Blog articles from various E-scape members

Econsultancy back in Jersey with two more courses!

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:56:07 +0100

Fast Track Digital Marketing - 20th/21st June 2013

This two-day intensive course is a great place to start your digital marketing training. It gives marketers a complete overview of the digital marketing landscape including all the essential disciplines, how they fit together, how to assess what's right for your strategy and where you need further in-depth learning. The aim of the course is to equip each delegate with the confidence, the tools and the techniques to build the right digital strategy for their organisation including:

Search engine marketing (content) and paid search
Display and interactive Media
Social media - video, social media outreach, online PR
Affiliate marketing
Mobile
Usability and web design
Conversion rate optimisation
Email marketing
Data, tracking and measurement

This course is ideal for those with experience of traditional, offline marketing but who have had less exposure to online marketing channels, or those with experience in specific digital disciplines who want to know how different channels can fit together.

If you would like to register your interest in either of these courses please contact me on 01534 491096 or download our booking form and email ping@e-scape.co.uk. Spaces are limited to ensure that sessions are engaging and highly interactive so reserve your place today! All courses will take place in St. Helier in Jersey.

Find out more about Fast Track Digital Marketing training from Econsultancy here.

Online Copywriting - 31st May 2013

This one-day course provides copywriting training aimed directly at marketers working online. You will learn best practice online copywriting techniques and how to apply them to real-life examples. Throughout the day there will be exercises and peer reviews to provide practical insights and feedback from trainer and colleagues. Key learning outcomes include:

Online vs offline content: key differences
Formatting and structuring content online
How to write effective news and press releases online
Understanding users' needs
Introducing search engine optimisation techniques
Copywriting for SEO and PPC, accessibility, social media and mobile
Tone of voice
How to build a content strategy

This course is ideal for anyone involved with website content - including business owners, marketing & website managers, project managers, copywriters and content editors.

Find out more about Online Copywriting training from Econsultancy here.

Download a booking form	Price	Date
Fast Track Digital Marketing Training (2 Days)	£870	20-21 June 2013
Online Copywriting (1 day)	£550	31 May 2013

About Econsultancy

Econsultancy are the leading digital marketing and e-commerce specialists providing reports, events, resources and training. Their trainers are the world's top digital marketing experts, each is an active practitioner in their chosen discipline, so you know their advice is based on the latest case-study and practice.

Econsultancy Usability and User Experience Training Course- 27th March

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:37:46 +0000

Thank you to Paul Rouke for running our first partnership training course with Econsultancy in Jersey. There was a fantastic turnout for the Usability and User Experience training course with delegates from different industries including agency, client and government.

About Paul Rouke

Paul is the Founder and Head of Usability and Conversion Optimisation at PRWD with over 13 year's experience working with clients including Speedo, Lakeland, AllSaints, Molton Brown, Monsoon Accessorize, Schuh, Bank of America and British Cycling. His background is in web design which in 1999 progressed into usability and user experience with the UK’s largest home shopping group, Shop Direct. In 2006 he founded PWRD who are now one of the most respected conversion optimisation agencies in the UK.

Where do I start?

Not only the first question you should ask yourself in usability but also where do I start to describe this course? Throughout the day, Paul showed his expert knowledge with his most recent case studies and experiences in usability and user experience. Our delegates participated in an interactive session of card sorting exercises, brief reviews of their own websites, personal experiences of other websites, creating task scenarios and observing each other using websites.

The course covered usability and user experience testing techniques, design recommendations, conversion optimisation techniques and best practice examples, to name but a few.

Sharing his profound knowledge, successful techniques and resources, meant that our delegates were able to take a lot of useful and interesting tips and tricks away to use for their own sites.

As digital marketers, we are constsantly thinking about optimisation and ways we can improve conversion. One of my favourite conversion optimisation techniques must be the 'call to action language and styling'. Testing the effect on what three simple words can do to increase conversions is phenomenal. From your 'more info' to 'view all features' can make all the difference!

And so to leave you wanting more, I thought I'd end with just one of the powerful messages from the course. There is a theory on the styling of call of action buttons that states your primary call to action buttons should be a different colour to your secondary call to action buttons. If the image below improves your perception on call to action buttons, then think what it could do to your conversions!

E-scape and Econsultancy are running a series of courses covering many areas of digital. For more information please contact ping@e-scape.co.uk or give me a call on 01534 491096.

E-consultancy Training Courses in Jersey

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:31:50 +0000

In this fast moving online world, things are always changing, improving and moving forward. To maintain business advantage it's obviously important that your company and staff are up to date with the very latest trends in order to have a clear understanding of your client or customer behaviour; how they find you, how they browse your website and whether they can find what they want. Continued training and development is vital, not only to improve your own skill set, but to find new ways to develop more business for your company.

To date the opportunities for high quality training in digital offered locally have been limited and the alternative of sending staff for training in the UK for training can be prohibitively expensive. With this in mind E-scape have found a solution for you! From the beginning of 2013, we will be offering digital marketing training courses trained by the digital marketing specialists; E-consultancy.

Our relationship with E-consultancy means we are able to invite expert trainers over to Jersey and arrange one or two day specialist training courses to anyone! Whether you are a marketer or business owner we will be organising courses to suit all levels and types of business, offering you a great savings with no travel expenses!

Information about the courses can be found on Econsultancy's website.

Course	Price	Date
Fast Track Digital Marketing Training (2 Days)	£870	20-21 March 2013
Social Media & Online PR B2B Training (1 Day)	£550	TBC
Online Copywriting (1 day)	£550	TBC
Usability and User Experience (1 day)	£550	27 March 2013
Google Analytics - Optimising your site (1 day)	£695	TBC

All courses will take place in St. Helier in Jersey, exact dates TBC.

If you would like register your interest to any of these courses please contact me on 01534 491096 or via email: ping@e-scape.co.uk. Spaces are limited to ensure that sessions are engaging and highly interactive so reserve your place today! Upon your registration I will contact you with further details and confirmation of dates.

About E-consultancy

E-consultancy are the leading digital marketing and e-commerce specialists prodiving reports, events, resourses and training. Their trainers are the world's top digital marketing experts, each is an active practitioner in their chosen discipline, so you know their advice is based on the latest case-study and practice.

Times are tough. We won't give away our Intellectual Property anymore.

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 10:30:00 +0000

If you go and see your lawyer (or anybody's lawyer for that matter!) it is almost certain that they will charge you according to how much time they spent talking to you and thinking about your work. You know this is going to happen, you know you are going to have to pay for it and it allows them to recover their costs and make a living. After all, lawyers and accountants and many other professionals, charge their clients according to the time they spend and everyone knows this. It's no big surprise and you know you are not going to get it for free because their time is valuable.

Over a hundred years' of experience

In our firm, we have a mixture of professionals from highly skilled developers to designers to marketeers to accountants. In all, we probably have over a hundred years' of experience across a number of key areas, all of which are vital to running a successful business. Like these other professionals, we also charge our time by the hour. But we are very poor at recovering that time compared to our lawyer or accountant cousins because the sense of value that our clients get, drawn from their expectations and historical understanding, make it a much harder sell. Maybe it's because they think anyone can build a website, that there are almost no barriers to entry in our market. But we have to change that view.

Customer expectations are often misaligned with the reality of costs

In the three and a bit years that I have been at E-scape, I have met many potential clients that take our time, plus our knowledge and end up giving us nothing in return. More often than not we spend many hours, over a period of months and many meetings, putting together a detailed and costed plan to allow them to bring their projects to fruition. They then take this valuable information and either do nothing with it becasue it was actually far more costly than they anticipated (expectations misalinged with reality of costs) or find someone else to deliver at a cheaper price now knowing exactly what it is they want. For us the cost doesn't end there as there is also all the time wasted in our weekly prospect meetings talking about projects that are never going to come home.

We tend to be generous!

We are always keen to take new work on and understand that sometimes you need to invest a bit of time upfront before you can catch your client. But is it worth it? What does it say about the value of the service you are giving? If you are happy to sit and talk and produce plans and estimates and discuss budgets and timetables, to give sage, experienced business advice but you don't want paying for it, what value will the client place on it?

We have such a good base of experience in the firm that we are able to give general business advice to budding entrepreneurs as well as detailed advice on digital projects. We can be a sounding board for a new business or highlight possible legal issues from a regulatory perspective. We have strength in depth and why should we give it away for free?

So we have changed our stance. If you have a great business idea and you want to talk to us about how it will work or even if it will work, or get our advice on what online form it should take, then surely that is the same as going to discuss your business with any other professional. You would expect to be charged by the lawyer or the accountant so why not by your online consultant?

We firmly believe that if you are serious about your plans, then you should be willing to pay for our advice. And if you're not, then maybe you just aren't that serious after all. It's also a good indicator whether you have the funds to take the plans through to fruition and whether we'll ending up spending our hours chasing you for payment of our development bills!

So what has changed?

Well as Jason Stratford wrote in his recent blog 'Thinking of websites as software', websites are now so much more than just a few pages. Yes, we still get people asking us to build them a brochureware site or something simple, but that is becoming rarer as the complexity of business evolves and clients realise that they are inextricably linked to the world wide web and social media.

We also find that projects are spread across all our teams, where development and design can sometimes be led by some great work in the digital marketing team which then bring the games guys in to help the social media interaction. These are complex projects which need proper thinking and good advice.

More recently we have been involved in putting together some extremely detailed plans in the gaming sphere for a number of clients. They involve websites and apps but also complex platforms and software engineering. To spend hundreds of hours working on these projects on the 'hope' that the development work will cover that investment cannot be seen as a good business model.

So we are now telling our prospects that yes, we are really keen to work with you, that yes, we think your idea has legs, but no, you're not ready to put together a brief and you need help to do that. That journey from idea to brief is crucial and we now encourage client workshops which produce a deliverable that the client can either give to us or take elsewhere. But they have to pay for it, because it has value. We have been pleased to see that these clients also see that value, as we have not had a single refusal so far. We also believe that it adds value to the other work we do for them and gives them a better insight to the quality of work they are getting and the complexity of the product we are delivering.

If people want our intellectual property, they have to pay for it. Times are tough, we can't afford to just give it away.

Ping returns from Nepal

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:21:21 +0000

It was a challenging but amazing 3-week experience in Nepal, but now myself and the team are back to our hectic lives after helping to build an orphanage for 80 children in a remote and very poor area called Bengakhadi in South East Nepal.

The central project, financed by Jersey Overseas Aid, was to construct an orphanage that will accommodate up to 80 orphans. Presently 30 orphans are housed in a small rented orphanage nearby where they are crammed in two bedrooms, sleeping on rickety old bunk beds and cardboard. The new building will provide children who would otherwise have nowhere else to go with badly needed permanent accommodation.

The children's exsiting bunk beds in the orphanage

As a team of 12 we shifted 25,000 bricks and ton upon ton of gravel by shovel or even by hand. Working alongside the local builders we saw the building grow from its foundations to just above window level.

The building on the first day

The building on the last day

Ping brick-laying

Unloading gravel onto the site

Before leaving for Nepal we managed to raise in excess of £7,000 from various fundraising events including salsa evenings, bucket shaking in St Helier and through some very generous donations. The kindness that you have shown has financed the purchase of 80 mattresses,along with pillows and blankets for the new orphanage. We have also been able to commission newly design bunk beds for the children and provide them with two gas cookers for the orphanage.

The village itself was an interesting ‘holiday destination’. It was like stepping back in time. The roads were bumpy, people travelled on ox and cart and random cows were walking on the roads. The houses were either made from bricks or sticks and every family had reared goats, chickens, and buffalo of their own. The food was delicious, however morning coffee meant milk would come freshly squeezed from the buffalo - yuk!. We would have curry for lunch and dinner everyday for 3 weeks! Unsurprisingly, we were struck with alsorts of unnatural bowel movements, but we were very lucky with our accommodation, in that we had 4 walls, a ‘shower room’ that consisted of a tap and bucket, a toilet room that involved squatting - need I say more, and we were given mattresses and blankets to sleep on the floor. In comparison, the builder’s HQ had only 2 walls, and they slept on bamboo and cardboard. Their shower was shared with the orphans which was just a hosepipe located in the street.

Our home

Our bed

Our shower facility

The community welcomed us with open arms and we all became very close. There were a number of very poor families one of which lived just 100 metres from our site. They invited us into their home where five of them slept and cooked within a complex which measured no more than 9 x 4 feet! Work was a struggle for the father, which subsequently meant the parents would often go without food in order to ensure the children had something to eat. The house had no beds, no mattress or blankets. Between them they had only one tiny box of belongings. Not only did the money we raised go towards the furnishing of the orphanage, but we were also able to buy over 100 families a 30 kilo bag of rice and a blanket each. Which was greatly appreciated. We also gave 30 bags of rice to a poor village nearby, along with clothes, toothpaste, toothbrushes, colouring pens and pencils that we had been given in Jersey to take with us. Distributing the aid was a very moving experience and made alot of Nepalise extremely happy. We only wish we could have done more.

The home where one of the poor families lived in

Distributing rice and blankets to the families

We also gave 100 hand knitted teddies, made and donated by St Luke's Church, to the local children and the orphans in a special distribution ceremony where we all participated in the singing and dancing, which includied Nepalese dance, salsa and even some Scottish dancing accompanied by Alisdair MacCleod on the bagpipes one of our team members.

The children with their gifts

Having had a very positive and heartwarming experience helping and integrating with the local community we have pledged to continue supporting them by continuing with the fundraising programme. There is a huge unemployment problem in the area with many families finding it struggle to have enough money to even eat. Having met with the village elders we have agreed to purchase some bicycles for just £30-£40 each. With their help we plan a bicycle distribution programme for needy families which will enable them to get to work, maybe collect wood to sell and take their children to school. In short it these bicycles will give them a real chance to help themselves to improve their lives.

The bikes we would like to buy

The children loving the bubbles

Go Mobile Marketing Book Review

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:30:00 +0000

Location-based marketing, apps, mobile optimised ad campaigns, 2D codes, and other mobile strategies to grow your business

About Go Mobile

The mobile web is expected to reach nearly 2 billion users by 2015. Advancements in mobile technology have influenced the way in which consumers’ research products / services, communicate with friends and peers, and ultimately, engage with brands. Go Mobile explores mobile marketing and advertising mediums, techniques and quick wins for both novice and advanced digital marketers alike to launch their very own mobile marketing initiatives. Using practical, ‘real-life’ Fortune 500 company examples, Go Mobile illustrates best practice mobile marketing and advertising approaches, including; location-based services and advertising, mobile ppc / paid search, mobile display advertising and mobile ad networks, as well as ‘appvertising’ and app monetisation.

Go Mobile begins by exploring the evolution of the mobile landscape (carriers and manufacturers, and understanding smartphone operating systems), mobile websites, mobile applications and mobile app development, and delves deep into classic marketing models such as the 4Ps (price, product, place, promotion), 5Cs (company, collaborators, customers, competitors, and climate) and E. St. Elmo Lewis’ AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) model to help illustrate how consumers have historically, and still do, engage with brands – laying the foundations for successful mobile marketing.

Strategic mobile marketing planning

Step 1 of your mobile marketing campaign initiative should seek to identify the ever-changing wants and needs of your customers, leverage existing analytics data to determine which devices, operating systems and locations your target audience / existing users are engaging with your brand from.

Top 10 mobile devices – Apple / iOS accounts for 92% of top 10 consumption!

If your heart is set on developing a mobile app, you must first consider what the final objective of the application is to be - branded, acquisition, loyalty or a combination of each. Common app categories typically include: news and information, social, games, culture / fun, shopping, branded apps, productivity, financial tools, organisers / time savers or business tools and utilities (for a complete list of app examples, please visit the 60 second marketer website).

The mobile marketers arsenal

A mobile marketers arsenal contains SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Message Service), two communicational mediums that most people are familiar with, location-based marketing, 2D / QR codes, as well as mobile display and mobile search advertising.

Mobile display advertising

According to Borrell Associates, mobile display ad spending in the US will grow from $685 million in 2011 to more than $8 billion by 2015. Mobile display ads can appear anywhere within a website, a mobile app or in a game. Mobile display advertising is complex and in order to harness the strongest results, a mobile ad network must be incorporated into any display-based campaign. Mobile ad networks are basically networks of channels (websites, apps and games) that are ‘opted-in’ to serve ads to their users. Popular mobile ad networks include:

Mobile search advertising

Mobile search is expected to represent 25% of Google’s total ad revenue by 2013. Before exploring best practice recommendations from Go Mobile, it is first worth re-visiting the changes in customer behaviour that smartphone technology ignites. Logically, as a direct result of the complexity of typing using a smartphone keyboard, the tail of search queries is typically no longer than 1 - 2 words. The use of voice search is also increasing, which adds yet another layer of complexity to campaign planning, keyword research and configuring your campaign settings. It is not all bad news though, particularly as mobile marketing campaigns can yield stronger CTRs, lower avg. CPCs, and more often than not, higher conversion rates – that is, if you hit the ground running with best practice account set up techniques:

Create separate campaigns for both mobile and desktop users
Tailor ad content based on operating system, mobile device or carrier
Configure device settings accordingly when conducting keyword research via Google’s Keyword Tool
Introduce broad match keywords to gather the actual search phrases that are triggering your ads
Drive mobile traffic to a mobile optimised / responsive landing page
Aim for a keyword position of between 1 – 2 to drive greater CTR

Conclusion

Go Mobile explores key best practices for mobile optimized websites and campaign landing pages, providing practical and performance-driven advice for building mobile ad campaigns. Jeanne Hopkins and Jamie Turner have successfully explored the multifaceted area of mobile marketing, whilst providing a comprehensive overview of both existing and emerging mobile technologies. The only missing addition that would have further credited the book would have been the impact of mobile on search engine optimisation. Go Mobile is a book E-scape highly recommend for any marketer, business owner or webmaster looking to embrace mobile in 2012/13. The book is available on Amazon.

If you would like to discover more about the opportunities that mobile marketing and advertising via Google search or display advertising can deliver, please get in touch.

E-scape launches new Gamification service

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 12:00:00 +0000

My Inner Geek

I have always been into games, ever since receiving a Commodore 64 for Christmas when I was just 11 years old. So yes, I've spent years fascinated with playing games and in more recent years building them.

I am amongst the first generation of adults who has grown up playing computer games. Just like countless others of my generation I have actively engaged with the characters, story lines and goals. Whether it involves saving the princess from the castle, shooting at pixelated ducks or adventuring in a virtual world fighting off Orcs and practicing magic, games are now an integral part of many if not most lives in modern society. It is believed that in 2008 the gaming industry overtook the film industry grossing $65 billion and is predicted to increase by another 9% by the end of 2012.

The explosion of social gaming in recent years has helped to dispel the stigma that gaming is reserved for geeks sitting on their own at home in just their pants and has opened up the experience of playing games as a socially acceptable pastime, even becoming a more family friendly event. Who hasn't spent a Christmas or Boxing Day sparing with their Auntie or Uncle on Wii Sports or convinced themselves that the Wii Fit balance board was the answer to losing those unwanted pounds come the New Year?

Gaming in Business

It may come as a surprise to some people that Gaming also has a place in business. Now this does not mean we should all post a game on the side of our website to give our customers something to play and at the same time try and sell to them, but it does mean that we can experiment with ways to introduce gaming psychology into the online marketing process. In short, that's Gamification, it's an industry recognised practice of introducing game elements into non game situations to engage our customers and encourage them to perform actions based around our brand.

E-scape have been designing and developing games for over 9 years, and since joining the team in 2005 I have personally managed the delivery of over 60 titles! The majority of games we produce are for Camelot who run the UK National Lottery, and they are unique in that they all have predetermined outcomes. In the same way that you can purchase a scratch card from a shop, the way you scratch the foil off the ticket won't impact the result, but with the online version of these 'games' the experience of revealing those all important numbers is the 'fun' element which engages the player and turns a losing experience into one which was enjoyable and one that they would pay to play again.

Having worked on a wide range of game types, including board games, sports and more abstract titles such as pirate treasures and space invaders we have a good grasp of the elements which make a good playable and engaging game. These same elements can be used in a gamified system on your website, whether you are trying to build brand loyalty, launch a new product or service or you just want your customers to spend more time browsing your website, gamification techniques can achieve this and many other opportunities for marketing amplification.

The best and most engaging gamified systems are the simple ones, where you are not trying to force customers to perform actions they don't necessarily want to perform, but making the experience of carrying out tasks that little bit more fun and enjoyable.

A really simple example of this is the profile completion bar on Linkedin. Any regular user of Linkedin realises that this is their online CV and therefore will want their profile to show them off in the best light. The chaps at Linkedin also know this but recognise that the act of completing forms with data isn't the most interesting of tasks so by adding a simple completion bar and graphic giving the user instant feedback at each step of the way they are actively encouraging user to continually complete or update their profile, and as we all know, knowledge is power for a site like Linkedin to be able to deliver you targeted advertising and content.

Coursera Gamification Qualification

I recently heard about a qualification in gamification being offered through Coursera by the University of Pennsylvania and I jumped at the chance of gaining a qualification in something I already enjoyed. Six weeks of video lectures, homework quizzes, assignments and an exam later and I passed the course. Of the 81,000 people who enrolled in the first week, some 8,000 passed. I would recommend this course to anyone interested in Gamification and Game theory.

Here at E-scape we like to stay ahead of the curve and while still in it's infancy, we believe gamification will continue to gain momentum as a leading business practice with more and more examples of gamified systems become common place on the worlds most popular websites.

Over the next few months I envisage our gamification services going from strength to strength and, with the help of Luke and Nathan and their extensive experience in Digital Marketing, campaign monitoring and benchmarking, I believe we will be able to deliver a very attractive proposition to our clients.

I'm really excited about the future of gamification and how it will impact the way we buy, learn and communicate online and I hope that you too can ''find the fun'' in your business.

Digital Career Choices in Jersey - Project Trident Jersey

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:03:14 +0100

E-scape are passionate supporters of the Trident project in Jersey. Project Trident is a work experience scheme in which all Jersey secondary schools participate in. It provides a unique opportunity to experience working life while still in school. There is a growing demand for digital skills in Jersey, and initiatives such as Project Trident help support and raise awareness of the technology sector amongst the next generation.

What is your name, and which area of E-scape excited you the most?

Hi I'm Jonathan Leck.

Having worked at E-scape as part of my work experience for Project Trident (a work experience programme in Jersey), I can tell you about the different areas in the company, and what area I found the most interesting.

For the 2 weeks I worked with E-scape, I worked with the website design team for 3 days. This involved making logos and wireframes (basic website layouts) for different companies. This was very interesting to me, as I have always liked creating and designing different things.

Is there anything that surprised you about working in this area?

One thing that surprised me about the design team, was how the companies you were designing the logo for, left the design of the logo and the final result completely up to you. The idea was that you should create a logo, based on what the company specialised in. For example an evil corporation would need sharp edges to the text in their logo, maybe some dark menacing colours (not saying E-scape work with evil companies of course!).

Was this something you have always considered doing?

I've always considered working in a career which would utilise creativity, and I think having a career which involves designing things to be a suitable career choice for me.

What do you think are the three most important skills to succeed in this area?

Working with a career that involves designing definitely involves a few skills. You need to be a creative person, of course creativity is a vital component in a career which requires designing. You also need to have an open mind, your colleagues may have ideas on the logo you're working on, or the company may want you to influence a few things into your design. Furthermore you need to have a good amount of patience, sometimes the design your working on may have to be worked on over a long period of time.

What would you love most about working in this career area?

The thing I love most about working in this career area is the amount of designs I could be able to create. Once you get to grips with the software your using to design the product (for example pixelmator), you can use it for your own designs, and thats really good for me as a creative person.

Are there any negative aspects of working in this career area?

The only negative thing I can think of is trying to figure out how to use the software to design your product effectively. However, there are many tutorials on the internet which can show you how to design a product with the software effectively, and just by watching a few of these you can get to grips with the software very easily.

Is there any other information that would be of interest to someone thinking of this career?

The environment at E-scape is fairly relaxed, you can listen to music whilst working on a task, you can wear your own smart casual clothes, and you can meet up with your friends in town for lunch or after work as E-scape is situated in town. This environment is very suitable for a creative person like me, and I think working in a career similar to this would be a good career choice for someone like me.

Ping e-scapes to Nepal with Jersey Overseas Aid

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:09:40 +0100

How many times have you said to someone 'Just Google it' in order to find an answer? or how many times have you said to someone 'I'll text you later' when you're going to keep in touch? Now imagine life without the internet, computers and mobile phones.

We forget that some places in the world, even today still don't have simple things such as electricity. Nepal is one of very few countries in the world to have a short supply of electricity let alone have internet access! I am leaving technology for steel-toe capped boots where I will be spending my holidays with a group of volunteers from the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission for 3 weeks to build a well needed home for an orphanage in Nepal.

The aim of the project is to build a primary school and a small clinic for about 80 to 100 children (boys and girls) in Mahottari, Central Region, Janakpur Zone, Dhanusa District, Nepal. The children’s home will provide accommodation, food, medical care and education for the children who are at risk and give them a secure environment. The primary school will provide free education for the children of the home as well as children from the surrounding area. The small clinic will provide free medical treatment for the people of the village.

Now, with only 1 week to go and with E-scape's support, we would really like to raise a final £500 that will go towards medical equipment, school supplies or gifts for the children. The important thing is 100% of everything we raise will go to the project and the children!

If you would like to donate, you can do so here: http://www.gofundme.com/1apniw. I will post a photo upon my return to show you what exactly your money contributed to! (And I promise it won't be me in business class!)

Thank you for your support!

What makes them click?

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 12:44:25 +0100

In a recent study by Pricewaterhousecoopers and the Local Data Company, nearly 14 high street stores close each day due to the increase in online shopping.

Online retail takes almost 10% of the market share and is expected to increase year-on-year. As mobile devices help to catapult this, it is even more essential that your website converts.

With these statistics in mind, you are probably wondering, ‘so how do I make them click?’ After reading Neuro Web Design - what makes them click by Susan M. Weinschenk, I was inspired to share her methods which help all website owners, designers and marketers ensure that their website can trigger our subconscious behaviour in order to dramatically increase conversion. Whether it's an e-commerce or lead generation website, Susan's methods can improve the effectiveness and conversion of your website.

About Neuro Web Design

Neuro Web Design applies research on motivation, decision-making, and neuroscience to the design of websites. It investigates why people decide to buy a product online, register to a website and trust the information you provide. It applies psychology with user experience so that websites can influence the customer’s decision-making process.

Applying psychology to websites

The book, through psychological studies describes that in essence, we are all social animals. We want to belong and this is why social networks are the most powerful websites.

The 'bystander effect' can be applied online - People look to others when decided what they should do, therefore reviews and recommendations can be a powerful influence over a customer’s decision-making. You may already facilitate social interaction on your website, but why not try taking this further by providing more information about the reviewer. The more information the review provides, such as their name and location, the more we feel that person is real and we are drawn to trust their review or opinion.

Our decisions are subconscious.

The theory that when we are presented with lots of choice, we don’t choose at all was tested in an experiment using jars of jam by Iyvenger and Lepper (2000). They proved this theory and even though we think we want lots of choice, the fact is that too much choice makes us less likely to purchase. In fact it is possible to apply the power of persuasion just by presenting a product in the first position on a web page. Studies have proved that we are more likely to perceive this as the best and we are more likely to purchase this product more often than any other product placed elsewhere on the webpage. So if you want to push a product, place it first on the page!

We fear loss

Another way to motivate users to act is through the fear of loss. The theory being that when a product is running out of stock e.g. ‘1 left in stock’ it will seem more desirable. So it follows that when something is scarce we are motivated to act.

The fear of loss can manfest itself in many ways, the down-sell effect for example. When options are listed for a product e.g. a tv + stand costs £xx but without stand it costs less, the down-sell effect triggers our fear of loss.

You are probably reading this and thinking you already know this or already do this. However the studies in this book really help to support and crystalise why we behave the way we do online and how small things can make a big impact on our decision-making process. The result being conversion generation. Many people don’t realise what makes them click, so take advantage of psychology and influence their behaviour to create conversions and really benefit your business!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and it motivated me to share this knowledge with you. At E-scape, additional reading such as this is just one of the ways we improve our knowledge and keep ahead with the industry for our clients. If you would like to discuss the opportunities to increase your website's traffic and conversion with me please get in touch.

Linkdex SEO Software Review

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:59:00 +0100

With such an abundance of different search engine optimisation software and tools out there, it is extremely difficult to know which SEO software is best suited to your needs. E- scape has trialed a number of different SEO software over the years, but none have come close to the power of the Linkdex SEO tool.

About Linkdex SEO software

Linkdex is a relatively new SEO software tool, launching on the 25th of January 2011. Within a matter of months Linkdex had received the Econsultancy 2011 Innovation Award for Innovation in SEO / Natural Search, favored for its much-needed analytical approach to search engine optimisation

A team of seasoned search engine marketers and developers who had worked within large global search agencies, running local, national and international search campaigns and managing in-house search teams got together to create Linkdex.

Linkdex SEO features

Linkdex SEO software provides inbound marketers with intuitive and time efficient features. The tool continues to evolve almost on a weekly basis with regular feature updates. Below are a number of recent features:

SEO Project Management Tools

At its core, Linkdex provides search engine marketing teams with a powerful base platform with which to manage, prioritise and allocate SEO tasks. This enhances SEO project efficiency and provides SEO managers with a transparent overview of the status of outstanding SEO tasks at any given moment in time. In simple terms, Linkdex ensure SEO campaigns are delivered on time and to budget.

Keyword research in Linkdex

Linkdex integrates seamlessly with web analytics software Google Analytics and Google AdWords to provide an integrated summary of paid search and organic search. The keyword research tool works with the AdWords API to provide ʻsuggested keywordsʼ with competition and estimated Google monthly search volumes. This tool is ideal for highlighting fresh content opportunities and niche keywords for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns.

Linkdex competitor benchmarking and intelligence

Competitor benchmarking in Linkdex is extremely powerful. Linkdex SEO software provides competitor benchmarking across three areas:

1) SEO Rank tracking

Rank tracking is a competitive rank tracking tool that benchmarks:

Your website Keyword rank position
Competitor Keyword rank position
Change in position (daily or weekly)
Type of result
Page Ranked
Visits (organic through Google Analytics)
Estimated Google Searches
Date of Check

Rank tracking is also a vital tool for pinpointing sudden ranking fluctuations – drops in positions may occur as a result of search engine algorithmic updates such as Google Panda, or as a result of increased competitor activity i.e. link building or content development.

Content (Beta)

Content development is an integral part of search engine optimisation and digital strategy. Linkdex can determine how many pages have been indexed within Googleʼs database. Tracking these over time is useful to understand how a site evolves its content from a top level view. Understanding how many of these indexed pages rank, helps determine how valuable that content is on the site.

Links

Linkdex link benchmarking integrates with its link building tools to provide chart-based benchmarking reports that explore and illustrate changes in: anchor text frequency, total links, total linking domains and links by site type. Understanding your competitors inbound marketing tactics is crucial for successful, data-driven SEO decisions.

Linkdex site and on-page optimisation

Linkdex has world-class site optimisation features specifically designed to maximize the rankings, traffic and value of your content. Linkdex achieves this through a combination of advanced technical reporting (i.e. quickly highlights duplicated content, content accessibility, server errors and redirect/canonical URL issues), internal link and anchor analysis, and keyword relevance/consistency across page content and meta data.

Linkdex link building and backlink analysis

The Linkdex link building feature set includes:

Competitor backlink reporting
Identifying link building prospects
Type of site linking to you
Market keyword relevance of backlink
Authority/influence of backlink
Number of linking pages per domain
'Nofollow' and 'New' links

Through understanding how your website is currently linked to and how your competitors websites are linked to provides SEOʼs with not only an insight into your competitors inbound marketing tactics, but also, it helps you to identify relevant and high quality backlink prospects.

Summary

Linkdex has become a hub for all of our SEO clients search engine activity; it answers all the who, why, what and even how questions that come with building an authoritative profile within the search engines. With an extensive feature set of on and off-site search engine optimisation tools, Linkdex is the most comprehensive platform that we have come across.

Find out more about how Linkdex works or take a ʻFree 30-day Trial of Linkdexʼ to explore how the platform works in greater depth.

Free Breakfast Briefing: Cookies Law - how it will affect you

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:14:15 +0100

As of 26th May 2012, The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will be regulating the web to comply with the new EU Cookie Law.

Free 30min Cookie Breakfast Meeting

What will this mean?

From this day onwards, all websites hosted in, or have a majority of visitors from, the UK will need to explain and inform its visitors as to what cookies the site is using and to ask consent for cookies to be stored onto their computers.

E-scape are offering free 30 minute cookie briefings that will allow you to decide if you need to take any action on your website to comply with the law. As a website owner, you are responsible for compliance with the law. Even if you do not operate within the EU you have to consider whether your customers or users are EU based. We strongly believe that businesses in the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey etc) should treat themselves as within the remit of the law in order to keep up with best practice and to avoid any negative publicity or implications.

If you would like to attend our cookie briefing please call Luke on 01534 832 402.

We look forward to seeing you!

2012 Marketing Trends: Where traditional meets digital seminar

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:30:00 +0000

We believe that 2012 will be a year of real opportunity, if you are smart, use your budgets effectively, demand more in terms of creative thinking and strategic applications and you produce campaigns that are measurable. We believe that 2012 will be about the five M’s: Money, Mindset, Method, Message and Measurement.

For those of you that were unable to attend the seminar, here is another chance to view the presentation and explore how a properly integrated offline and online marketing campaign can work to your advantage this year.

Watch the 2012 marketing trends seminar:

Tip: Navigate through the slides whilst playing the videos for a full experience.

Thanks for joining us and don't forget to leave your comments below!

The use of Social Media in the Wealth Management Industry

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:02:36 +0000

The use of Social Media in the Wealth Management Industry has been much discussed within E-scape and amongst our clients and any guidance on this area is always well received. Intelligent Wealth have recently published a white paper on the use of social media in the Wealth Management Industry and have allowed us to post it here on our blog.

Download the white paper

Our New Year's Resolutions for 2012

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:45:56 +0000

Much expense has been spared in creating this, our shortlist of favourite resolutions for 2012. If you have any that you think may be helpful then please feel free to contribute.

Switch my username to “password” and my password to “username” to make each a lot harder for hackers to figure out.
Stop saying," Ooh, that feels nice" whenever the security guys frisk me at airports.
Our New Year resolution is: 1280 by 1024 pixels!
Try to drive closer to the speed limit.
Tweet more.
Try to figure out why we *really* need 9 email addresses, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and G+ account.
To have a better online and offline life balance.
To do less Facebook stalking.
To check my work e-mail account at least once this year.
Stop buttering my doughnuts.
To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up any more of my time!
Ensure my NYR doesn't go in one year and out the other.
Philosophical one: Let go of what I am and become what I might be.
Lay off the Bikram yoga a little bit.
Maybe take this whole zombie-"Twilight" thing a little less seriously.
Spend more time with neglected children (my own).
Continue working for our clients after the World's End on December 21 2012.
Only wear my Raspberry trousers when entertaining at home.

What are your New Year's resolutions? We'd love to hear them.

It's "odds on" for Online Gaming in Jersey

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:23:26 +0000

How prepared are we for Egaming in Jersey

You may or may not be aware that online gaming legislation was recently passed in Jersey, Channel Islands. There has been considerable excitement in business circles locally because Egaming as an industry fits very well with Jersey’s increasing demands for a diversified economy.

The Jersey Gambling Commission has been formed and Jersey is actively looking for customers to move their operations to the Island. Initial prospects look good, a delegation of ministers, government officials and businessmen visited Israel (an active Egaming technology centre) in April of this year. We went along (see our blog article) and some of the big gaming operators were very interested in what the Island has to offer.

Offshore Egaming is not new, Guernsey, through the Alderney Gambling Control Commission have been very successful over the past 10 years in attracting significant online gaming businesses, along with Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus. There is no reason why Jersey cannot do as well, if not better, particularly as many of the other offshore jurisdictions have shortcomings that Jersey could turn to its advantage. Although the Commission has been formed and the legislation is now in place a few hurdles still lie in the way as far as gaining access to the UK for our potential customers, but there is plenty of scope across the rest of the world whilst access to the UK market is being sorted.

As far as getting the industry in Jersey moving, it just takes one “high roller” to move their operations here and others will follow. And there is plenty to entice; we are already one of the world’s most reputable offshore financial jurisdictions, in a favourable time zone for doing business, boasting an enviable technical and support services infrastructure. Jersey is also a wonderful place to live. So as part of the Islands’ plan for business diversification Egaming offers pretty good odds!

But how does all this affect E-scape? Well as a digital services agency we offer a host of services that fit the needs of online businesses, such as digital marketing, web design and development, usability and mobile development. You can be sure that we are putting considerable effort into networking with gaming companies, learning how they operate and just what their needs are. We’ve taken steps to restructure our business to fulfill those needs in a high quality way. It’s a gamble, but one that will hopefully result in a payout!

One other but highly important string to E-scape’s bow is our history of game development. We’ve had a 10 year relationship with Camelot, the agent’s for the National Lottery in the UK, building online scratch-card and instant win style games for the National Lottery website. This experience gives us a clear understanding of player behaviour and we are expert in delivering game concepts that encourage repeat play through high levels of engagement and a positive player experience, whether they win or lose.

Though niche our games work for Egaming operators in a number of positive ways by delivering increased and additional income streams; they provide light relief for hard-core players and are great vehicles for introducing new players to the online gambling theatre in a soft way by encouraging high levels of trust in the brand.

Through this expertise we are actively engaged in developing relationships with just the type of company’s Jersey’s new Egaming legislation is designed to attract.

Watch this space. With some good planning and little bit of luck we should see both E-scape and Jersey being dealt a winning hand very soon!

The Increasing Use of Mobile Devices in Jersey

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:58:28 +0000

There has been signficant hype and discussion surrounding the emergence of web access via mobile devices. Almost half of internet users in the UK connect to the internet via their mobile phone. So we wanted to see what the picture was like locally. We thought we would investigate this ourselves using data gathered over the past 12 months from a range of Jersey websites encompassing a variety of industries and users.

Below is a graph showing the split over the the last 12 months of every mobile device OS to access these websites.

Figure 1. Mobile Device % in last 12 months

As you can see the clear majority of people are using iPads to access these sites, followed by iPhones in a comfortable second position. This would seem to be higher than we expected it to be. Is this the effect of Jersey based users showing their affluence? Well, according to the latest eCustomerServiceIndex (eCSI) results from eDigitalResearch and IMRG, tablet owners are more engaged with retail brands, making more purchases and website visits compared with smartphone users.

To analyse this further, we grouped all Apple devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod), which all run the iOS operating system, and compared their use to what has been coined by many as Apple’s closest rival on the mobile devices market, Google’s Android.

Figure 2. iOS vs Android in last 12 months

As you can see, based on our data, Apple’s iOS clearly has real market dominance and with a 93% share compared to Android's share of only 6%.

Our final analysis was to see what trends, if any, have occurred with regard to mobile web access as a whole during the last 12 months.

Figure 3. Percentage of total mobile device visits over 12 months

As you can see in the graph above, not only does mobile web access represent a considerable portion of the total visits to these websites, but it has increased significantly since Oct 2010, from a mere 5.3% to just over 17%. That is significant growth!

In conclusion, this brief analysis helps to highlight the ever increasing importance of web accessibility for mobile device users and therefore for website owners. If you're not mobile compliant, then there is a big market out there that you are ignoring. If you would like to discuss your mobile requirements please give us a call.

E-scape achieves first for Channel Islands with Google AdWords Certification

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:38:39 +0100

We are pleased to announce that we achieved Google AdWords Certified Partner status from Google. E-scape is the only business in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man to have attained the necessary standard.

The award is important because it enables local businesses to have access to the highest levels of online marketing expertise and knowledge locally. In order to achieve this status, not only did we have to employ Google qualified staff within its team, but we had to achieve a level of business directly with Google that entitled us to Partnership certification.

Steve Hickson, Managing Director of E-scape said "We are delighted that our work with Google has been recognised by attaining Partnership status. It is an excellent achievement that reflects our proposition that local businesses need to have a presence in the online marketplace. External competition for local businesses in all industries is growing and it’s critical they become involved in the digital world. This accreditation sets a standard for achieving the best results from online marketing and it is an important milestone in our business strategy.”

Attaining Certified Partner status is rewarded with direct support from Google, training and access to marketing tools including entry into Google's Partner Search where potential clients can locate you, new business coupons and opportunities to attend exclusive Google events.

Luke Szkudlarek, E-scape's Head of Digital Marketing, added that "There are still businesses locally that have not employed online marketing tools but who want to gain experience of this rapidly growing opportunity. Now with the support from Google we’ll be able to achieve even better results for our existing clients and, importantly, introduce new clients to the benefits of online marketing, giving them confidence to push their campaigns online and also achieve better results. It's really great news and a fantastic reward for all the hard work we have put into Pay Per Click campaigns with Google."

Israel & E-gaming - What are the opportunities for Jersey?

Fri, 27 May 2011 17:12:17 +0100

New E-gaming Legislation

The States of Jersey passed new Gambling legislation that paved the way for e-gaming operators to be licensed in Jersey in March 2011.

Our Work in E-gaming

We wasted no time in meeting with the new Regulator and explaining that we had been producing online instant win games for the last 8 years for Camelot, the operator of the UK National Lottery.

We also explained that we were keen to expand our product offer and restructure our gaming business model by engaging with both platform providers and gaming companies to get involved on a more integrated basis. The Regulator, like many perhaps, was unaware of our experience and we have had regular contact with the Regulator since.

Where does Israel fit in?

The Regulator also told us about a possible visit to Israel that the Economic Development Department of the States of Jersey were organising, to push the Island's e-gaming industry. We met with Wayne Gallichan, Director Inward investment and International Trade at Jersey Enterprise and he explained that together with UK Israel Business they were hoping to put together a delegation of politicians and business leaders to go to Israel to meet the innovators and key players in the e-gaming, finance and clean tech industries.

We were duly invited to join the delegation and become project partners with UK Israel and after various meetings and an ever changing agenda, we found ourselves answering the many searching questions put to us by Israeli security at Heathrow. If you have never flown to Israel, this is an unnerving experience but one that clearly demonstrates the Israeli attitude of not being messed with.

So Who Went To Tel Aviv & Whom Did We Meet?

We were based in Tel Aviv, a group of 25, including two ministers, the Chairman and CEO of the Jersey Gambling Commission, the CEO of EDD and the CEO of Jersey Finance together with partners and MDs of banks, legal firms, accountancy practices, hosting/telecom providers and of course, us.

Playtech

On Monday we met with Mor Weizer, the CEO of Playtech, the world's biggest e-gaming platform providers with a market capitalisation of about £750m. These are the big boys at the party. Mor was an inspirational talker who enthused us all and we will definitely be taking things forward through their subsidiary, GTS, with whom we have already been in discussions.

Spiral Solutions

After a lunch hosted by the British Ambassador, Matthew Gould, we travelled to Galilee to meet with Spiral Solutions, who help gaming companies get to the markets they want, especially in the mobile arena. Another coach ride back to Tel Aviv had us arriving just in time to go straight to the Hilton where we were being hosted for dinner by Bank Leumi, Israel's biggest bank. I spent the evening sat next to one of the Regulator's delegation and we had a very pleasant dinner.

Neo Games

On Tuesday we had a number of meetings lined up which included ringing the opening bell at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, a presentation by Neo Games and discussions with Israel's largest firm of lawyers and the Israeli office of Moore Stephens. All these were interesting and brought home the importance of Israel in the e-gaming sector. It's really strange listening to Israeli business men and women talking about Alderney and the Isle of Man.

On Tuesday evening we attended an open evening where guests had been invited to come and chat to the Jersey delegation. We met other gaming companies and also e-marketeers and again it was a fascinating and enjoyable time.

How Can Jersey Benefit?

Jersey has the opportunity to have a thriving e-gaming industry. Once the first business is licensed, all the others will ask why and the floodgates could well open.

Jersey, as a leading financial services jurisdiction has a superb infrastructure and is continually improving its offer, making it attractive as a gateway to Europe.

The success of Jersey's e-commerce industry can be easily replicated for e-gaming as there are many synergies between the two industries.

Jersey has a large number of highly skilled complementary businesses that can provide assistance to the e-gaming industry. There are opportunities for so many local businesses.

So was it worth the money and time?

Well, firstly we gained a large amount of knowledge about a market and country of which we knew very little. We also saw how influential the Israeli presence is in e-gaming and information from 888 and Gigi Levy was insightful. We also confirmed what we believed, that the games we build are at the top of the tree when it comes to quality and engagement. And Jersey has been well placed on the Israeli's world map!

Will we get any direct business out of the trip? - it is difficult to tell, but these things often take time to gestate. What we did also get from this trip was to get to know influential business leaders and civil servants with whom we have broken bread and passed four days together. These relationships may well produce more direct work than we get from Israel and that is no bad thing either. We have raised the awareness of E-scape both in Israel and also in Jersey itself and if there is another trip going that holds relevance to our business, you can count us in!

How to (and not to) use online communities to reach customers.

Tue, 24 May 2011 16:57:17 +0100

Recently, I've been finding myself becoming more and more involved in online communities and not just with social networking.

Let me explain - a few weeks ago I downloaded the Trip Advisor app to search for hotels abroad and since, I find myself using it all the time to search for local activities, hotels, bars, restaurants etc. The app is similar to the popular website, which allows people (usually holiday makers) to rate and review local attractions and businesses. It allows people to share their experiences, be it good or bad.
Whilst browsing for a nice restaurant for a group of us to go to, I stumbled across possibly one of the worst examples of how not to respond to online reviews. It was from a local restaurant who had received some fairly negative comments.

people use communities to express feelings towards your business. people like to share their experiences with others.
browsing a well known review site which people comment on experiences at restaurants, bars, accomodation, attractions etc, which i quite often do, to find a nice local restaurant to go to. after spending about half an hour browsing through quite a few establishments i came across one which had only a few reveiws.
management is able to see any review posted
if you're unsure how to react, contact someone to help you!