Trip to the frozen north (Scotland)
Posted by Phil Page in Thoughts & Opinions, Web Development on December 9th, 2009
Fresh fruit (melon, pineapple, kiwi, grapefruit, dates, figs, strawberries, grapes, bananas), several types of cereal, yogurts, homemade marmelades & jams, vegemite, honey, toast, orange juice, cranberry juice and fried breakfast (bacon, eggs, sausage, tomatoes and mushrooms)
I’ve just spent the past few days in the wonderful little village of Cromarty, Ross-Shire. I was visiting one of our clients Large Holiday Houses (LHH) who we are doing website re-development work for. It was great to touch base with them and start setting things in motion for the launch of their new site in the New Year. While in Cromarty I had the pleasure of staying in a little B&B run by one Marjorie Watson. The hospitality was outstanding with spacious rooms and very comfortable beds, but all that paled in comparison to the breakfast that was provided every morning.
As you can see from the photo every morning was a feast, and at the time I was the only one staying there, so it was all set out just for me. I look forward to the actual launch period because I’ll get to go back but this time I’ll get some elastic trousers just so I can benefit more from the breakfast.
Waypoint Systems clients to move to Severn Internet
Posted by David Harrison in Company News, New Contracts, Severn Internet News, Web Design, Web Development on November 16th, 2009
Further to the unfortunate voluntary liquidation announced last week by Waypoint Systems, Severn Internet are pleased to announce they have reached agreement with Waypoint to take over the management of Waypoint’s sites.
David Harrison, MD, said “It is always unfortunate when a company has to follow this course of action but our intention is to create as seamless a transfer as possible for clients of Waypoint. As a company we pride ourselves on our customer service and trust we will be able to build long term mutually beneficial relationships with our new clients. We will be contacting all the new clients over the next couple of days with the further intention of moving sites to our own servers as fast as possible. Any Waypoint clients we have not yet spoken to who have any questions should not hesitate to contact us on 01694 724899, where we are available to assist.”
The addition of Waypoint’s clients brings the total number of sites under our control to well in excess of 200. We are able to build and market a broad range of sites from basic content managed sites through to fully bespoke builds that integrate with your in house systems. If you would like to talk to us about developing your own site please do not hesitate to contact us.
Online Advertising continues to grow
Posted by David Harrison in Online Marketing, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, Traditional Marketing on September 30th, 2009
It’s funny how coincidences occur on occasion. Yesterday I attended a useful course on the planning of digital marketing campaigns. As a company, we tend to focus on search and emails as the primary means of engaging with customers. We will suggest enhancing these more traditional routes through the use of social media when appropriate.
We tend not to suggest using online advertsising so much, as much as anything due to a lack of knowledge. I think we need to look at this again. The course, part of my MSc (nose to the grindstone now!), was largely about the use of various display advertising formats, CPMs, CPAs, CPCs and the like. It has to be said that for certain offerings, this channel should be used – in conjunction we would suggest with the more standard routes such as search and email marketing. That sentence in itself is contentious, as for some people their view of the world would be the opposite with displays being the primary focus. I will leave it up to you to decide on your own priorities.
The key point however is that online advertsing is continuing to grow http://bit.ly/2oqCxP. This is all good news for those suppliers involved in the digital arena. It is also good news for clients, as online promotion has one huge benefit over traditional media – MEASURABILITY! Whilst you will never know how many people see your ad in the paper you will certainly know the reach of your online promotions. If nothing else, we would recommend you review the allocations of your marketing budgets and check those pounds are working their hardest for you.
Gold find to be exhibited at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
Posted by Paul McSweeney in World News on September 25th, 2009
You may well have heard about the harvest of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver so beautiful it brought tears to the eyes of one expert, has poured out of a Staffordshire field – the largest hoard of gold from the period ever found.The weapons and helmet decorations, coins and Christian crosses amount to more than 1500 pieces, with hundreds still embedded in blocks of soil. It adds up to 5kg of gold – three times the amount found in the famous Sutton Hoo ship burial in 1939 – and 2.5kg of silver, and may be the swag from a spectacularly successful raiding party of warlike Mercians, some time around AD700. The most important pieces will be on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, (one of our clients!) from tomorrow until Tuesday October 13, and will then go to the British Museum for valuation – a process which will involve another marathon collaboration between experts. Their best guess today is “millions”.
New Contracts awarded …
Posted by David Harrison in Client News, Company News, New Contracts, Severn Internet News on September 24th, 2009
Having a bit off a blogging hour!
Severn Internet are pleased to announce that we are currently working on the following projects:
The Drury, a high quality and rather large self catering house in Oban, have asked us to design and develop their new website.
Scotland’s Hotels of Distinction have also asked us to revamp the current site. The designs are almost fully approved and we should start building the new site next week.
One of our favourite clients, Burgoynes of Lyonshall, have also asked us to re develop their sites, to include more interaction with social media channels. This is in progress and should be ready soon.
The Station In at Marshbrook have received planning permission on their new project, a fantastic mountain biking centre and Wigwam accommodation centre. The blog should be up and running next week and the full site will follow before the year end.
Pimhill Farm is our first collaboration with Carl Jones Design. We have built the current static site and the new content managed version will be live for the weekend.
Woods of Shropshire have asked us to add additional functionality to their very successful site – take a look if you need some good ideas for Xmas presents or need a new shirt!
We are further working on a new travel site based on the Facebook model – a really exciting project that we will keep you up to date on over the next couple of months ..
Close to completion also are two larger projects for Culture Colony, an arts based site for all of Wales, and another of our favourite clients LHH Scotland where we have developed a fully integrated bespoke accommodation and property management system.
Web Site Launches
Posted by David Harrison in Severn Internet News, Social Media, Social Networking, Web Design, Web Development, Web Site Launches on September 24th, 2009
We have been rather busy on a couple of larger projects of late and have omitted to mention a few sites that have gone live in the recent past. As ever, we would like to thank all of these clients for their patronage and look forward to developing the sites as we move forward.
Our first full Magento based e-commerce site www.sportsgolfstores.co.uk went live recently and gives a good idea of how flexible this platform can be for e-commerce web sites. It is the home of Karl Kertess Golf and also a great place to buy golf trousers and associated products so do take a look.
The White Horse Inn at Clun have also had a new site launched. As regular readers will know, I take it upon myself to quality test any pub or restaurant we work with (!!) and I can certainly recommend Jack’s establisment. If you are looking to find a good real ale pub in Shropshire that also provides B&B and an ongoing events programme I’d give them a visit. The site also provides interaction with their various social media channels and we would recommend everyone in the same gane look at using these channels to promote their business.
In association with Hunter Bevan we also worked on the development of the new Leema Acoustics website. As a Hi-Fi buff to some extent I’d certainly suggest taking a look at some of their award winning products.
We have also launched a new site for Marc Beaumont. Marc is one of the world’s top downhill mountain bikers and the site should help his many fans keep up to date. Personally, I get frightened even hearing Mark talk about what he does! This site is built on the Wordpress platform.
Having developed the original Fabric Spray website on behalf of The Needham Group we have now set the Irish version live at www.fabricspray.ie. It’s a pretty amazing product so take a look!
We have also revamped www.fine-boxes.com for Andrew Crawford. Andrew is looking to teach more people – his work is really quite exceptional so please take a look.
Lastly, but not least, we set G Bryan Jones live. Locally based, in Bishops Castle, they are your port of call for all things farm machinery related.
I think that is it … working on a good few more at present so watch this space. The sites above give a fair idea of the range of work we do so if you need any help yourself, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
New partnerships to announce ….
Posted by David Harrison in Company News, New Contracts, Severn Internet News, Web Development on September 24th, 2009
Severn Internet are pleased to announce that we have been selected to perform web development work for two local design agencies, namely Carl Jones Design and Titanium Design.
Both agencies produce high quality work in the areas of graphic design, branding and corporate communications and we are proud to be associated with these companies. We look forward to developing the relationships over the coming months and years.
If you are a design, marketing or PR agency who feels you could benefit from a reliable and effective development partner, please do not hesitate to get in touch – we use open source platforms including Wordpress, Drupal and Magento in addition to any bespoke system development that is required such as integration with in house platforms.
Longmynd Hike Team suffers injury!
Posted by David Harrison in World News on September 16th, 2009
We are getting closer to the Longmynd Hike and unfortunately one of the team has sustained an injury! Such is his dedication he is going to have the MRI scan this week, but things don’t look good.
The boys who are left and a local lady had a training walk this weekend over the Malvern Hills and completed 17.5 miles in less than 5 hours, which I think is pretty impressive. Unfortunately due to prior commitments I am unable to take the injured team person’s place but will certainly be attending to wish them well as they commence their epic trek!
Please donate via http://bit.ly/8GK18 or to the charities directly. We appreciate your support!
Radio 5 shows the way … for the social media doubters!
Posted by David Harrison in Thoughts & Opinions on August 25th, 2009
Having had a great day out yesterday at Chester Zoo, which I can really recommend by the way, it was a somewhat tired David who woke up this morning to the usual Radio 5 alarm call!
So what I hear you say – what is he on about today? There is a point actually. When Radio 5 kicks off in the morning you get the usual “Welcome to … blah … blah …” stuff that you get on all radio shows, but they then proceed to list their blog address, facebook page, twitter address and remind you that broadcasts are available though both the BBC I Player and podcasts … given that the BBC website is probably one of the best , and most expensive if reports are true, websites in the world I would suggest they know a little bit when it comes to using online media … if they told me to stick my head in a gas oven I doubt I would but their heavy promotion of online channels surely suggests there is some mileage in these channels.
As things stand I think that Twitter is probably the most useful – first job gained through it last week! – but that is simply because it feels more immediate in my opinion. Looking at my stats I can see that there are more people visiting our blog regularly which in turn is leading to increased traffic to the website, which over time will lead to enquiries I am sure.
If you want any help in setting these channels up and learning how to use them for your own business please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here at Severn internet!
Online advertising taking over ….
Posted by David Harrison in Thoughts & Opinions on August 21st, 2009
We have been advising clients to switch their advertising and marketing online for some time now. We would obviously advise that wouldn’t we! – but it does seem that more people are following our advice http://bit.ly/3d1bku
Even if the recession has bottomed out, and we are not fully convinced of that, we would suggest companies should still be looking at how they allocate their marketing budget. The number of people we meet who don’t measure where their enquiries come from never ceases to amaze me! What is the point of spending thousands of pounds on Yellow Pages if you don’t know how much business it brings?
That is one of the key advantages of using the online medium – you can track and measure everything through Google Analytices – even your off line campaigns. This allows you to really determine where those vauable dollars or pounds should be being spent – they do still need spending of course and many would suggest you should be increasing the spend during tough times – we would not advocate that – just a redistribution to a more online focus.
