Setting up newsletter email for comparethemarket.com

Upgrading content management system for interior design and furniture web site (Fanstart Interiors). http://www.3rdtimemedia.com

A Very Warm Welcome

A Very Warm Welcome to all you digital marketing managers, online marketing managers, directors, ecommerce managers…did I miss anybody? I bow down to you. Really! Being a digital marketing student myself who is frantically trying to finish a digital marketing assignment deadline, before Christmas, is on a seriously steep learning curve and, hence, my curiosity about your responsibilities and positions, is getting the best of me. Writing digital marketing objectives and strategies for the first time has been more than daunting and slightly intimidating at the best of times but I am nearly complete. That is just a fraction of the assignment. There is more to come. So, my curiosity is to all you managers that are tasked with this daunting challenge of objectives, strategy and justifying your decisions to maximize you’re budgets accordingly. Does it get any easier with experience and time? I would like to think so. How do you tackle this huge task and what do you like or dislike most about doing it? So many digital media channels to choose from. It’s great isn’t it?
(Originally posted by Rhonda Oshea at 3rdtimemedia - http://www.3rdtimemedia.com - Digital Marketing Agency Generating Direct Response)

Designing for the Notebook

Just when you thought the transition from designing websites from 800×600 to a 1024×768 pixel resolution was over. The 1024×768 user as of December 2008 accounted for 40% of the market while 800×600 users accounted for just 5%. I had hoped there would be some prolonged rest bite before we had to consider another transition in screen resolution. The next obvious battle ground appeared to be the next sizes up such as the 1280×800 and 1280×1024 which account for around 30% of the market.

However in recent months, there has been a huge upsurge in the popularity of netbooks owing to its relatively low cost and mobility. The dilemma is that these netbooks bring to the mix a different set of screen resolutions to contend with. Most netbooks have a 1024×600 screen resolution and while this won’t affect the width of pages, the key space above the fold will be reduced. Websites currently optimised for resolutions 1024×768 and above all of a sudden may find that important marketing messages and call to actions appear much further down the screen than intended.

While netbook’s share of the computer market is relatively small in comparison, it is the fastest growing segment in our increasing desire for more portable web access. Designers will soon have to face issue of how to design for a wider spectrum of screen sizes that range from the small netbooks to the ever increasing popular large widescreen desktop monitors. Using multiple websites designed for netbooks and desktops is not ideal. A more realistic approach would be to design with these users in mind and have the key content contained in an area of the page that is highly visible to all resolutions.

Originally posted by David Chan at 3rdtimemedia – Digital Marketing Agency Generating Direct Response

3TM Email Marketing

Email marketing is a powerful direct marketing service offered by 3TM in order to effectively communicate commercial messages to a specific audience. Customers can use 3TM’s Emailing service for the following purposes:

• Enhance customer relationship
• Encourage customer loyalty for repeat business
• Acquire new customers
• Encourage further purchases by existing customers
• Send general information and service updates to existing customers, partners or employees

The following is offered in order to provide effective direct marketing through Email:

• 3TM can work with clients to produce an effective design, generate a message for successful marketing and define a solid target audience
• 3TM help clients to set out realistic goals and use corporate information to assume an appropriate schedule for campaign execution
• Recipient information can be segmented accordingly with user preferences and previous user responses. All data is secured and treated as strictly confidential.
• The Email broadcast interface distributes information to a wide range of potential customers fast and at the scheduled time
• Multiple campaigns complementing each other at relatively low cost
• Emails are personalised for better meaning, boosting return on investment, which can in turn be tracked accurately using reliable click-through and conversion tracking mechanisms
• Key messages in the Email are placed in prominent positions to promote them effectively
• Layouts are designed using high end graphical design techniques to insure that a correct and clear message is pushed to the recipient without clutter
• Emails are designed and coded to appear as pleasant to the recipient and trustworthy to spam detection engines. Messages comply with the CAN-SPAM act
• Emails are coded to trigger further Emails or custom events such as updating customer profiles depending on where the recipients click
• E-mails are tested against a variety of clients
• A very friendly and helpful service is provided to all clients

Typical 3TM E-mail services pattern (Click on image to view enlarged):

Customers may choose to use all or some of the services shown above.

For more information please visit the Email Marketing page or visit 3rdtimemedia – Digital Marketing Agency Generating Direct Response

Building Future Bandwidth

In the past 12 months bandwidth has become a serious concern for many internet service providers, with consumers viewing far greater amounts of information online. From watching television programs on the BBC’s iplayer, to video clips on YouTube, consumption is going through the roof. But only a few providers seem to be reinvesting their profits to build a faster, more reliable service for their customers, with many service providers putting speed and data caps on their lines over delivering speedier connections.

The future of the internet depends on the extra bandwidth users will demand to keep in contact with their friends, paying bills, and virtual retail therapy. Much more investment is needed to feed the massive growth online in the months and years to come. Echoing a sentiment President Obama made in his inaugural speech, with continued investment in fibre optic networks, the internet will help us to trade ourselves back to stability and lead a new era of growth.

(originally posted by David Laycock at 3rdtimemedia – Digital Marketing Agency Generating Direct Response)

spaceCMS - if you can dream it, you can web it!

In the first quarter of 2009, 3TM are due to release an ever expanding Content Management System as an additional service to existing web clients and future 3rd Time Media customers. spaceCMS is a secure web based multi-user and multi-access-level content management environment, providing powerful functionality and flexibility for a wide range of web applications.

Layouts for page interiors can be customised and built within minutes thanks to the simple-but-powerful Template Builder interface. It can then be shared across pages, which can in-turn be built within seconds. This provides users with consistency across pages, whilst having ample choices for the look and feel of each page.

Precise technologies and design patterns that support spaceCMS have been carefully chosen as a foundation, in combination with expert coding and factorisation of data pieces to allow for a lightning-fast data retrieval mechanism that displays pages rapidly to the front end user. However, speed and efficiency are not the only rare elements here; due to its flexible nature, it is possible for spaceCMS to act as a back bone for any kind of web site and it can be tailored to support all unique features that depend on its application.

Web sites produced by spaceCMS are automatically built using available Search Engine Optimisation techniques, ensuring that all content and pages are easily acquired by typical search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Generated pages are W3C compliant and conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. They are also loaded with security features to ensure a bullet-proof front-end interface protects all server-side components.

Currently a spectrum of spaceCMS packages are under trial runs with existing 3TM customer web sites. The rollout of version 2.0 will call for a deeper analysis - so watch this space!

More information can be found on the spaceCMS official page।

Digital Marketing Agency Generating Direct Response