Case
Studies
This is a
brief look at some of the web sites which we have assisted to improve
their customer reach and content design. It also highlights the
importance of third party testing of your site from an independent
viewpoint.
World Record Chase
- This website had been created by a high quality web designer in New
Zealand, but was not attracting the traffic and income needed by its
owner to continue his endeavours to break World Records.
We have formed
a close working relationship with the website owner, advising on a
marketing strategy to fit within his budget, and identified how to
expand his website to add new areas of interest and attract visitor
loyalty to his brand.
We also
implemented social networking media links, coupled with search engine
optimisation and advertising promotion techniques to increase visitor
numbers three-fold initially, with a gradual month on month increase in
both visitors and enquiries.
Holidaynet
- This website is well laid out and appears to meet most of the rules
of internet programming practice. However, our testing of the
website, showed a major flaw, in that the default content-type on their
web server was set to text/plain instead of text/html. This may
not mean much to your average Internet user, however, new security
measures in Service Pack 2 for Microsoft's Windows XP operating system,
meant that Internet Explorer would no longer display this website and
in fact, displayed only the source code for the web page. After
we identified this problem, again it was corrected quickly by the
website owners.
RWAP Software
- This website is about supporting the needs of retro computer
users. However, the business needed to identify its market and
help to build its customer base in order to launch new products for
computers which have been around since 1980! We identified
various ways of assessing market need and generating discussion about
products pre-launch in order to generate a buzz within the user
base. The methods used to help generate the market at a time when
other traders were falling by the wayside have included:
- Search Engine
Optimisation (SEO) (for example, try searching for "purchase sinclair
ql computer" on Google)
- Creation of visitor
guestbooks where people are invited to leave details of their interest
in products. The guestbook also creates a mailing list of email
addresses for people who leave their details, so that as soon as more
details are released about up and coming projects (or the product is
ready for sale), they can be contacted immediately and turned into
customers.
- Creation of user
forums using phpBB (such as the innovative Sinclair ZX80
/ ZX81 Discussion Forum) which can be used to talk about ideas with
actual users and potential customers alike, in order to generate
discussion and interest in future projects, as well as test the market
- Creation of other
marketing tools to ensure that any special offers are picked up by
search engines and displayed in search results within 24 hours of the
offer going live. This has been used, for example, to promote
special offers on second hand printers (for example, try searching for
"second hand OKI c9500 printer" on Google).
Over a period
of 3 years, the turnover has expanded from £5,000 to
£22,000 and is continuing to grow.
SellMyRetro.com
- We were approached by a retro computer trader who was spending over
£100per month on eBay fees and finding it too expensive to list
low cost high volume items on the site. We therefore identified
that one method to make this more cost effective would be to create
their own auction website, which they could then promote to other retro
computer traders and users to aim at a specific market niche.
We helped to
identify the software platform on which the auction website would be
based, and through our programming arm (RWAP Services), we then
worked with the customer to create custom modifications to the auction
platform, with ongoing support to resolve issues as they arose once the
site had gone live.
We have
continued to work with this client to help improve search engine
optimisation and drive customers to the site through various avenues,
including social media networks, Google Base and general website
promotion, resulting in over 100 unique visitors per day and increasing
the sales revenue by 500%. Even better news for the customer was
that our charges were offset by savings in eBay fees within the first 6
months of the site going live!
OnlineAuctioneer.ca
- This website is based on the same platform as the SellMyRetro.com
auction website and had initially been created and designed by a
Canadian website designed (Creative Lunch). We worked
closely with this client and the designer to identify enhancements
which could be made to the website building on the modules already
developed, as well as new ones to meet the client's wishes and specific
market niche.
"Working with Internet Business Angels andRWAP
Services has made what was to me like climbing a mountain more like a
walk
in the park. You transcended my thoughts and visions into reality. "
Dale Harnden, Onlineauctioneer.ca
We also
provided 24 hour cover during the initial auction launches to quickly
address any issues as they arose, advising the client on the best
method of implementing further changes without impacting unduly on the
customer experience whilst auctions were live on the site.
A university
recently called on our expertise to help proof read their Health &
Safety policy documentation, to take account of changes in recent
legislation and best practice. Although initially only engaged to
proof read the actual documentation, we offered advice on where
clarification was required and where improvements to the text could be
made to help promote Health & Safety - the University stated on
receipt of the first document: "The majority of the changes are clear
improvements so in general this is very useful to us.... We will be
back in touch in a few days - once we have had a change to think though
exactly how we operate the proofing (as it is more extensive in nature
than we had initially expected) and sorted out a way of making best use
of what looks to be a very useful service."
Following this initial
document, we were then contracted to proof-read a further set of
documents linked to the original Health & Safety policy.
Other tasks which
have
passed over our books, range from development of internet spiders to
verify a database of corporate information and also to search the
internet for Annual Reports and accounts for listed companies; and
creation of customer enquiry forms.
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