EasyTrace

EasyTrace is the market leader in developing and delivering integrated card and biometric solutions for education. Having initially specialised in cashless catering, the EasyTrace suite has grown to now incorporate a range of integrated solutions - all linked to schools’ existing MIS and portal systems.

EasyTrace now has over 10,000 users in schools, colleges and academies across the UK.

Diligence provides a comprehensive marketing support service to the company including re-designing their website and designing and producing a range of marketing collateral. In addition, Diligence has also helped in a major rebranding of EasyTrace’s parent company AMI, producing websites, marketing materials, exhibition materials and presentation documents.

What we do

• Branding
• Website Design
• Website Maintenance
• Adverts
• Marketing collaterol
• Exhibition Banners
• Flash or Powerpoint Presentations
• Onsite photography at educational establishments

www.easytrace.co.uk

Is it your website’s birthday soon?

The start of the year is always a good time for a spot of navel gazing!

You probably have a website - but how many times have you checked to make sure its still performing well for you?

Its always worth making sure your site is still working for you and what it is you expect from your site. For isntance, is:

• To provide an online guide to your company’s services?
• To offer an online corporate brochure?
• To generate sales enquiries?
• To provide a profile for your company on the major search engines?
• To encourage visits and repeat visits to the site?
• To encourage newsletter subscriptions?
• To be search engine friendly?

Take a look to at your design objectives.

Does your site look slick and polished - or does it look dated?
Is it inviting? Or does it take some time and effort to navigate?
Does it use appropriate imagery?

Why not give your website an early spring clean? A new fresh look for your site could do wonders for your business.

Five Dollar Shake

Five Dollar Shake is one of the country’s leading providers of hand-made greetings cards. Based in Hastings, East Sussex, the company supplies exclusively designed hand-made cards to a number of prestigious retailers and specialist card retailers.

FDS has won numerous awards for its greetings card designs and is proud of the fact that it uses British designers and craftsmen to provide the raw materials for their exciting range.

Like a faithful pet, the company’s website had served them well for over 10 years but was in desperate need of an overhaul! Diligence has designed an exciting, contemporary website that not only shows off the company’s designs to the very best – but also incorporates a sophisticated e-commerce system to allow retailers as well as end users and collectors to buy their chosen cards.

What we do

• Website Design
• Website Maintenance
• eCommerce

www.fivedollarshake.com

Brakes - A new look for good food..

The Brakes Group is the UK’s leading supplier to the catering industry. Their thorough understanding of caterers needs is underpinned by 50 years experience and a passion for innovation, quality and service.

The Brakes Group’s unbeatable offering is supported by services to assist customers including providing educational resources.

Diligence designed and produced a promotional CD Rom aimed at the schools and education sector to help caterers with healthy eating ideas as well as information on the services provided by Brakes.

The project has been so successful that Diligence has been asked to design additional titles in the series.

We have recently created a CD-Rom for a Brakes new premier brand “La Boulangerie” plus a training support CD-Rom for Larder essentials and Cheese.

This is being closely followed by training CD-Rom’s for Meat, Potatoes and a promotional CD-Rom for Healthcare.

What we do

• CD Rom design and production
• Marketing collateral

The Wrightsure Insurance Group Case Study

The Wrightsure Insurance Group is one of the largest privately owned insurance brokers in the UK. The company specialises in a number of market sectors including hauliers, community transport and theatrical performers.

Diligence has produced a new corporate brochure for the company, together with a new suite of trade advertisements and magazine inserts. The company also attends a number of trade exhibitions and Diligence has designed and produced new exhibition hardware, exhibition stand concepts and support material. We have also helped create e-mail marketing campaigns and have developed a range of creative models to help raise the company’s profile in key market sectors.

This business sector demands high quality in product design and our client places similar demands for quality on its external creative resource. Our belief in providing real value for marketing spend helps companies such as Wrightsure undertake highly cost-effective marketing campaigns that enhance their brand and provide a tangible boost to their business.

What we do

• Trade advertising
• Brochure design
• Event management
• Exhibition collateral
• PR and media

Green Investment Guide Case Study

When writer and photographer Nick Hanna decided to create a new website to cater for the needs of ‘Green’ investors, he selected to Diligence to help him develop his ideas. The result is www.thegreeninvestmentguide.com – a specialist resource crammed with information on investing in the environmental sector.

The success of the site will depend on attracting a high volume of visitors and so the sophisticated and dynamic structure allows for a constant stream of new information to be added to the site – all under the control of Nick using our Content Management System.

A secure log-in facility allows registered users to access additional information on companies working in a variety of ‘green’ sectors – with each company entry also including individual inbound news feeds – allowing users to see up to the minute news on these companies.

The site also features the facility to attract advertising revenue and also carries all important links to the site owners own portfolio of books and photographs.

What we do

• Website Design
• Website Maintenance
• eCommerce

www.thegreeninvestmentguide.com

East Sussex Enterprise Hub Case Study

The Enterprise Hub Network is the lynchpin between entrepreneurial ideas and commercial success, helping to create new, innovative and prosperous businesses that can contribute to the economic growth and development of the South East.

Diligence has been working with the East Sussex Hub since its inception and is now an integral part of the organisation’s marketing resource.

We have helped develop an e-marketing strategy to help promote the range of events provided by the Hub to the business community in East Sussex. Our work in building and developing a database of key business contacts has borne fruit as a carefully planned and executed series of e-communications has helped to ensure their events are fully subscribed.

In addition to e-marketing, Diligence provides event management support, media, pr and editorial support.

What we do

• E-marketing strategy
• Direct and e-mail marketing
• Database building and management
• Event management
• PR and editorial support

www.diligencegroup.co.uk

Give your website a kick up the pants! Part 2

What else can you do to help drive more traffic to your site?

A Blog

A Blog can help you to position yourselves as a true expert. It also helps you to secure an additional presence on the web, by posting a substantial amount of additional online content, with a subsequent increase in the number of search results for the company.

You can position your Blog(s) as a forum for discussing issues that concern those in your industry. In addition to being stand alone sites in their own right, Blogs can be placed on a number of other internet platforms including popular and specialist trade Blog directories.

Backlinking

You should actively seek reciprocal links with other relevant websites – the more links you can incorporate, the higher the probability of appearing more prominently in searches and, of course, securing more referrals.

email address generator

Why not include devices to encourage visitors to your site to register their email addresses? There are a number of devices you could use ranging from a simple contact page through to more sophisticated and engaging devices such as offering Fact Sheets or a subscription to an e-zine/newsletter.

Updated news and events section

The facility to add updateable news, photos or event information will ensure that repeat visitors to your site will have new content to read. News of your attendance at events can provide interesting content for the site as can the introduction of new products.

Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance

Kent Air Ambulance is considered one of the most innovative and forward thinking of the UK’s Air Ambulance Charities. Central to their fundraising activities is their website and online marketing activities - which are handled by Diligence Media and Marketing.

“Every time Kent Air Ambulance has asked a question or sought a new direction for online awareness and fundraising Diligence has responded to that challenge. We expect high standards from our suppliers - and Diligence have never let us down”

David Philpott - Chief Executive

Diligence has also been responsible for the development of both the Sussex and Surrey Air Ambulance’s new ventures as they focus on purchasing Air Ambulances of their own.

The Air Ambulance charities fund their vital service entirely from charitable donations with no government funding. It is a source of great pride that our web design and marketing skills have contributed to one of the UK’s real charity success stories.

What we do

• Website Design
• Content Management System
• Support and online maintenance

www.kentairambulance.co.uk
www.surreyairambulance.co.uk
www.sussexairambulance.co.uk

Give your website a kick up the pants! Part 1

It’s a familiar story.

You like your website. It has some good features and looks really good.

But you are not achieving very good search engine rankings. And you don’t seem to get many enquiries.

What’s gone wrong? It’s almost certain that your site probably needs a little kick up the backside.

Your site may look a little dated and, if so, there are a number of techniques you could adopt to help boost your organic rankings on the major search engines.

Naturally, a redesign of your site would help to freshen up the look and feel of your brand. But you can also build in some additional features to help generate not just additional traffic – but additional repeat visits to your site.

The inclusion of additional pages and some more search engine-friendly content will also help to boost your rankings – for instance, more relevant product information, an up to date News Page, the inclusion of Fact Sheets or an online archive library – all these mean you’d have more relevant content that could be picked up by the search engines. More to the point, the information would help project something of the personality of your company, its heritage and its experience.

E-marketing the direct approach

Internet and email technology could be a key enabler of making all forms of marketing more direct, according to one expert.

Lisa Turner of the Institute of Direct Marketing said;

“Technology is playing an important role in integrating previously distinct advertising techniques and shaping them into the broader field of internet marketing.”

“Direct marketing used to be just one of these techniques: now with email and the web, everything has the potential to be direct marketing,” she explained.

One example of technology’s effect on the marketing industry is the fact that research shows that more than eight in ten television adverts carry a website address, while this trend is also prevalent in newspaper and magazine advertising Ms Turner added.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing is received significantly more positively by consumers than businesses tend to believe.

A study by the organisation suggested that such messages receive a 33% actual positive response compared with a 17.6% perceived positive response.

Diligence has many years experience of helping companies market their services direct to their customers. Why not get in touch if you’d like to know more?

Call 01424 447858 or e-mail martin@diligencegroup.co.uk