Archive for the 'Web' Category

Our new website for Silverfleet Capital goes live

Published on January 10, 2012 in Design, Finance and investment and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Silverfleet Capital is a leading European private equity firm specialising in mid-market buyouts.

Silverfleet Capital business sectors page

For 25 years, Silverfleet has been backing exceptional management teams in exciting businesses across Europe. The company has an investment team based in London, Paris, Munich and Chicago to help its portfolio companies make bolt-on acquisitions and to achieve strong organic growth.

WildWest has been working with Silverfleet for over a year, helping the company to dramatise its unique approach to investors and potential investee companies. Now, we’ve achieved our biggest landmark yet, a new website (in three European languages) which builds and develops the Silverfleet identity, as well as providing a private, password-protected area specifically for existing investors in the company’s portfolio.

The introduction for investors at the Silverfleet Capital website

 

WildWest design will be maintaining and updating all three language versions so that European companies can keep up to date with developments at the company. Find out more about Silverfleet Capital (and WildWest web capabilities!) at
www.silverfleetcapital.com

 

Need food for a business meeting? Try Source

Published on November 25, 2011 in Direct and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

The Source site gives you all kinds of office catering options. Order today. Delivered tomorrow.

If you’re in West London, getting food for meetings or social events in your office is really easy. Just go to our website for Source at www.sourcefood.co.uk and you’ll find a huge selection of catering options that can be delivered – straight to your office and with delivery free of charge – the very next day.

For a limited time, there’s also 20% off your first order through the website!

Source provide great catering options – from sandwich platters to sushi, and from curries to quiche – so it’s easy to order whatever your guests and staff require, straight from the website. Source can give advice on all kinds of things too – like how many canapes you’ll need for an evening reception, or what kind of options you could have for a breakfast briefing.

Talk to Source too, about wine, beer and soft drinks to make a meeting or a party go with a swing.

The Source site is just one of the eCommerce sites we’ve completed for our clients over the years, and if that’s the kind of thing that you need for your business, then please get in touch with us.

 

“I want a Content Management System”

Published on November 15, 2011 in Corporate, Unusual and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

We think that our clients should be able to manage their website content. If they want, they should be able to add blog entries, upload news items, keep text (and maybe images too) current and relevant.

But the choice of CMS isn’t always easy. We’ve built entire sites in WordPress for example, which provides a user with a wonderfully easy interface that’s actually quite difficult to get very wrong. Even with my fairly uneasy relationship with technology, I find can get along with it.  For an example, take a look at our site for INCo, an IT sales lead company. You can view it at www.inco-online.com.

The funny thing is that INCo don’t actually want to manage their content. They are busy people and are quite content that we (with their involvement and help) keep their blog up to date and their website fresh. Their priority was to have a site that would be continually refreshed, and we applaud them in that. (As we’ve said before, the key to SEO is good content, not any kind of magic bullet).

Other companies like to be in control of almost everything, and that can get quite involved, particularly when the website is actually the front end to some fairly important applications, as well as that shop window website. In this instance, you probably have two choices – head down the road with Microsoft on the path that leads to Sharepoint, or if you need to stay with an open source approach (the one that we prefer), have something built that is tailored to your applications.

There are many half-way points that in many instances are entirely acceptable and workable options for open source users, but the key thing is to be aware – preferably before any new website implementation is specified – exactly what the long-term plan is.

We don’t ask our clients to be psychic, but we always point out that it will help to extend the life of any site if something that could affect its structure 9and that of any CMS) is even being considered.

If a client makes it known that there are plans to link the site – to a database of shareholders, or a user group, or an application that will allow nominated users to be able to change a page of their own content – then these kind of things can be considered when the question of which CMS to use comes up.

A website, like any other piece of technology, probably won’t last forever. You should plan to make it last as long as possible though, and if you can, separate the shopwindow from the applications that may lie behind. And have reasonable expectations from the CMS you choose as well.

 

Your website: magazine, not sculpture

Published on October 11, 2011 in Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .
Don’t put your showroom on a backstreet

When we first started designing websites, they were more like sculpture than a magazine. They were difficult to produce. Hand-crafted. Built to be prominent and to last.

Since then of course, things have changed dramatically. All kinds of things have become possible. Things like blogs (like this one), which have all but replaced ‘news’ pages. Things like linked outbound email, which can alert your audience (or a section of it) that something has happened on the site that they might just like to see. And of course, the ‘special privilege’ section of the site that no one but those whom you nominate can see.

These changes have undermined those ‘statues’. Static statements are just as old-fashioned as those sites that can’t be seen or read using the mobile devices that are being used now for up to 35% of web traffic. Their popularity has waned like a movie without sound.

Most of all, it is continued updating and continued ‘currency’ that visitors of all kinds want to see. That means taking issues head-on, having a view and expressing it (isn’t that what leaders do?), being topical and making a contribution to debate as well as just showing your product range.

The companies who can do all this are the ones that are gaining traction and business through the web. Others have opened their fancy showrooms on the backstreets of the internet where few people will visit.

 

Helping INCo get more from their website

Published on August 5, 2011 in Marketing and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

WildWest has been working with INCo-online since the end of 2010. We have designed and built their new website and since then, we’ve been working with INCo to help them develop their online presence and get more traffic to the site, which should in turn help them to grow new business. (www.inco-online.com)

INCo's new site includes a regularly-updated blog

The fundamental for work like this is to measure what kind of traffic levels are being encountered. Only then can you move on to work on improving visibility and enquiries. Fortunately Google Analytics helps to give a very good in-depth view of how a website is being used, what kind of information is being viewed and read, and of course, how effectively the site is being found, through search engines and other means. Once this base level data is established, then it is possible to track developments, make improvements and to see exactly what kind of effects these have (if any) on visitors and their use of the site.

It has always been our view that a website should be viewed as resembling a magazine, rather than a static piece of work like an annual report. An annual report is there for a year, a solid monument to a year of achievement in financial terms. A website – at least one designed to gain traffic – should be updated regularly, added to where appropriate and continually refreshed.

We would also argue that in any dynamic business, a website should include a blog or multiple blogs, and that links to social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and possibly also Facebook should be a part of the promotional package.

INCo work in a crowded field. They use telemarketing and emarketing tools and processes to help IT and Consulting firms to find opportunities to make sales.

INCo's business is about finding sales leads for IT and consulting firms through telemarketing

Now, their site includes all the information that a potential client could want, with frequently asked questions from their 9 years of achievement answered in advance of any enquiries. For new users (and potential new clients), the site helps to ‘position’ the INCo service.

INCo works with companies selling individual products (an ERP system for example) as well as with high-level consulting firms whose goals might be to be involved with the strategic planning of a major company. So there are differences in terms of the level of conversation which might lead to a sales lead developing and also in terms of the likely payback period.

But INCo has a great deal of expertise across the sales spectrum and it was important that this knowledge should be on view to potential new clients. The INCo blog (www.inco-online.com/blog) is the place that INCo can demonstrate expertise and experience in working to produce properly qualified sales leads and provide insights into current market developments. It is also a tool that enables the site to be recognised by search engines as dynamic, regularly added to, and to provide a focus for searches. Our goal is to update the blog with good quality information on a weekly basis.

The blog effectively replaces what a traditional ‘News’ section might have done, but it is structured to be updated and added to easily.

So far, it seems to be working. Traffic to the INCo site is building nicely, the company has a site that demonstrates their expertise in-depth, and the blog associates INCo with issues and developments that will be of interest to existing and potential clients. INCo staff are now using LinkedIn and Twitter and outbound email to provide more impetus to website traffic too.

Next developments will include downloadable white papers on best practice in developing sales and more pages on the site illustrating the companies INCo works with, and the kind of results that can be expected. The INCo service is continually developing and if your company has a sales development or sales lead issue, then please do take a look at what INCo has to offer.

A world of smartphones, iPhones, pads…

Published on July 28, 2011 in Marketing and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Sadly, a website is unlikely to be forever, no matter how much time and trouble it took to build.

Aspen iPhone visual

How will your site look on a smartphone?

That’s true even if you only have a “brochureware” site, but it becomes more obvious when you use some of the other facilities that the web makes possible. Many of our finance and investment clients, for example, like the fact that they can add password-protected areas for groups of investors, even individual areas for single clients. Those need to be continually maintained and brought up to date, especially if they link to outbound email notifications and the like.

The advent of smartphones, iPhones and pads adds a new dimension of complexity. You simply can’t cut yourself off from an audience that wants mobile, 24 x 7 access to information, and if they can’t find it from you, they’ll find it from one of your competitors.

Once upon a time too, websites featured ‘news’ pages, and many still do, but how can they be relevant when Twitter and LinkedIn enable micro – and instant – blogging?

“But what have we got to say?” we have been asked in the past. To which our answer is a huge amount.

Every company needs the oxygen of exposure, and blogging on a  regular basis gets companies noticed and onto short lists for potential business. For one of our clients (www.inco-online.com), blogging is now a key part of their business development strategy, and they should know – selling is their business.

So, if you haven’t revised your website recently, maybe just take another look and see what you’re missing, and how much business might come along with those missing visitors.

SEO? Forget about the tricks. Try working on your content

Published on April 19, 2011 in Design, Marketing and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Whenever we design and build a web site, the question of web traffic comes up.

‘What do you think about SEO? How are we going to get better results in search engines?’

Now, there are some things you should absolutely do to try and improve the likelihood of your site being found, but they aren’t complex and good clean code, clearly labelled, will help.

Beyond that, it seems, there’s widespread belief in something like a Harry Potter solution to the problem. Sadly, on the web as in life, wizardry isn’t the answer. Instead, try hard work and perseverance.

View your website like a magazine, competing for readership, rather than an annual report or a corporate brochure and you’ll be getting on the right track. If people want the content you provide, you’ll get more traffic, more comments on your blog, more engagement with the market, and that’s what you built your web site for, isn’t it?

Three important steps:

- measure traffic all the time. Only when you know what’s happening, can you do something to improve things
- add a blog, and use it to provide advice, help and encouragement, based on your expertise
- keep updating content in the site. Add current testimonials that illustrate how your products or services add value to your clients

Doing these three things continuously will do more than any amount of ‘wizardry’.

Source in Your Office?

Published on February 22, 2011 in Marketing and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Anyone who has been to one of the Source food outlets – there’s one in Chiswick Park, another just outside the railway station in Richmond – will know about their great range of food for lunch. Source not only provide salads, sandwiches, paninis and wraps, but also have a range of hot food at very reasonable prices.

Source in Chiswick Park, now delivering food for office meetings and lunches

Source in Chiswick Park, now delivering food for office meetings and lunches

What people don’t know about Source is that they also provide a wide range of in-office catering options – from food for a breakfast or lunch meeting right up to (if your company is of a sufficient size!) having a tailor-made Source outlet of your own, serving your office staff exclusively.

Source have been working with Wild West Design for some months now, concentrating on improving signage and display, and beginning to publicise the in-office catering options that the company provides.

Now, Wild West is beginning to build a new commerce-enabled website, that will help its many office customers to order food for meetings and lunches direct from their office desks. We’re hoping that the site will be live in a few weeks from now, but until then, you can order by phone or popping in to one of the Source outlets in person!

Phone Source in Richmond on 020 8439 9866

Phone Source in Chiswick Park on 020 8994 1590

IT sales leads? You need INCo

Published on February 4, 2011 in Corporate, Marketing and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
The new INCo website

The new INCo website

INCo are a sales lead generation company, pure and simple. They work – through telemarketing – for all kinds of IT and Consulting organisations. As they point out, there’s no magic to what they do – they apply a straightforward method in a totally methodical way. And that produces results, for big, household name companies and products, and for newer, emerging ones too.

Now, with a smart new website (designed and implemented by WildWest Design), and an active blog that addresses some of the very current sales issues that they confront on behalf of IT and consulting companies, they are ready to take the next steps in their development.

Already, they have taken the INCo method right to the top of organisations in the Times top 250, and working to address C-level exectutives, have proved that they can develop strategic opportunities at very high levels within the largest companies.

INCo's business is sales lead generation for IT and Consulting companies

INCo's business is sales lead generation for IT and Consulting companies

INCo work to provide forecasting data too, and many different types of company (software, services and hardware among them) are finding real benefits from getting real, intelligence-based knowledge of market potential, in both the short- and medium-term.

For more on what INCo offer, visit their new site at www.inco-online.com

Altassets says Stock Spirits for sale – at £1bn

Published on January 19, 2011 in Brand and identity, International and Web. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
Orzel vodka - becoming popular in the USA

Orzel vodka – becoming popular in the USA

According to a report in Altassets magazine, our client Stock Spirits is up for sale, with an asking price of around £1bn. Stock manufactures branded spirits from sites in central Europe, including its best-selling Czysta de Luxe and Orzel vodkas.

Stock is owned by investment company Oaktree Capital, who are apparently keen to cash in on the progress that Stock has been able to make over the past few years.

Stock was just beginning its remarkable transformation when we helped the company revitalise and define its logo and logo useage. We also designed and built ten websites for the various operating companies around Europe, all with a common look and feel, but allowing for regional differences, one of the most important of which was language. Several of the sites allow viewing in two languages, some in three, but everything has that consistent and high-quality look that Stock were aiming for.

We’d like to think that at least some of that £1billion is down to the classy websites we provided for each of the group companies.

Go to www.stockspirits.com for more.