New partners
before we begin
What are your requirements?
- When you think about how new software or design could improve your company's revenue and profits, you need to be clear about what functionality you need. You need to be clear about your budget, what benefits the project will bring and how your increased profitability will more than offset the costs of development.
- We never charge for consultations and advising you in your thinking. Nor would we presume to tell you how to run your business. What you will find is that the process of defining your goals and objective and our analysis of your business process will help you to clarify and organise better.
marketing your offering
If we build it, will they come?
- There’s a lot more to marketing a website or e-commerce application than developing a site and simply hoping people will come! Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply mean building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing adverts on other sites. Effective e-marketing requires a comprehensive and cohesive strategy that synergises a company's business model and sales goals with its website or web application function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, graphic and functional design.
- Internet marketing includes placing advertising media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through traditional marketing and advertising media, search engine optimisation (SEO), banner ads on specifically-targeted websites, e-mail campaigns, and Web 2.0 strategies.
- The target audience for any website or e-commerce application needs to be established at the outset. Compatible media needs to be chosen to create awareness of the offering in order to establish enough interest for people to want to visit. At this stage, it’s vital that the correct search engine optimisation strategies and keywords have been chosen so that the site can be found when the audience searches on a search engine. Once on a site, your visitors will leave within 10 seconds if your branding is poor and within 30 seconds if you fail to convey your concept - so you had better get it right! You then need to persuade them to take whatever action you want them to so that they flow through your pages to reach your business goal, whether that’s contacting you to place an order, registering to use your service or making an online order.
- It’s also vitally important to measure and analyse the business/customer flow through a site to establish where the barriers to action are and then work on these barriers to improve your conversion rates.
- And once you’ve achieved your goal this time, you want your visitors to return, so you need to provide them with excellent customer service and reliability on the site.
- The Oathouse team are experts in marketing online sites and applications. Contact us to see how we can help make your business more profitable. »
a framework for success
Your brief to us.
- We offer you the following process as a way to make design an integral part of your business, and to allow designers to make your success an integral part of design. It will make you an even more sagacious client. It is a method for partnering, a guide to the most effective use of teams, and the most potent, efficient, reliable way to get from A to B when you are not quite sure what B is.
- What follows is a framework through which design can be incorporated into your business. Its purpose is to clarify, assess and communicate the responsibilities and methods of the design process. It is a scalable, tried and true process, one which is suitable for solving any problem that requires creative thinking.
over to you
Your business. Your success.
- Every project is different. We design for you and you only. We design for your needs.
- If you'd like us to design your website or upgrade your existing site, click here »
what your business needs
Twelve steps to success.
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- Define the problem - make it clear and actionable. Time to inspire your team!
- Set clear objectives and define success. Set your budget and weigh it against the potential benefits.
- Define your approach - clarifying responsibilities in a well-articulated strategy.
- Elicit buy-in and support from the people you need to believe in the project.
- Gather information and share with your team. Let everyone understand the issues of your customers and your business.
- Develop your ideas - we'll help you analyse your thoughts and link them to your objectives, giving you true clarity.
- Analyse the options - put emotion and ownership away as you look at the cold hard facts.
- Make the important decisions based on the data you've gathered and on experience and instinct. Revisit your objectives and remind yourself that you need to stand out.
- Choose your solutions and mobilise the team.
- Present to your internal audiences and prepare the way for understanding and support.
- Go public - all your efforts have brought you to this moment of unveiling.
- Evaluate your success - take stock and see what the team could do better next time. Measure your success against your objectives.
We never design until we fully understand our clients' needs
Darryl Oatridge director {true design conveys value}