Once your business is online you will need to market it, but first ensure:-

• The site is clear and simple to use
• A phone number is clearly displayed and allow customers to contact via phone and email, also consider using online chat
• You tell customers where you’re located
• You use high quality photography and imagery throughout the site – customers like polished images
• It’s easy, streamlined and uncomplicated for customers to purchase
• It’s clear to customers that the site is secure and what payment methods are accepted
• Don’t hide costs, such as VAT or delivery
• There is a page detailing delivery and how returns are handled
• Communicate to your customers that you provide value and service
• Don’t force customers to provide endless information about themselves
• Customer are kept in the loop with their order, fulfilment and delivery
• Upsell relevant product to what the customer is viewing or searching on

Then:

• Register you site with all the major search engines and directories
• Set up Google Analytics so you can see what content on your site is popular and what is not
• Work to a marketing strategy / business plan
• Ensure continued offline and online marketing
• Keep your content fresh and customers updated of new products and offers
• Use special offers to entice customers back to your site
• Provide savings for multiple purchases to encourage the customer to spend more – such as offering free delivery when you spend over a certain amount

Without the correctly styled site for your marketplace and continued marketing, the business will quickly drop of the radar – The illusion of  “We’re online – the sales will come rushing in” is still one of the most common e-commerce misconception. No marketing equals no business. Don’t limit your market – being online means you have a worldwide audience, so don’t restrict this, for example, by limiting your options of delivery.

Contact us if you would like to discuss growing your business online.

Well all of that is possible with Boost Email Marketing. Boost Email Marketing gives you a complete email campaign overview, recipient behaviour, email client usage and much more.

Armed with this information you can easily see what’s hot and what’s not in your email campaigns thus allowing you to refine future campaigns. Once a campaign is sent, (these can also be scheduled) real time stats start tracking the email campaign and displaying instant results. At any point after sending you can log-in to see the email campaigns progress and see which recipients have already opened the email and which links are the most popular.

With the tracking of individual users it’s possible to see what your conversion rate is if you are promoting a product that can be bought online. Simply compare the email address used in the purchase of your product with the statistics in Boost – you’ll see a direct correlation between those who followed the link in the email to the product and those that then went onto buy the product.

All of these great features for just 1.5 pence per email and a campaign delivery fee of £25. The more emails you send the cheaper the per email cost.

Boost Email Marketing also has the added feature that you only pay for the emails you send, when you send them.

Here’s a quick video of just how easy it is to set up a campaign and another on the email campaign statistics that Boost Email provides.

More information is available at www.boostemail.co.uk

The Sussex Internship Programme provides over 100 30-day grant-supported internships for recent graduates at a wide variety of digital based employers across the county.

Twobelowzero is offering 13 years of our industry knowledge to any keen graduates that want to share their skills and work with us.

Do you want to work with twobelowzero?
We are looking for a keen individual who is willing to learn, has a good eye for design and wants to get involved in both online and offline design based work and wants to be part of a fun growing company.

If you want to get a head start with twobelowzero then brush up on your XHTML and CSS knowledge and Expression Engine which is our preferred Content Management System.

More information about our internship can be found on the SIP website.

If you’ve been putting off selling online, now would be a good time to reconsider. All reports are showing continued growth of online checkouts and e-commerce websites especially while we are in a financial squeeze as web savvy shoppers hunt for the best prices and deals online. Whether it’s getting your existing business trading online with an e-commerce website from twobelowzero or perhaps an idea you have been considering now is the right time for getting your online shopping business established.

Internet users are prepared to look harder and further to secure the best deals online and as spare time seems even more precious online shopping is becoming a normal practice for many people. More and more retailers are becoming ‘e-tailers’, offering their goods and services over the web. With lower overheads and a global market to operate in e-commerce websites are now really taking a large slice of the market. Don’t be fooled that it’s all about price either; many online shoppers look for a brand that gives them confidence in who they are buying from. Being the cheapest online website doesn’t mean you’ll automatically receive all the orders. Brand values and the way these are conveyed play a major role in securing good online revenues.

Combine a secure online store with a clever email campaign system to entice your customers into your online shop and you’ll be set to take your share of online revenue.

If you’d like to discuss the online possibilities for your business or ideas, then get in touch today.
Join our client that are already making the most of selling online.

The site is built upon the Expression Engine Content Managament System (CMS) which is our preferred development platform. This offers great flexibility and allows us to integrate our own custom shopping cart which handles all the transactional information and seamlessly talks to SagePay (the choosen payment gateway) and the database ensuring a trouble free purchasing environment.

The SagePay integration is ‘Server’ level which means the user never leaves the site during the payment process. Leaving a site to pay elsewhere is proven to reduce sales as customers feel unsafe resulting in high numbers abandoning the shopping basket at this point.

The CMS allows for easy updating of any area of the site including adding and re-ordering menu options, products can easily be added or modified and the solution has its own secure user management system built-in to log new users, their details, their purchases and buyers habits.

Visit the site www.netcurtaincorner.co.uk

Working with Pelican Jigsaw, who provided outline designs for the site, we built the new e-commerce site and integrated it with our custom shopping cart that is connected to Expression Engine; the content management system (CMS) we have built the site upon.

The CMS allows for easy updating of any area of the site including adding and re-ordering menu options, products can easily be added or modified and the solution has its own secure user management system built-in to log new users, their details, their purchases and buyers habits.

The seamless on site credit card transaction are handled by Sagepay and our CMS handles the order details for both the buyer and dispatch.

Read the full story in the web design and development section.

Visit Pallant Bookshop

• XHTML & CSS
• Experience with PHP, Javascript & JQuery
• Keen interest or knowledge of Expression Engine
• An eye for good design is essential

As our projects grow in size and the workload increases we are keen to bring a new member into the team to help drive and develop the way we use the web and the solutions we offer.

You’ll get great projects to work on, 12 years of experience in design and online development to tap into and a relaxed professional working environment.

Although ideally a full time position, we may consider part time. We would also like to hear from you if you’re a freelancer.
Rates of pay are dependant on experience.

Mac or PC based.

If you would like to be part of twobelowzero ltd then why not contact us today.
Please send a CV with any URL’s that are relevant to your application.

Closing date for applications is Friday 9th October
No agencies please.

Pony Magazine is a lively magazine aimed at all young riders between the ages of six and sixteen and the new site compliments and adds another dimension to the brand. The site is graphically driven to appeal and engage its audience.

The Content Management System (CMS) that drives the site also maintains the other title we designed and developed; Horse&Rider and shares features such as the advertising and campaign manager, online shop and classifieds across both sites.

Here are just some of the features the site includes:

• Bespoke Content Management System (CMS)
• Secure administration user access
• Comprehensive editorial system
• Advertising and sponsorship campaign manager
• Integrated advertising reporting
• Classifieds section  - restricted to viewing only
• Business directory - restricted to viewing only
• Flickr photo streams into a Flash gallery
• PHP & XHTML & CSS
• MySQL Database and dedicated server
• jQuery JavaScript
• Magento E-Commerce shop
• Sagepay (Protx) payment gateway integration

Visit www.Ponymag.com

Read the project overview in the web design & development section of our portfolio.
Download the full story and business benefits in our case study.

Here are just some of the features the site includes:

• Bespoke Content Management System (CMS)
• Secure administration user access
• Comprehensive editorial system
• Advertising and sponsorship campaign manager
• Integrated advertising reporting
• Classifieds section allowing user to upload content
• Business directory allowing business to add company listings
• PHP BB styled forum
• Flickr photo streams into a Flash gallery
• PHP & XHTML & CSS
• MySQL Database and dedicated server
• jQuery JavaScript
• Magento E-Commerce shop
• Sagepay (Protx) payment gateway integration

Visit www.horseandrideruk.com to see the live site
Also see their sister title that we have just completed. www.ponymag.com

Read the full story and business benefits in our case study.