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Brief

Eurofyre, specialist suppliers of fire detection products, wanted to keep in touch with their many customers about their latest innovations and company news.

We have worked with Eurofyre for many years now, most recently redeveloping their website to use a new design and content management system (please see the Eurofyre Content Managed Website project in our portfolio). For this project we recommended our newsletter design service whereby we would produce a custom newsletter template based on their branding and communication requirements.

Once built, the newsletter template would be uploaded to our advanced email campaign software where Eurofyre would be able to easily edit their newsletter and manage email campaigns to thousands of customers.

Design

We used the design we recently produced for the new Eurofyre website as a foundation to create this newsletter template design. If you compare the two entities you’ll find that many of the website elements, such as the header and footer, have been re-used here to create a strong brand crossover. Customers receiving this email will be able to clearly identify that this newsletter was sent by Eurofyre, perhaps even before they’ve read the first line.

The newsletter design needed to be able to accommodate several news items and images but also had to be flexible. The resulting design can easily hold several news items (in fact, as many as Eurofyre want to include!) but still works well as a single article newsletter if required.

Development

The way we code and develop newsletter templates is somewhat different to the way we build websites. Other factors need to be considered and some rules have to be completely turned on their head, for example we don’t advocate the use of tables in website development to shape the layout but in a newsletter template tables are necessary.

Once we had built the newsletter template it had to be thoroughly tested to ensure everyone Eurofyre sends a newsletter to will be able to view it correctly. We use some fantastic software to test our newsletter designs in an exhaustive list of email clients. These cover all desktop clients such as Outlook through to web-based email clients including Gmail and Hotmail and mobile devices using Android and iOS.

With testing complete, we uploaded the newsletter template to our email campaign software. Using this software we are able to set a range of elements to be editable – including titles, image thumbnails, text and links – and Eurofyre are able to upload their newsletter subscription list to the software and schedule email campaigns. As soon as a newsletter campaign is sent our software starts reporting on who has opened the email, which links are most popular and even where each customer who opened the email is located (city specific).

For all of our e-commerce website projects we always recommend SagePay as the payment gateway our customers should use. We have even integrated SagePay Server and SagePay Form with our e-commerce system Ballyhoo Commerce.

When we build a new e-commerce site, or we release a new version of our e-commerce system, we need to put through a test card transaction to ensure the payment process works seamlessly. We do this using the SagePay Test Server.

We’ve compiled the following list of SagePay test credit card numbers from the SagePay website. This is really for our own records as we use the SagePay credit card numbers frequently but feel free to use them yourself.

There are many different test credit card numbers available to use with the SagePay test server and at each stage you must ensure you enter the numbers and other details required correctly – failure to do so will return a Not Matched message.

SagePay Test Credit Cards

Expiry Date: any date in the future
CV2: 123
Billing Address: 88 (you only have to use this on the first line)
Billing Postcode: 412

3D Secure Password: password

Please note that these Sage Pay test card numbers cannot be used on the live server, where a real debit or credit card must be used to put through a test transaction.

See The Full Newsletter (Standard Template)

See The Full Newsletter (Single Article Template)

Brief

We first worked with S3 Process on their e-commerce website in 2010 and over the last few years we have worked closely with them on many aspects of their website. Recently, we set out to develop a newsletter template that would allow S3 to regularly contact their customers via email with company news and details of the latest products and industry advancements.

Two email newsletter templates were required – a standard newsletter template that would hold several news items and a more basic template that could be used for quick email shots where only one news item needs to be communicated.

Design

It was essential that the newsletter design used the existing S3 Process branding which we originally developed when we first worked with the company. Many newsletter recipients would already be acquainted with S3 Process so it was very important that the website and newsletter were undoubtedly associated with each other.

Our graphic designer was already familiar with the S3 brand which aided his understanding of what was required in this project, ultimately adding extra depth to the final design. The standard newsletter design was created first, once this was refined and approved we then proceeded to create a further basic newsletter design using the same design elements.

Development

Our software for creating and sending newsletter campaigns is very intelligent and it allows us to build a newsletter template that is flexible and customisable by our clients. When developing the newsletter template we set certain elements to be editable – including images, headings, text and links – which gives S3 Process the ability to edit and send as many newsletter campaigns as they wish without compromising the core design of the newsletter or its accessibility.

Testing is a major aspect of newsletter template development. This is a much more complex task than you may expect, especially when compared to website testing as there are many more email clients in use than there are browsers at present. Our email campaign software allows us to exhaustively test your newsletter templates in all of the major email clients (whether web-based, desktop-based or mobile) and ensure that the vast majority of email recipients will be able to access and read their newsletter the way it was intended.

A compulsory feature of all newsletter templates is to include an ‘unsubscribe’ link which allows people who no longer wish to receive emails to opt out of future email campaigns. A number of additional features were also integrated with S3 Process’s newsletter templates – a ‘forward to a friend’ button and social media links to S3′s profiles on YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn.

We recommend that you upgrade your version of Ballyhoo Commerce as regularly as possible to see the new benefits of our e-commerce system straight away. The cost of an upgrade is quoted on a case-by-case basis, please contact us for an estimate.

E-Commerce Customer Features

Newsletter Subscription Improvements

Ballyhoo Commerce has a built-in newsletter subscription feature which allows your customers, or any other visitors on your website, to sign up to receive any marketing emails or newsletters you send. Previously, the system only collected email addresses but we have now improved this feature to allow you to collect names too.

Recently we have been working closely with our customers to produce attractive newsletters that closely match the websites we design, allowing our customers to promote their products and services quickly and easily. This feature allows us to take this to the next level, personalising email communications with the customer’s name for added impact. Collecting the subscribers name is an optional feature that we can configure for you when we upgrade your e-commerce website to this version, so please let us know your preference.

Refined Customer Address Selection

At the checkout stage of the buying process your customer is able to specify a shipping address and a billing address for their order. These addresses were previously mutually available so the customer would only need to add an address once to be able to select it in either address section.

We have received feedback from our clients indicating that this technically efficient way of managing addresses was causing confusion with some customers. We have therefore improved this part of the e-commerce system to split shipping and billing addresses into separate collections of addresses.

The visuals in this section have also been improved to clearly show the available addresses in individual boxes and the process of actually selecting an address to be used in the order has also been simplified.

E-Commerce Administration Features

Add A Shipping Reference To Orders

When an order is marked as dispatched the e-commerce system will now prompt you to enter a shipping reference (if available) for your records. The decision to add this feature was prompted by the requirement of the Pay4Later payment gateway which needs a shipping reference to be returned as proof of delivery but we have plans to take this much further in future releases.

Order Downloads More Detailed

Order lists (available to download in the Order Manager) have been improved to include more detail. Each product purchased in an order will now also be listed in addition to other order details like order value, order date, shipping address and customer name. This level of detail means this tool can now be used to download a comprehensive record of the orders you receive, perfect if you use a fulfilment company to pick and dispatch your orders.

Order Status Switching

When changing the status of an order (i.e. marking an order as being paid or dispatched) the system now allows you to simply click on the icons indicating the current status to update the order without the page reloading. This makes it much easier to update the status of multiple orders in one go, handy if you have just dispatched a number of orders and want to inform a number of customers.

Minor E-Commerce System Additions

• We have made general security improvements to the system concerning the user management.
• We can change a setting in the configuration to make company name collection mandatory during customer registration, please let us know your preference when we upgrade your e-commerce website.
• We can also configure a setting to check your customer’s age during customer registration whereby the customer has to tick a box to confirm they are over the age of 18. This is requirement for some products.
• We have improved the thumbnail image scrolling on product pages to stop and start at more appropriate places, this adds a subtle polish to the way product images are displayed.

See The Full Newsletter

Testimonial

“Ballyhoo were beyond brilliant. The turnaround time between first discussing our options for a newsletter and receiving the finished product was fast and at every stage they offered professional advice – not just doing what I asked but adding value.”

Brief

We worked with All Eco Energy to create their website back in early 2011 (All Eco Energy Content Managed Website) and have continued to work closely with them on their website as times change and technology moves forward.

They recently approached us to design and build a newsletter template so that they could easily keep their customers up to date with the latest news both within their business and in the Solar PV industry.

Design

The skills of the same graphic designer that worked on the original All Eco Energy website were employed to create the newsletter design. We were able to quickly communicate the client’s needs and, as our designer was already familiar with the brand, the design was produced in good time.

We based the newsletter design on the allecoenergy.co.uk website, incorporating several elements from throughout the site to create a custom newsletter design. The result is a clearly branded newsletter that ties in wholly with the website.

Development

Our contact at All Eco Energy had already chosen which email campaign software they wanted to use to send newsletters. An initial amount of research was required to ensure that our code would work with software we were somewhat unfamiliar with but compatibility is rarely an issue as experience has taught us that good code usually translates well to other software. The newsletter template was built to allow all images and text to be editable which means that All Eco Energy are able to create an email with unique content whenever they wish.

Developing a newsletter template is quite different to building a web-page as opposing rules apply; for example, where it is bad practice to use tables in web design, they are necessary in newsletters to create the layout. This is purely because there are a huge number of email clients available today (many more than there are web browsers), and each have their own quirks and bad habits. Therefore before we released the newsletter template to All Eco Energy, we thoroughly tested it to ensure that the majority of recipients would be able to view it correctly. Our testing covered over 20 different email clients and the most popular spam filters (including various versions of Outlook, mobile email clients like Android and web-based email clients like Gmail).

All Eco Energy have expressed how delighted they are with the results of their newsletter design project, as you can see in the Testimonial at the top of this page, and initial results from the first email campaign are very positive.

Visit this site: swomo.com

Brief

SWOMO is a for-profit charitable company selling watches to fund education in the poorest parts of Africa. Their concept is ‘time for time’ so for every 50 watches they sell they’ll pay for a disadvantaged child to attend school for an entire year. SWOMO needed a website to provide information about their organisation and, most of all, to sell their watches online!

Testimonial

“We found working with the Ballyhoo team a really collaborative experience which was vital for us as a new brand. We didn’t just want to leave a developer to it and come back a few months later. Working with Ballyhoo meant we could be involved every step along the way and the result is a site that perfectly captures what SWOMO is all about.”

Design

Ballyhoo worked with SWOMO to further develop a design already produced by one of the directors of the company. The director in question was an experienced graphic designer (and had already produced the watch designs) but had not worked extensively with the web. SWOMO had a firm idea of how they wanted the website to look but needed our expertise to refine the design, in particular we were called upon to ensure the site and the purchasing process flowed well and was intuitive.

The result is very minimalist, allowing the products the take centre stage.

Development

SWOMO required a fully functional e-commerce website to sell their watches online. We built this site on our e-commerce system, Ballyhoo Commerce, which gives SWOMO all of the features they need. Initially they are only providing two watches for sale but the flexibility and robustness of our system will allow them to gracefully expand their product range in the future. In fact, some of our customers are smoothly managing product catalogues containing many hundreds of products so SWOMO are in safe hands!

As a business concept, this kind of product relies on social media to spread the word. Social media integration was essential to help SWOMO market their watches and create an online community with an interest in the organisation and it’s achievements. Therefore we have neatly integrated Facebook and Twitter links into the footer of the site, visible on every page, including  a Facebook ‘Like’ counter to help add social credibility to the site.

SWOMO were able to provide high quality images of their products which our system was able to make the very most of. Customers can see multiple views of each product and can click to see an enlarged or zoomed version of each image to get a better look before making their purchase. After all, while they may be buying into a good cause, SWOMO’s customers want to see the watch they’ll be wearing with pride!

This website has already seen a fantastic response in the first few weeks of trading and, as the business grows, more and more children will benefit from this great concept.

The following instructions will show you how to set up your email account using your Windows mobile device.

We have used test@ballyhoodemo.co.uk as an example in throughout this tutorial but you should substitute this email address, or any other items, with the details we have supplied to you where appropriate.

Getting Started

On your Windows phone, navigate to the Settings menu.

Under the Settings menu, select email+accounts.

email + accounts

On the email+accounts page, select add an account.

You will be shown a list of popular email accounts to choose from, please choose advanced setup at the bottom of this list.

Advanced Setup

Enter your email address and the password supplied. Press Next.

Now select Internet Email.

Internet Email Account

On this screen, enter your personal details as well as pop.yourdomain.co.uk as the Incoming mail server, POP3 as the Account type and your email address as the Username.

Press Sign In.

On the next screen, enter your password and mail.yourdomain.co.uk as the Outgoing Mail Server.

Tick Outgoing server requires authentication and also tick Use the same username and password for sending email.

Now press Advanced Settings.

On this screen you’ll be able to specify how often you want to download new content (emails) and how far in the past you would like to download old emails.

Press Sign In.

Congratulations

You have now successfully configured your email account on your Windows mobile device.

When you now view the email+accounts page under Settings you will see your new email account alongside any others you may have set up.

Visit this website: healthycitydirectory.co.uk

Brief

Ballyhoo were approached to design and build a new community health directory for Healthy City Swansea. The site would provide users with a search function to discover community services in their area and needed to be available in both the English and Welsh languages. Search results would be populated from NHS data which can only be accessed via a web service.

Testimonial

“Ballyhoo was great from start to finish – their quote was competitive and realistic, and particularly good value for money considering the amount of time that was required to answer queries. Ours was a project that involved a whole range of major public sector organisations, who all had significant queries from their own perspective.

“In addition, the site proved more complex to implement than first envisaged due to technical issues at our end – Ballyhoo were extremely flexible in taking this on board and kept the additional work to a minimum to allow us to come in as close as we could on budget.

“The design was perfect for our specification and so far the site has been a real hit!”

Design

We were provided with a logo for the Swansea Healthy City project and used this as a foundation from which to create the site design. Accessibility was a major factor in the creation of this website design and special attention was given to the styles of font used in the design and the level of contrast on the site for the visually impaired.

The result is a clean design that clearly communicates what the site is about and how it can be used.

Development

This is essentially a small dynamic website that has been built to communicate a large amount of information smoothly and intuitively.

The main aspect of this project was creating an efficient and reliable connection to the NHS Direct web service (the service that provides the data this website makes available to the public). We designed a bespoke SOAP connection to allow us to collect just the data that is required at any given moment to ensure the site shows the very latest information at all times. The data from the NHS Direct web service is constantly being updated and expanded so it was essential to allow users to access this data in real time.

To access a list of services all the user has to do is select the topic they are interested and enter their town or postcode. Users can optionally tick ‘Find All Wales Services’ which will produce an additional list of services in the search results that are available across the whole of Wales.

Search results are displayed in numerical order with a clear and obvious ‘Learn More’ button. Clicking on ‘Learn More’ takes the user to the service’s contact information. We felt it was important that throughout this process the user was able to still access the search function by scrolling to the top of the page in order to change their search criteria or start a new search.

On the service’s individual page, users will be able to access contact information, a list of the services offered and a location map.

Google Maps has been integrated here and users are provided with a fully functional map with zoom and pan options. Clicking Directions on the marker on the map will open the main Google Maps website pre-populated with the service’s address where the user can then use the Directions function as they wish.

This site has been very well received, as you can tell by the Testimonial provided by our contact at Swansea Council for Voluntary Service at the top of the page, and the website has even been mentioned in the press.

Once the settings had been successfully entered and verified one PC started to collect email as expected but the other developed a fault. When sending and receiving, Outlook 2007 would go through the normal motions. It would count through a number of emails being received and in the folder view in the left hand column beside the “Inbox” folder there would be a number in blue and in brackets indicating that there were a number of unread emails in the inbox. However, when the user clicked on the “Inbox” in the left column, no emails were shown in the right hand list.

In order to remedy this, we asked the client to close Outlook 2007, click on the “Start” menu and click “Run” (on some versions of Windows this may require clicking on “Start”, “All Programs”, “Accessories” and “Run”). In the text box that appears enter:

Now press “OK”. Outlook should load but all of your folders should now be restored to their default display settings and your emails should now be visible.

If you experience this problem and the above method does not restore your emails please contact us.

What does this mean for me and my business?

These emails often claim that the company looking to register these new domain names may be a domain name investor who is looking to purchase the domains and sell them to you at a profit. They may also claim that the company may be looking to replicate your website in the Asian market, stealing potential customers and causing confusion for you current customers.

The first question you have to consider is “why is this domain registrar contacting me?”. Domain registrars do not have any obligations to contact an organisation if it believes someone is attempting to register domain names similar to theirs. So if a domain registrar is being asked to register mydomain.cn why would they not simply take this company’s money and register the domain?

The answer is that this is most likely a scam. We believe it is more likely that the domain registrar is simply trying to convince you to register these domains with them to protect your identity in Asia. Or in the worst case scenario they may not even be a domain registrar and may be hoping to take your money for registering these domains, a service which they cannot even provide.

What if I do want to protect my identity in Asia?

At present it is difficult to register a domain name in Asia if you are not based there or at least have a branch in the region. To register mydomain.cn, for example, you will need to provide a copy of your Chinese branch’s business license or a Chinese citizen national ID for personal registrations. There are companies, often lawyers or other legal professionals, based in China that will act as a ‘trustee’, registering these domains on your behalf and providing a contract to ensure you have legal ownership of the domain. However this does come at a cost and carries a certain amount of risk.

Is this scam limited to Asian domain names?

At the moment this scam appears to only be originating from Asia and relating to Asian domain names but this may only be because at the moment there is a huge growth in the number of Asian domain names being registered. It’s only natural that companies may be aware of this growth and have concerns about their identity in these regions, making this type of scam all the more successful.

If you receive any emails reporting variants of your domains are being registered elsewhere please get in touch and we will discuss your options.