Please click here to download a pdf copy of our “Building Your Website” guide.
Please click here to download a pdf copy of our “Company Profile”
- Should the links not work for any reason, please email us to request a copy.
Your website needs to be produced in keeping with your brands core values & target consumer demographic. Not only does the site need to be stylish it also must be highly functional. Site speed & ease of use for the consumer is of the highest priority.
A web sites main function is to act as a storefront for sales conversions, but it must also be a window to the world on delivering the brands values. Integration into social media feeds, about us sections, featured articles & blog content are examples of additional pages which will not only help with search engine optimisation it will also be informative to the consumer to drive the brand narrative.
There are several different content management system (CMS) platforms to choose from.
A CMS is the platform upon which your front-end website is built.
The CMS gives you a back-end admin panel from which all the settings of the front-end site is controlled, as well as your product catalogue, customer lists & order lists (amongst other things).
Each CMS platform has its pro’s & con’s so picking the right CMS for your business is important.
Below are the three main e-commerce CMS platforms explained:
Shopify
WordPress
Magento
Other CMS Platforms
Weighting up the pro’s & cons of each of the platforms we usually suggest WordPress is the best platform for most sites to be built upon. Whilst it’s slightly more expensive to initially build the site than Shopify there are little to no ongoing costs associated with running the site (other than server hosting) & it’s also open source which means its infinitely future proof as your business grows.
That said, if your initial build budget is tight Shopify might be a consideration, but you will need to think about likely ongoing costs as well.
We don’t tend to suggest Magento as a platform unless for very special circumstances or specifications. Whilst it’s technically the best platform & operates large scale business websites such as e-bay & next (to name just a few), it is also costly to build upon & you need a good technical understanding to operate it.
Therefore, in the majority of cases WordPress is the most appropriate CMS for most businesses.
We will work with you to identify the best CMS platform for your website to be built upon and consider things such as your budget, the look & aesthetics of your site as well as any specific functionality you may require. Contact Us if you would like to discuss which CMS platform is right for your business.
Once we’ve identified the right CMS for your site to be built upon, then we come to the fun design stage of your website.
Usually we suggest customers look at other sites for inspiration for things they like & dislike about competitor websites. This includes both aesthetic as well as functionality considerations.
Initially we will wireframe (design) your website so that you can visualise the page layouts & features of your site.
Once you have approved the design layout we proceed to the build stage.
During the build stage we will give you access to a development site. You will be able to see the site being built.
At different stages through the build we might ask you to check & comment on any layouts or features.
During the build stage we will require information from you such as social media account details to link any of your accounts to the site, as well as payment processing details such as PayPal to link the checkout. We will cover with you everything we will require in advance so you can provide accesses as required.
Towards the end of the build stage we will run through the site with you and create a ‘snagging list’ of any issues we need to ‘polish off’ prior to the site being completed.
Ultimately the site will be finished once you’ve signed everything off & we’ll then publish your website live.
From initial design concept & wireframes, through to the finished site build, please estimate roughly 3-6 weeks turn around.
In some cases, with any large or complex sites this may be longer.
Therefore, please ensure you plan your website in advance prior to needing it ready.
If you are taking your product sourcing with us (details can be found on our sister division Rag-Sourcing), then we usually suggest the website design stage starts no later than when you place your bulk production order, to ensure your & website is ready in time for your product delivery.
We will build you a functioning site and we will use ‘placeholder’ banners, graphics & products during the site build stage.
Once the site is complete it will need to be populated with content. i.e.
Please do note do not hesitate to contact us if you require assistance in the development of the content for your site. i.e.
Once you have your content (regardless if we’ve helped create it), it will then need to be loaded to your site. We can either do that for you at a small additional cost, or you can load the content to your site yourself with some free training from us on how to operate your site.
Your website will be bespoke to you, therefore we will discuss your site in detail and then put together a bespoke quote for you based on your brief.
As a ballpark, the average cost of building on each of the different CMS platforms generally range between;
Should your site require any specialist functionality or further support & development, we would discuss this with you & formulate a bespoke quote.
We offer discounts on our website build rates subject to other services we might be providing you, as follows;
As an example, subject to other services being provided, your website build might be discounted by as much as 30% as follows;
Our payment terms for website builds are as follows;
If you require additional content to be created for your site are payment terms are as follows;
First you need to ascertain which CMS platform is right for your business. In this document we have outlined the pro’s & con’s to each of the x3 main platforms. If you require further advice or examples of the different platforms please contact us to let us know.
Secondly comes the design stage. You may wish to provide us with examples of other sites you like the aesthetics or functionality of. We will then proceed to developing your sites design wireframes so you can visualise your site.
Thirdly comes the build itself. We will give you access to a development site where you can see your website being built. You will have the opportunity to comment & make changes during the build.
Once complete your site will need populating with content. We can assist you in the development of content including photography, videography, graphics & copywriting. If you would like further information on creating content for your site, please contact us.
Alternatively, if you already have your sites content we can provide training on how to operate your site so you can load your content, or load all your content for you (at a small additional cost).
Lastly, once your site is complete, we will publish your site to your live URL.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Please click here to download a pdf copy of our “Building Your Marketing Strategy” guide.
Please click here to download a pdf copy of our “Company Profile”
- Should the links not work for any reason, please email us to request a copy.
- MARKETING CHANNELS (OVERVIEW)
- SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
- SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING
- SEARCH ENGINE ADVERTISING
- SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION
- EMAIL & SMS MARKETING
- INFLUENCER MARKETING
- OFFLINE ADVERTISING
The purpose of any marketing campaign is to create brand awareness, followed by consumer engagement, site traffic and ultimately sales conversion.
The idea behind any marketing strategy is to tell your brands story across multiple channels, targeted at your consumer demographic to create a sales funnel.
Content will need to be produced in line with your brands ethos & core values. Studio & location photo-shoots, videography, graphics & text copy will need to be produced. Identifying the right models, influencers & sponsorship of the right events will be key in driving the development of the content & increasing the profile & consumer reach of your brand.
To achieve this goal, multiple marketing channels will need to be utilised to deliver this content to the targeted end consumer. Social Media growth alongside Digital Online Advertising, Influencer Marketing & Search Engine Optimisation are all examples of the online tools available to drive the sales funnel. Other offline marketing might be run alongside the online marketing; including event sponsorship or print media.
Your brand will need to constantly create new and engaging content.
From photography to videography, from copywriting to graphics your content needs to tell your brands story, ethos & core value to your target consumer demographic.
Any content which is be created will subsequently be used across all the other marketing channels so it’s key to get this fundamental stage right.
If required, we have the ability to organise the creation of your content including photographers, videographers, models, locations and much more.
Due to the potential number of different possible 3rd parties (such as photographers) which may be required, please contact us if you would like to discuss any possible content creation and we can estimate a budget for this.
Alternatively, you may develop your content yourself for use across the marketing channels.
A combination of the following marketing channels will need to be utilised;
Your brand must have a social media presence.
Should you require us to manage your social media accounts or should you intend to do this yourself; the aim is to develop engaging content, post daily, engage with consumers, align your brand with like-minded brands in other sectors & ultimately increase your follower count & post engagement.
We can assist not only in posting content at the right time of day but have an over-riding social media strategy to increase followers & engagement.
If you choose to operate your social media accounts yourself we can provide you access to our Social Media Content Creation & Content Posting
These calendars provide alerts ahead of time to prompt you when to create content & when to best post content. i.e.
Having great social media accounts & posting great content is no longer good enough on its own to reach your audience.
The social media platforms physically suppress content from reaching your desired audience.
The social media networks deliver content to their users based on algorithms & how engaging a piece of content is (i.e. the more people that engage in the piece of content, the more people the network will show that content to).
The issue however is to reach an audience in the first place considering the networks physically supress the content by the very virtue it doesn’t have any engagement.
Of course, the social media networks say they do this to improve their sites by only showing relevant content to users however in truth the only way to get your content out to your desired demographic is by using their advertising tools.
We create & target adverts at your consumer demographic and continually test new ad types & audience groups. We will continually check Return on Investment (ROI) of adverts to maximise reach of your adverts & drive traffic to your site. We will target new customer acquisition as well as re-marketing to users who have already engaged with your brand and are most likely to convert.
Social Media Advertising is likely to be the #1 driver of traffic & sales conversions.
Just like Social Media Advertising (SMA), SEA works in exactly the same way although the adverts will be created on the search engines rather than social media networks.
Adverts will be created targeting different advert types, different engagement types & different audiences.
Adverts will be targeted at ‘new customer acquisition’ as well as ‘re-marketing’ to potential consumers that have already engaged with your brand.
What is slightly different to SMA is that on SEA we will also set up ‘google shopping’ feeds whereby consumers searching for products (rather than your brand specifically) will show in their shopping feeds.
The basic overview of search engine optimisation is that the search engines crawl the internet with their ‘bots’ trawling the content of what makes up each site (headers, footers, written content, images, in-bound & outbound links, hidden code, how much traffic a site has, etc.) This gives each website a ‘quality score’.
There are ‘positive’ as well as ‘negative’ quality scores (i.e. the search engines sore positively as well as negatively based on what the bots find on your site).
Each outbound link your site has to another site, a little bit of your ‘quality score’ passes to the site you link to. Similarly, each inbound link your site has carries a little bit of their quality score to your site.
What the search engines are trying to do is determine how ‘relevant’ your site is to any given subject (i.e. the more keywords in your sites content, the higher the quality score of your site, the more traffic your site gets, the more inbound links carrying high quality scores from other sites, etc), then the more ‘relevant’ & ‘authoritative’ the search engines will believe your site is to any given subject.
What we do is;
This is an ongoing task, continually refining & add more content & links, which in turn create a higher ‘quality’ & ‘relevance’ score for your site.
This will see your site climb through the search engines which will ultimately drive more organic un-paid traffic.
Often the first thing however is to try to ensure potential consumers can even find your site whilst searching. We would target your brand name as a keyword & link your website into our existing SEO network of sites to give your site an initial boost to ensure (where possible) consumers can find your site when searching for your brand.
You will need to create bi-monthly newsletters & monthly text campaigns promoting ‘new in’, ‘sale’, ‘competitions’, ‘discounts’, ‘special offers’, ‘news’, etc.
Both Email & SMS should promote various incentives (behind the scenes, new in, competitions, early access) to your existing customer base. Keeping them engaged in the brand.
We have some tools which will, for example, send out a newsletter and then anyone that doesn’t engage with the newsletter will be sent a follow up text. We also have a large list of existing consumers (however we have to work within GDPR rules ensuring they opt into any subsequent communications).
There is a wide range of influencers with different consumer demographics.
Identifying the right influencers is key.
It’s not only about getting the right influencer at the right price, it’s also about building a network of influencers with different profile & demographic levels.
Many people get influencer marketing wrong. Too many people believe you simply reach out to an influencer & agree a budget for them to post & that when they post you’ll return sales. It doesn’t work like that, it’s very difficult to establish a direct ROI on what you spend vs what you return in sales.
Think of influencer marketing like the top of the sales funnel & casting a broad net creating brand awareness. You need multiple influencers posting almost continuously & driving brand awareness. Over time their follower demographic will become aware & subsequently engage with your brand (be that liking, following, commenting or visiting your website).
A combination of influencer endorsement followed up by social media re-marketing adverts will, over time, result in sales conversions.
What we do is help identify the right influencers with the right demographic. Then, rather than simply agreeing a single post budget with them, look to ‘contract’ them for X posts per month over X period. We will build up a network of influencers, each with commitments to X number of posts per month.
We then create an influencer posting diary with them to ensure you have endorsement posts specific to your brand going out daily.
For example, we would identify different influencers with different profile levels. Obviously the higher their profile the more they charge. We tend to identify;
We therefore create a pyramid network of influencers based on their profile level;
Rather than getting the influencers to quote for just one post, we’d look to contract them over several months (either returning a cheaper cost per post or more posts for the same sum).
We would then work out a posting diary whereby each influencer is told what to post & when (i.e. what we want them to promote & when).
For example, if we secured the above pyramid network of influencers & we contracted them over a 3 month period with x3 posts per month each, we’d quickly ‘bank’ several posts which we can then create a posting diary so that posts are going out daily across many influencers;
We will be the first to say our expertise lie in online marketing & not offline advertising however you may wish to engage in offline advertising as well.
Examples of offline advertising include; event promotion, celebrity endorsement, tv or radio, print media, billboard or public transport advertising.
If you are interested in any of these forms of advertising, we can help identify a PR partner with you.
We already have connections with very good PR companies which can assist in this area if you’d like further information.
Marketing budgets can run into the £tens of thousands, £hundreds of thousand or even £millions of pounds. This said, most customers do not have the luxury of a £multi-million pound marketing budget!
Therefore, whilst technically marketing budgets can be a ‘as long as a piece of string’, we understand there are limitations & sensible budgets need to be worked within.
What we do is to work with a customer to identify what budgets they have to put towards marketing & then work with them in how to best target that budget.
That might be a combination of services we can provide as well as channels a customer themselves might be able to look after.
Whatever your circumstance, we’ll work with you to identify a budget & then propose how that budget is best spent for maximum results.
Below we have outlined some example budgets based on what we would consider as an ‘ideal scenario ’ but also balancing that with trying to be sensible with the overall budget.
This is only a suggestion and budgets may or may not allow for all of the below to all be done at once. There are also options with cutting back on some elements or time dedicated to certain marketing activities to achieve a certain budget.
Therefore, whilst the costs outlined below are an ‘ideal’ solution you might decide to try to run some of this yourself, cut back on time committed to some channels or decide not to run some areas initially.
- 1
- 2