders over £75. However on this design I have included an introductory sign up offer of 25% off the first order, followed by a discount code. The purpose of this would be to make customers feel like their getting a good deal by using the code, and then hopefully they would be impressed with the service provided by the business. This will consequently lead to repeat orders. I have also mentioned Adventure’s TV advert, and included the slogan which is featured with the video “which adventure would you choose?”. Followed by a image of hunter wellies, with the caption “New season hunter wellies now in stock”. This would encourage the customer to go onto the website and explain the collection even further.

Research

Before I designed my own Email campaigns, I searched the internet for some of the most successful ones. I found a lot of articles suggesting that PayPal’s email campaigns are extremely successful and reach a lot of customers. It focuses on a certain colour scheme and is consistent with the brand, also it’s clear and simple to understand. The other example I’ve used is a clothing brand which is more comparable to mine, I like how they have used the model’s picture as a full length photo. The wording is very simple and well laid out making it easy to see and have an idea on what the business is about.

 

Advantages of Email Marketing Campaigns

Used appropriately, email represents a way to reach potential and existing customers in an organized and targeted way. As the Internet grows, potential clients spend more time online, according to Internet marketing company, Self SEO. Statistics back that general claim, according to Email Marketing Reports, an email marketing data website. A Direct Marketing Association study shows “email marketing generated an ROI (return on invested capital) of $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009.”

Global Demographics

The nature of the Internet and of email means a marketing campaign reaches as far as an advertiser wants. Identify whom you want to reach and where that target is located. Once you develop the structure and content of your marketing campaign, send targeted emails promoting the greatest positive responses.

Interactive

Using email marketing engages readers. Email marketing campaigns are interactive. Include graphics, Flash and surveys, for example, to bring potential clients into an experience with your company and its product. According to Self SEO, when an email marketing recipient clicks on a video or answers quiz questions, you create interest and command attention.

Numbers

Using email to conduct a marketing campaign allows access to greater numbers of possible customers. Building a marketing platform within an email client, such as Outlook, makes large and growing contact lists possible. Give recipients incentive to spread the word and your campaigns become viral, spreading from your original contacts into new territory.

 

References

Alyson Paige. 2009. The Advantages of Email Marketing . [ONLINE] Available at:http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-email-marketing-3470.html. [Accessed 21 April 2016].

 

 

What is a CMS?

Definition

The definition of a CMS is an application (more likely web-based), that provides capabilities for multiple users with different permission levels to manage (all or a section of) content, data or information of a website project, or internet / intranet application.

Managing content refers to creating, editing, archiving, publishing, collaborating on, reporting, distributing website content, data and information.

Author (2010) What is a Content Management System (CMS)? [Online] Available from: http://www.comentum.com/what-is-cms-content-management-system.html [Accessed 21 December 2015].

Business benefits

There are a wide range of business benefits that can be obtained by implementing a CMS, including:

• streamlined authoring process
• faster turnaround time for new pages and changes
• greater consistency
• improved site navigation
• increased site flexibility
• support for decentralised authoring
• increased security
• reduced duplication of information
• greater capacity for growth
• reduced site maintenance costs

Beyond these, the greatest benefit the CMS can provide is to support your business goals and strategies.

For example, the CMS can help to improve sales, increase user satisfaction, or assist in communicating with the public.

Anatomy of a CMS

The functionality of a content management system can be broken down into several main categories:

• content creation
• content management
• publishing
• presentation

James Robertson (2003) So, what is a CMS?. [Online] Available from: http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_what/ [Accessed 21 December 2015].

 

Colours and Palettes

‘Black adds a sense of luxury and value.

The darker the tone, the more lux it is, says our internal color psychology. An article from Lifescript describes black as “elegance, sophistication, power,” which is exactly what luxury designers and high-end e-commerce sites want you to feel. The article goes on to describe black as the color of “timeless, classic” which helps further explain the use of black in high-value products.

In a Business Insider piece on color and branding, the author relates the significance of black:

“Black can also be seen as a luxurious color. ‘Black, when used correctly can communicate glamour, sophistication, exclusivity.’”

Louis Vuitton handbags are not cheap. Absent from the site are colors and designs of whimsy and fun. This is serious value:

Citizen Watch, better than the average Timex, also uses the dark-tone website design:

Lamborghini does the same thing. Black is the name of the game:

If you are selling high-value luxury consumer items on your website, black probably would be a good choice.’

Jeremy Smith (2014) How to Use the Psychology of Color to Increase Website Conversions. [Online] Available from: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/psychology-of-color-and-conversions/ [Accessed 3 December 2015].

My business is selling high quality clothing and footwear, with some products exceeding £100, I’ve used black and white because i want my website to have a luxury feel, sophisticated and exclusive element. Although on my homepage i have added slight colour by using pictures which relate to the type of products the business sells, however they are dull colours such as brown, dark green and dark reds.

However i could have incorporated more colours into my website, especially colours such as Oranges, Greens Reds and Brown because they all symbolize different things which could be associated with my website and brand.

• ‘Red: energy, passion, excitement, power; also implies aggression, danger.
• Blue: coolness, spirituality, freedom, patience, loyalty, peace, trustworthiness; can also imply sadness, depression.
• Yellow: light, optimism, happiness, brightness, joy.
• Green: life, naturalness, restfulness, health, wealth, prosperity; in certain contexts, can imply decay, toxicity.
• Orange: friendliness, warmth, approachability, energy, playfulness, courage.
• Violet: wisdom, sophistication, celebration.
• White: purity, cleanliness, youth, freshness, peace.
• Black: power, elegance, secrecy, mystery.
• Gray: security, maturity, reliability.
• Pink: romance a feminine color.
• Brown: comfort, strength, stability, credibility.’

Avangate (2008) Choosing the right colours for your web site. [Online] Available from: http://www.avangate.com/avangate-resources/article/color-web-site.htm [Accessed 3 December 2015].

 

Using Images On The Web

‘It is crucial to use the correct images on a e-commerce website,  it is important that all images are of a high quality and draw the attention of the customer. Images on a website are there to give a representation of some of the products available and make it look attractive.

There are 3 main types of image formatting:

• JPEG (OR JPG) – JOINT PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERTS GROUP

  JPEGs might be the most common file type you run across on the web, and more than likely the kind of image that is in your company’s MS Word version of its letterhead. JPEGs are known for their “lossy” compression, meaning that the quality of the image decreases as the file size decreases.

• PNG – PORTABLE NETWORK GRAPHICS

  PNGs are amazing for interactive documents such as web pages, but are not suitable for print. While PNGs are “lossless”, meaning you can edit them and not lose quality, they are still low resolution.

  The reason PNGs are used in most web projects is that you can save your image with more colors on a transparent background. This makes for a much sharper, web-quality image

• GIF – GRAPHICS INTERCHANGE FORMAT

  GIFs are most common in their animated form, which are all the rage on Tumblr pages and in banner ads. It seems like every other day we have a new Grumpy Cat or Honey Boo Boo animated GIF. In their more basic form, GIFs are formed from up to 256 colors in the RGB colorspace. Due to the limited number of colors, the file size is drastically reduced.

  This is a common file type for web projects where an image needs to load very quickly, as opposed to one that needs to retain a higher level of quality.’

Jessie-Lee Nichols (2013) How And When To Use Different Types of Image Files. [Online] Available from: http://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/different-types-of-image-files [Accessed 20 November 2015]. 

• 
• After researching the imaging formats, i have decided to use PNG’s because they can provide you with a higher quality photo. Because my clothing business is high quality, i feel the photos should also be high quality in order to give an accurate representation of the products.

The importance of Great Images

‘Imagine you go into an online store, be it a personal marketplace shop or a professional online retailer. The store has a product you’d really like to buy, at least you think so. But you can’t see the product properly. The images are small, maybe a bit blurry and there’s just one picture of each product. Does this inspire you to purchase the product? Probably not. There are two main reasons for this; you can’t be certain how the product actually looks, and you’re also thinking that a store with pictures as unprofessional as these perhaps cannot be trusted. As Lauren Freedman, president of the The E-tailing Group, said during the Internet Retail Conference Exhibition in 2012 (IRCE) “product information should start with strong imagery as part of the shopping experience”.

She also presented a study conducted to consumers, the IRCE 2012 Report, where 75% of them listed the quality of the product images as the most important feature when shopping online, followed by showing alternative views of the product with a 66% and zoom with 61%. Additionally, according to an A/B test runned by Visual Website Optimizer, “larger product images increase sales by 9%”. Therefore, it is essential that your images are of high quality – no question about it.’

Pixelz (2014) Using Product Images on eCommerce Sites. [Online] Available from: http://www.pixelz.com/blog/using-product-images-on-ecommerce-site/ [Accessed 23 November 2015].

Layout and Structure

‘A Web wireframe is a simple visual guide to show you what a Web page would look like. It suggests the structure of a page, without using any graphics or text. A website wireframe would show the entire site structure – including what pages link to where.

Web wireframes are a great way to start your design work. And while it’s possible to create complex wireframes with huge amounts of detail, your planning can start with a napkin and a pen.

The key to making good wireframes is to leave out all visual elements. Use boxes and lines to represent pictures and text.

Things to include in a Web page wireframe:

• boxes for primary graphical elements
• placement of headlines and sub-heads
• simple layout structure
• calls to action
• text blocks’

Jennifer Kyrnin (2015) What is a Website Wireframe?. [Online] Available from: http://webdesign.about.com/od/webdesign/qt/website-wireframes.htm [Accessed 19 October 2015].

I have designed a wireframe for my business website, so I know how to structure it when I come to the adding pages and categories section. To do this I looked at other existing businesses websites like Barbour, Mulberry, Jack Wills then combined the 3  to create the design that i wanted. I have used sub-categories so customers know exactly where the item they are looking for is, which has created a simple and easy navigation around my website.

Logo and Branding

‘Corporate logos are intended to be the “face” of a company: They are graphical displays of a company’s unique identity, and through colors and fonts and images they provide essential information about a company that allows customers to identify with the company’s core brand. Logos are also a shorthand way of referring to the company in advertising and marketing materials; they also provide an anchor point for the various fonts, colors and design choices in all other business marketing materials.’

Jason Gillikin (2012) Importance of Logos in Business. [Online] Available from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-logos-business-577.html [Accessed 14 October 2015].

‘1.  A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unique without being overdrawn.

2. Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo.

3. An effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will endure the ages. Will the logo still be effective in 10, 20, 50 years?

4. An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. The logo should be functional. For this reason a logo should be designed in vector format, to ensure that it can be scaled to any size. The logo should be able to work both in horizontal and vertical formats.

5. How you position the logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & colour scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a law firm.’

Jacob Cass (2009) What makes a good logo? [Online] Available from: http://justcreative.com/2009/07/27/what-makes-a-good-logo/ [Accessed 15 October 2015].

 

 

After spending some time researching logos from different businesses and creating some of my own, I decided that the Barbour logo worked well because its simple, easy to recognise and effective. Therefore i created a logo which had these characteristics but was suitable for my website style. I wanted my website to look very sophisticated because the products are all high quality, so I’ve only used the colours black and white.

Above is my logo which i have created to match my website design.

Business Idea

For my assignment we were given the chose of any business, i have chosen a female clothing business because when i finish university, i am to start my own fashion business, so i thought id go with something i know a little about.  Therefore my business idea is a high quality outdoor clothing business. I’m going to market my clothing to high class female adults, i have chosen this target market because a lot of this products that my business is going to sell will be relatively expensive. Which means the customers need to be on a considerably high income and social class.

I want the business to have a unique selling point of having fast delivery, up to date trends and also a high quality look. My outdoor business will be called Adventure, and the slogan i have created is ‘ Where will your feet take you next’. I’m selling outdoor countryside clothing, therefore i thought the name adventure would be appropriate because whether you are in the countryside, up a mountain or in a tropical rain forest you never stop exploring your surroundings.

Even though i am concentrating at older females, the clothing styles would still appeal to the younger generation which means the business can still be diverse. My business will have a large online store, and sell many different styles of clothing and accessories ranging from tops and coats all the way to boots and scarfs. Customers will also be able to easily select the appropriate size on all the products and add them into their cart. My website will also include clear size guides to make it clear to customers which size would be the most appropriate.