the leaves are turning…

…and autumn is upon us. This time of year marks the end of breaks away and more of a focus on the next few months and getting the job done.

We see a trend with our clients wanting to relook at their marketing to measure how effective it is and how they will spend their marketing budget next year.

The beauty of online is just that, measuring the return on investment.

As we move into the last quarter of the year, take a bit of time to revisit your website analytics and see how the visits to your site compare to last year.

If you don’t have any analytics then get in touch to find out a bit more about how helpful they can be and how simple they are to setup.

Websites that do well are the ones that have content regularly updated and have other means of driving traffic to them.

Don’t rely on search engine optimisation alone to bring you new business; be proactive: email marketing, advertising and social media are other ways to engage with your clients and keep them updated of your products and services.

ladies night fund raiser

I was delighted to attend the Cheltenham Town Ladies Night particularly because they were raising money for Winston’s Wish.

I didn’t resist the glass of champagne but I did manage to resist the array of handbags to purchase. It was a fun night of football, cupcakes and socialising and more importantly raising money for such a good cause.

Shame Cheltenham Town lost but at least I got to have my photo taken with Paul Baker the club’s chairman!

always on a saturday morning!

Picture the scene – You have had a late night celebrating the end of the week. Saturday morning and you deserve a lie in, you love your cat dearly but this is not funny… Enjoy (and make sure you have the sound turned on)

are you web-savvy?

Well, according to Lucy there seems to be a pretty enjoyable way to find out: check this out and put yourself to the test…can you remember when sitting an exam has ever been that hilarious?! We’re curious – what’s your score? What should be the critical mark for web-savyness?

And while we’re at it, here’s another one of our favourites; A flight attendant making the usual boring announcement a little more…. shall we say rad!

my english summer

What do you usually do when you’ve finished your studies? Travel the world? Move back in with your parents? Look for a job? Tempting options but not as tempting as coming to Cheltenham to do an internship at Twice.

So a few weeks after my graduation, instead of lying on one of Thailand’s beaches, I’m sitting here in our snug office, eating bananabread.

And honestly: no regrets. the bananabread’s great. My colleagues are lovely, interesting projects and challenging tasks have made my days since I joined the team here.

These past days I’ve been busy with writing new copy for our website, which is going through a revamp. I have very much enjoyed this and I hope you like the new style!

Apart from discussing song lyrics with Jamie and translating several (more or less pleasant) words into German for him has certainly helped me to quickly come to terms with my second but preferred language and feel at home in lovely Cheltenham.

And therefore I’m more than happy to settle for the beaches of South England… at least this summer.

bananarama

It is indeed a cruel, cruel summer – or has been, for the last 3 days. We’ve nearly melted away in our office which is right underneath the roof of a converted workshop.

Although this is such a light and beautiful place to work in, it has felt something like a hothouse lately.

To keep us going, Natalie has treated us to regular ice-lollies from Tivoli Stores (it is a bit of a gamble – will they have our favourite Calipos in stock?) and also to her own Bananarama, aka homemade banana bread. There really is nothing like it to get you over that little low between 3:40 and 3:55.

Natalie has revealed a secret (no-longer-so-secret) ingredient which makes her banana bread even more irresistible: a shot of freshly squeezed orange juice.

Sometimes it’s ever so simple to keep your employees happy…

stay-at-home-glastonbury

All this talk of camping and festivals has perked me up! Not being lucky enough to get tickets for Glastonbury, I decided to have a “stay at home Glastonbury” experience instead.

This weekend has been glorious weather with most of it spent outside. The sounds of The Ting Tings has made the rocket and spinach seed planting more enjoyable.

Altogether it has been a much cheaper, cleaner and less tiring experience. Of course the chance to go to the real thing would be amazing.

Oh well, here’s til next year when I shall try and hang off the phone and get some tickets…

fun in the festival sun

What a glorious week! Beautiful sunshine for the 2008 Literature Festival, sell-out events, and we are sitting at our work stations in the new office!

Full pictorial report to follow. But, for now, here’s a little souvenir of our favourite literature festival:

kiss me stupid!

While writing some copy for a new website, I remembered an interesting course I went on a few months back

It was with a cool company called “Webcredible” based in London. Their mission is to help make the web an easy to use, accessible and understandable medium. They run excellent training courses for web designers, developers and content authors and have a fab website with oodles of helpful articles and resources.

Perhaps you know but writing for the web is not the same as writing for print. Mostly it is about KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) which works well when putting down words to be read by all and sundry on t’internet.

If you want to know more, check out this article.

new look for the Friends

We love Cheltenham Literature Festival. Fact.So, imagine how chuffed we were to be chosen to redesign the logo for the 21st Anniversary of the Friends of the Festival? Go on, imagine. Yes, that’s right. Chuffed.The brief to our creative team was simple: classic, not old fashioned; contemporary appeal, but not extreme modernism; confidence and style, but not arrogance or elitism; appeal to a wide audience. Magic crayons were wielded and out popped some beautiful designs.

The result, a fresh look with warm colours that would stand out in the festival brochure and alongside other sponsors’ logos.

We’ve had some great feedback already and we hope everyone looks at it and thinks, yes, I will join the Friends today and support Cheltenham Literature Festival with all my heart / money.

Happy 21st Birthday! And see you all at the Festival…