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We all have different ideas of what makes a website not only look good but also work well. In the end though, what we’re all trying to achieve is pretty much the same in that we’re striving to engage users so they interact with your business and at the same time do a bit of drum-banging by telling others about how good it is.

Our opinion is that you don’t need to create the best website in the world in order for it to work. But what you do need to is to make sure that whatever it is your website is about, that it captures the users imagination and makes them want to find out more.

Visual appeal goes some way to achieving that and the level you take it to depends on what your website is about – but Coca Cola, as an example, have used some neat tricks so that when you take a look at each product in their range (http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/default.html) the screen zooms around to give a little flashy presentation.

You might not want to go to that level, but using techniques like Coca Cola have done means you can get a  lot more info on your website without overloading it. With only so much space on websites and impatient users that want things and they want them now you need to think very carefully about what your most important user-engaging features are and hit them with it straight away.

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Data is often viewed as boring and just about the numbers. The truth about data is very different – it is alive with creative opportunity to help brands make their marketing more engaging and effective.

We were invited (along with Oracle & Experian – amongst other big names),  to present at a recent event discussing this topic and to answer big questions on

• How to connect the new data generated by digital marketing with traditional transactional databases.
• How to develop a genuine 360 insight into your customer by using multiple information sources.
• How to make the most of new forms of targeting: behavioural, location – based and by recommendation.
• How to measure effectiveness and optimise budgets on this new data landscape.

Over the next few months we’ll be running a series of articles on our blog to help you find answers to the questions above to help you become more creative with your data and to get the most from it.

If you have time then it’s worth taking a minute to have a look at the presentation we ran on the day – http://www.ipa.co.uk/Content/Content-from-Being-creative-with-data-25th-November

…our technical director Dave also has a spot on the video interviews – http://www.ipa.co.uk/Content/Content-from-Being-creative-with-data-25th-November

Watch out on Twitter or our blog for the first article in the series. (…and don’t forget to sign-up to our monthly email)

It’s not even released yet and already it seems everyone is talking about how Google Wave is going to be the next revolution in Web communication.

Watch this video (1h 20m) and make you’re own mind up. We were impressed as we’re sure you will be and then you’re mind will be racing as you think of all the different ways Wave can make a difference to you.

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It seems that everyones take on Search Engine Optimisation is different, which isn’t very helpful when you’re trying to get your head around what it is and how you can ‘do it’!

One thing we all agree on though is that we want results and we want them fast!

Google Base may well help you do just that. It’s a free service, owned by Google, that enables you to tell them all about the products and services you sell – there are some rules and restrictions around this but it’s simple to do.

When users search Google your results will appear as ‘Shopping Results’ in a position on the screen that is almost as prominent as PPC.

It’s not a replacement for PPC and it’ll do nothing to increase your organic search rankings BUT it will definitely give you some fairly instant search visibility and it won’t cost you anything either.

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Web analytics tools like Google Analytics can provide you with a bag load of statistical information. All good stuff because the info it provides can help you to understand more about your traffic and how to improve your ROI.

But on the other hand, the excitement of whizzy tools like Google Analytics can sometimes mean that more fundamental things are overlooked in relation to how your website is performing.

Think about implementing feedback loops for customers and it’ll give you the best and most honest information around. OK, so some of the feedback may be a little harsh and some of it may be useless but it’s all information that will give you a better understanding of what your customers really want, what they don’t like and what they do like about your website. They may even be nice to you ;0)

We’ve picked out 2 really good feedback loop services than can help you make your websites do more and help to retain more customers. We’re not affiliated with any of these companies but I thought it’d be useful to pick out a couple of real life services that do the job. I do like the look of them both though…

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As ISPs and webmail services get more sophisticated in how they assess incoming email, your sender reputation plays an ever bigger role in deciding whether your marketing email makes it to the recipient.

Once your campaign is released by the “send” button, your emails face numerous hazards on the way to the inbox. Spend any time in the world of email delivery and you’ll see that your reputation as a sender of emails has a big impact on their success at negotiating these hazards.

The better your reputation, the more emails get delivered.

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Delivering messages into your clients inbox is one of the biggest challenges in email marketing, the technical solutions employed by service providers have grown at the same rate as the rising tide of spam in an effort to protect us all – gone are the days of simply navigating a spam filter!

The reputation of your mail server is one of the most critical factors in delivering your message so we have put together a “rough guide” to becoming a reputable sender.

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To make your email marketing campaigns a success you’ve got to spend time, effort, and money keeping your data clean. Otherwise, the inevitable will happen and  it will vanish over time.

Keeping your data clean means your business will ultimately achieve reduced marketing costs and greatly improved response rates through better data management, and at the same time ensure compliance.

If you think about it, the cost to cleanse your existing lists may be significantly lower than acquiring a new customer or prospect. Is having a clean, deliverable database of contacts who have maintained a relationship with your company worth the investment?

…of course there’s only one answer to that question – ‘Yes!’

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Once your email campaign templates have been designed you’ll more than likely find that any regular campaigns you run are very similar – and it’s really only the text and feature images that change.

You might alter the layout slightly but the main header, footer and link elements aren’t going to change that often.

What we know is that there are quite a few problems that need to be overcome when creating email templates and that if things like email standards and design issues are overlooked then they can cause you major headaches with deliverability, readability and Junk mail.

The good news is that we’ve just cracked it with our new customisable email templates that you can edit online in a similar way to how you would update a Word document.

We’ve taken care of ensuring that templates are fully tested and complaint and that the layouts appear correctly in all major email clients.

A big benefit of using customisable email templates is that you only pay for the template to be designed once! …after that you just amend, re-use and save yourself some money at the same time.

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After you’ve spent valuable time planning and designing your email campaigns, do you spend more hours testing it in all the major email programs and spam filters?

Well… You’ll need to and it can be a massive job in terms of setting up accounts with Gmail, Hotmail, Lotus Notes et al.

…then, you’ll be into checking the inbox of each email program and fixing issues one by one. Not the best job in the World and also one where mistakes and errors can easily be overlooked.

On the other hand, you could just cross your fingers and click send! We wouldn’t recommend that though, especially as there is a much better and easier way of making sure your email designs render correctly in all major email programs and so they don’t get trapped in Spam filters.

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