Blog

Friday 23 December 2011

We hope you’ve had a good year, make 2012 even better!

New Start for 2012

In a few short years, many of us have become online shopping veterans, and with the percentage of users increasing every day, it is now considered the most efficient way of advertising your company and business.
  • The UK has the highest proportion of online shoppers in the world.
  • The average person in the UK spends approximately £1120 per annum
  • Recent study claimed that 14% of people shop online more than once a week.
  • With a further 20% of online shoppers who are over 55, excluding the theory that it is a young person’s domain.

Having the right advertising and SEO promotion is the key to acquiring more business for your online business. What are your digital marketing plans for 2012?

Social Networking and your business

With 2011 seeing the greatest increase in social networking so far, why not put your business on there too? Regularly update people on your newest offers, and other happenings.



Email Marketing
Give your customers that personal touch, by sending them an email detailing your latest offers, or perhaps gain customer feedback.

We can help you discover information such as; the number of emails being viewed, which pages are being visited, and the amount of people who have unsubscribed to your mailing list. All these things can help you create a more valued and effective emailing list.



Website design
Your website plays a vital role in gaining and maintaining customers. People will view your website as a reflection of your business. So, by having an eye catching and sophisticated design you are already enticing their interest, and helping them to continue looking through.

Here are some of the great website designs that we have carried out this year.

The Speech House Hotel – Hotel Website design
http://www.thespeechhouse.co.uk/

Whitley Academy – School website design
http://www.whitleyacademy.com/

Scene Cleaning – Cleaning services website design
http://www.scenecleaning.co.uk/


Direct Booze – E-commerce website design and build
http://www.directbooze.com/
 
Engineering and Technology website designs:

Metrology Direct
http://www.metrology-direct.com/

Cedar Bay
http://www.cedar-bay.com/

CeeVee
http://www.cee-vee.co.uk/

Monday 12 December 2011

Whitley Academy website launch


Whitley Academy's new and improved web site has now been launched. Click the link below to see all new features and improved appearance.

http://www.whitleyacademy.com/

For more information on how Swimming Hippo may be able to help your business, call 01386 764747 or visit www.swimminghippo.co.uk

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Whitley Academy


We are delighted to have been commissioned by Whitley Academy to help in completing a full website design process, installation of a content management system and printed school prospectus.

Whitley Academy is a Coventry based Academy providing education from ages 10-16 (GCSE Level)

Services provided by Swimming Hippo include:

For more information on how Swimming Hippo may be able to help your business, call 01386 764747 or visit www.swimminghippo.co.uk

Monday 24 October 2011

Parkinsons Technology






Swimming Hippo is very pleased to be working Parkinsons Technology in helping them create a full website design process, installation of a content management system and pre-launch search engine optimisation set up.

Parkinsons Technology are a Lincolnshire based manufacturer and supplier of bespoke electrical solutions including wiring harnesses, control panels etc. Swimming Hippo were delighted when asked to be commissioned in completing a branding, web site design and search engine optimisation project.
 Services provided by Swimming Hippo include:
http://www.parkinsontech.co.uk/
For more information on how Swimming Hippo may be able to help your business, call 01386 764747 or visit www.swimminghippo.co.uk

Monday 17 October 2011

Why should your business have a company profile page?





In today’s modern society, social media has become a main occurrence in every day life. The U.K has 47% of its population using face book and half this amount of its users regularly logs in at least once a day. Statistics show that Facebook reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited Web site in the world (excluding search engine sites). Twitter is another online social networking and micro blogging service that allows its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets". With 14% of the U.K actively using this social media it’s steadily increasing to be one of the most popular social networking sites.

Businesses are recently making note of these statistics realising what a fast, easy and cost effective way it is to advertise and reach thousands of people in a short space of time. Companies can regularly advertise their services through use of their online social networking site knowing that its bound to be seen by users. Advertising competitions on your social network site gains immediate interest and leads people to your company homepage.

If users have signed up to follow your account (twitter) or like a post from you social networking site (Facebook) they will be automatically updated on promotions and offers you will have posted.

The more followers gained and the more likes you receive, the more you will build online presence, automatically giving you a greater avenue of interest. It will also increase you r search engine optimisation, potentially increasing your online views and again interest.

If you haven’t already created a social networking site, we can help you create a Facebook company profile page and then provide a complete profile management service.

For more information on how Swimming Hippo may be able to help your business to benefit from social media marketing, call 01386 764747 or visit www.swimminghippo.co.uk

Cedar Bay













We are thrilled to have been commissioned in working with Cedar Bay to help create a full website design process, installation of a content management system and prelaunch search engine optimisation set up.

Cedar Bay provide electronic data capture solutions allowing companies wishing to take advantage of Mobile and RF technology to drive process improvements in their businesses.

To Visit the website click here 
(http://www.cedar-bay.com/)

For more information on how Swimming Hippo may be able to help your business, call 01386 764747 or visit www.swimminghippo.co.uk

Monday 3 October 2011

CeeVee website design

CeeVee (http://www.cee-vee.co.uk/) is a Gloucestershire based company specialising in valves and automation.
Swimming Hippo was happy to be the selected agency for the design and delivery of their new website, online branding and establish a simple to use administration system.
When working with CeeVee it was clear that the website needed to effectively present the benefits of selecting this company for the provision of valves and associated products. They wanted main benefits to stand out to the consumer, so by maximising quotes on selected pages, these benefits now stand out and encourage further business.

Each product has it’s own descriptive page, clearly displaying that item and providing a detailed specification. Swimming Hippo had to create an easy way for users to see these details and access them.
The website now also provides a way of directly contacting CeeVee through the email enquiry form.
Services provided by Swimming Hippo include:
Visit http://www.cee-vee.co.uk/ to take a look at the finished product.

Monday 26 September 2011

Keeping Worcestershire Merry


Direct Booze (http://www.directbooze.com/), is a Midlands based online shop, selling multiple brands of beers, wines, ciders and other drinks.

Swimming Hippo was selected to complete their e-commerce website, online branding and establish a simple to use administration system.

When working with Direct Booze it was clear that the website needs to present the benefits of shopping on Direct Booze and a simple to use online shopping experience provided. A key point to communicate throughout the website is the free delivery service on offer!

Direct Booze offer a variety of deal types across a wide range of products, this is shown throughout the site.

Swimming Hippo had to create a clean and easy way for users to see these deals, and easily access them. To make payment on the site, the client requested that transactions be made using PayPal. This has been incorporated into the checkout functionality.
Services provided by Swimming Hippo include:

Visit www.directbooze.com to pick up a bargain today.

Thursday 14 July 2011

Crime & Trauma Scene Cleaning Company


Scene Cleaning, the crime and trauma scene cleaning company, have commissioned Swimming Hippo to complete a branding, web site design and search engine optimisation project.

The services provided by Scene Cleaning are of a serious and sensitive nature, and the creative theme for this project must communicate this.

A holding page is currently available, demonstrating the new logo, and services on offer. This page was launched at such an early stage in the project as a new domain name has been registered for this website and the temporary holding page will help with future SEO promotion. Google has already recognised the domain and services associated with it.

The holding page can be found here: http://www.scenecleaning.co.uk/

We look forward to presenting the live site later this Summer.

Services provided by Swimming Hippo include:

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Artificial, but not not without design


Artificial Solutions build the word's most humanlike, intelligent and capable virtual assistants. Recently they approached Swimming Hippo to assist with designing a user interface to be used for one of their corporate clients. Key to the success of this project was best use of space to present data clearly within a restricted area. First three options were provided (view these concepts) with a final visual generated based on one of these visuals, presenting hidden interface options (view the final design).

"Swimming Hippo was able to provide us with the creative support we required for this project. They produced the designs quickly, providing a selection of creative options to select from. We are pleased with the final result and I would not hesitate to recommend them or use them again."

Steven Fletcher, UK Account Manager.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Twice the skills, twice the benefit


As a specialist PR agency, Cheltenham-based Target is well accustomed to generating conversations about its clients – after all, that’s the nature of reputation building.


Sarah Bryars, Chief Executive of Target, explains why they are collaborating with Swimming Hippo, to bring a new dimension to its PR service.

Traditional media relations skills are based on marrying the client’s agenda with the news agenda, in order to generate newsworthy stories and interesting features, and providing well written copy that’s tailored towards a specific audience.

It’s these skills that place PR professionals in such a strong position to deliver the strategy and content for social media programmes, ensuring that the messages and tone of voice for each client are consistent and effective, whatever the communication channel.

But one of the many ‘added benefits’ that social media and online PR contributes to the marketing mix, is the direct impact it has on search engine optimisation, improving natural search rankings which in turn can help to generate leads, and sell products. And that’s what brings the discussion firmly back into the domain of a digital specialist such as Swimming Hippo.

We realised that clients need both the ‘content’ and ‘technical’ aspects of online PR and social media to work seamlessly, and decided the most effective way to achieve that was through collaboration with a specialist agency.

In my view the most successful business relationships thrive on a heady mix of ‘chemistry’ plus perfectly matched skills and experience. That’s certainly what we’ve found through collaboration with Swimming Hippo; a team whose approach to business strikes chords with our own.

Personable, knowledgeable, driven, and with a (rarely found) ability to explain technical functionality with no-nonsense language that is always centred on business benefits and results generation – that’s why we chose to work with Joe and his team. Whether building a new website, or developing an online PR programme together, we have great confidence in the quality, efficiency and integrity of the work they produce.

With two projects already under our belts, we’re looking forward to bringing our combined skills to many more clients, so watch this space. Or give us a call!

Friday 1 April 2011

Beaumont House refreshed website launched

Last month we were delighted to confirm a new two year contract with Beaumont House, a luxury Cheltenham 5 star guest house. Well the refreshed website is now live featuring Twitter, Facebook and the opportunity to sign up for email offers. Most of the updated work has happened behind the scenes with a new content management system installed, allowing for administration of the website to take place in-house.

Take a look at the refreshed site with a new gallery presenting the luxury rooms on offer.

Visit the Beaumont House website.

New website for the Speech House Hotel

Websites should not remain static or look dated, this is a reflection of the business a website represents. No more so is this true than in the travel and leisure industry. Peter and Gill Hands, owners of The Speech House Hotel, have recognized this and commissioned Swimming Hippo Digital to re-brand their hotel identity and re-design their website.

This new website will be the 3rd generation that Swimming Hippo Digital have produced. We are very pleased to be continue helping out this client.

Keep an eye out for the new website that will feature social media, blogging, email marketing sign-up and, of course, some excellent creative.

Do you need to update your website? Call 01386 764747 or email create@swimminghippo.co.uk

Selecting the right Digital Marketing Agency

Online marketing has become a bit of a jungle, making it very difficult to select the right digital marketing agency to work with.

Take the claims on guaranteed page one results as an example. Of course any SEO (search engine optimization) agency can get you on page 1 of Google, but for which terms? Gaining page 1 results for you business name should be a given and it is also reasonably straight forward to produce good results on specific product names.

But ask yourself, is anybody searching for these terms?

The first stage of any good Search Engine Optimization campaign should be the identification of search terms using software that generates a search term research report - taking a deeper look into terms that relate specifically to products and services that your business offers and reviewing how much traffic is being generated and how high the competition is for these terms.

This is only one area of a digital marketing campaign to consider, once search terms have generated, then a strategic digital marketing plan should be considered including web page optimization, link-building and an inclusion of social media tools.

Any company that is serious about it's online marketing needs to consider regular content and the source of that content. How will you feed all these online PR tools with content? Will you generate enough in-house news articles to Tweet each day? What kind of information should be blogged or added to your Facebook page? How do you encourage followers?

Swimming Hippo Digital specialize in helping companies with all these skills.

Okay, so it's easy for anyone to say they are good, but how about a few recent search engine optimization results to prove it?


If you are looking to include Social Media or Search Engine Optimization in your marketing mix, or just want to have a discussion with a company has the a successful track record in digital marketing, call 01386 764747 or email create@swimminghippo.co.uk

Friday 4 March 2011

Metrology Direct Choose Swimming Hippo

Swimming Hippo is delighted to be working Metrology Direct. As part of this project Swimming Hippo will  complete a full website design process, installation of a content management system and post-launch search engine optimisation campaign.


Metrology Direct is the UK's number 1 supplier of measurement, inspection systems and instruments. Their clients range from privately owned engineering companies to blue chip multi-nationals.


Metrology Direct won the title of 'Small Business of the Year' in the 2008 Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo Business Awards.


For more information on how Swimming Hippo may be able to help your business, call 01386 764747 or visit www.swimminghippo.co.uk


Wednesday 23 February 2011

New website launched using the Website Academy Training Course

John Hepworth, Managing Director of Hepworth HR, recently attended the unique Website Academy training program written by Swimming Hippo Digital.

The results of this training can now be seen as the new Hepworth HR site is now live.

John said this about the course, "I have found the team at the Website Academy to be extremely professional. Their attention to the customer is first class and their website product is excellent. They explain the 'functionality' of the product without jargon and manage the details behind the account effectively too. As a small business, I have no hesitation in recommending their services."
John Hepworth
Director - Hepworth HR

Take a look at the site www.hepworthhr.com

Could you benefit from attending this course? If you are looking for a cost effective method of producing a professional website that you can edit and update yourself, then the answer is probably yes.

Why not take a look at www.websiteacademy.co.uk

Friday 21 January 2011

Every Click Counts!

Swimming Hippo Digital is delighted to have been working with the fundraising platform Everyclick.


Everyclick has created more ways to give to all 200,000 UK charities. Everyclick was voted Website of the Year 2008 and a Tech Media Top 100 company 2009.


Polly Gowers CEO of Everyclick made these comments:


"We selected Swimming hippo Digital as a supplier to assist with increasing creative demand. They have done a great job helping us with one of our new products www.everygreeting.com and we look forward to working with them again”.


Subsequent to the launch of www.everygreeting.com front end development support has been provided for www.giveasyoulive.com plus coding of numerous branded emails used for the promotion of these services.


Rogue Digital Website Launched


The newly designed Rogue Digital Website is now live following a full re-design. This website reflects the exciting, yet technical digital cinematography industry.


Features include:

Blogger
Twitter
Forum

Daniel Mulligan, Owner Rogue Element Films, made these comments about the project:

"For our new web design Rogue needed a new clearer interface, clear descriptions of our equipment and more open design to the information. Our clients shoot expensive Movies and are used to exciting visuals so to be trudging through page after page would soon loose their interest. Swimming Hippo Digital have re-designed an already popular site and made it so clear and concise that its proving even more of a hit with our clients, bravo."

Take a look at the website, www.rogueelementdigital.com

To view more of our projects visit our portfolio.