Wordpress Development, Email Marketing Australia, Magento Development, Facebook Design and Development

At DzineClub we work with multiple CMS platforms to make sure that we are in touch with all the latest technologies. We have dedicated staff who work with platforms such as Magento, Joomla, Drupal and WordPress.

Our CMS of choice is WordPress (for websites) and Magento Commerce (for Online stores) and it consists of our bigger team of development. The reasons we pick WordPress  and Magento is because these platforms are easier to install, develop, deploy and improve on.

This means that as a client you get speedier development, lower total cost of ownership, Quicker updates and integrations. If you need a design refresh in a few months, you don’t have to worry about the content, it will just be a matter of putting a new skin on top.

That, a CMS that is a perfect fit today might not be the best in a few years. This was the case with Joomla a few years ago and now WordPress has taken the crown from our prespective.

Some of the things we look for in a CMS before developing are:

• How easy it is to install
• How easy is it to update
• How easy will it be for the client to use
• How easy is it to put a skin/theme on top
• How far can we push the flexibility of the CMS
• Can the CMS handle meta data and multiple content types (pages, posts, news, whitepapers, images, events, videos)
• How does the CMS handle SEO straight out of the box
• How easy is it to integrate new technology onto the platform
• How does the CMS handle multiple editors and their roles
• Is there a defined roadmap and will it stick around in the future
• Is there a good development base and are there lots of users who support this platform
• What is the security behind the CMS

Based on this, we make a recommendation for a CMS for a client.

We just came across this infograph by the guys at Devious Media on the 3 open source platforms. Our summary follows after the graphic based on the infograph.  Please note that we wont be discussing Joomla as we don’t see a definite future with Joomla.

Drupal:

• More used by Heavy/Large Enterprise companies
• More used by complicated companies
• Decent Developer community
• Good Client List

WordPress:

• Faster Updates
• Twice as many updates than Drupal/Joomla
• Twice as many plugins and themes
• Larger number of developer and user adoption (upto 10 times as much)
• More social
• More Cost Effective
• Lower Total cost of ownership
• Stronger SEO straight out of the box
• Easier to learn to use

Summary

We recommend using WordPress for most sites and have worked with a large number of sites where we have customised WordPress to work as per business needs. Please view our list of sites we have customised for WordPress here:

http://www.dzineclub.com/blog/2011/01/wordpress-development-wordpress-design/

WordPress for Medium to Large Clients

We still recommend using WordPress for Medium to Large Clients because of the level of customisation that can be done in WordPress and how quickly it can be changed and new plugins being added. What Drupal can do for such size clients can easily be accommodated using Plugins in WordPress.

WordPress or Drupal for Heavy Enterprise Clients

For sites such as the main Government site, user payments and memberships, forums, connections to ERP platforms, WordPress is probably not the right option right now. The best solution would be to customise Drupal or use a paid CMS Platform. However if you are developing your site in 6 months or a year’s time, WordPress should be a worthy competitor.

Have you got a website that you are looking at developing and are not sure which CMS is the best to use?

Flick us an email at info@dzineclub.com and we’ll recommend a solution based on our expertise.

We have just launched a new design for Bolwell RV YouTube channel. The new design incorporates everything that is amazing about The Edge and also has a url back to the website for anyone who has come across the video by searching for it or by referral.

We have just launched a Facebook Fan Page for Bolwell RV. The Bolwell Edge is a beautifully designed, tough luxury touring caravan that allows you to travel outback Australia in comfort. We built a fan page that shows the best features of the Edge through pictures and Videos and allows a Facebook Fan to contact Bolwell RV through Facebook.

Bolwell Facebook Fan Page Design

We have built a custom fan page with multiple tabs which makes it easier to show more content on the page. The four tabs on the page allows the user to go through the main parts of the Facebook Fan Page.

Other features are a “email subscription form” and a contact us form that can be filled directly on Facebook.

To stay ahead of the Social media and technology DzineClub is formally opening its blog posts to Facebook comments.

You are now able to comment on any blog posts using Facebook. Please note that you need to be already logged into Facebook to do this.

To see how it works, just go down to the bottom of this post, where it says Facebook Comments and comment away

Expanding on our list of digital services offering and the fact that its all about mobiles now, we are offering SMS Marketing and SMS Keywords features.

So here is a the list of offerings

Bulk SMS Services

We can set up an send out bulk sms. All the SMS have an opt-out clause (obviously) and can help promote events or inform user about emergencies.

Web to SMS Service

We can also enable web to sms service, where a visitor to your website puts in their Mobile number and they get a SMS reply set up by you.

SMS Keyword Service

We are also able to set up SMS Keywords, where if your visitor or subscriber SMSes a keyword for example “abc” to a number, they get an automated SMS back, or it records their number on to a database.

Need any SMS Services, get in touch with us at info@dzineclub.com

What are Triggered Email Dialogs / Nurturing Programs

While email marketing is all about sending content to a group of subscribers at one time, a nurturing program is about sending smaller bits of content to users over time. These smaller bits most likely are not running at the same time.

Where can you use Triggered Email Dialogs/ Nurture Email Programs

Nurturing Dialogs are mostly useful for trainings, events, product training, service training and date based events. These are not useful for company news and updates.

You can use it for:

• Sending a series of 3 or 4 emails to your subscriber when they join the newsletter and educating them .
• When a customer buys your product/service you can send a series of emails that train your customer on using the producr or the service.
• Send Happy birthday email to a subscriber (if you have their birth date)
• Send product renewal emails to your customer a month before their subscription expires.
• Send feedback surveys to a customer 7 days after purhcase of a product/services.

Demo of a Dzinemail Nurturing Program

Here is a demo of how a nurturing program works.

To view the demo, just enter your email address on the form below and we will send you a series of 4 emails talking about a nurturing program. Here is how they will come to you:

Enter your email to view the demo

• A welcome email instantly after you subscribe
• Second email after an hour
• Third email after an hour of the second email
• Fourth email after an hour of the third email

DzineMail Nurturing Program Demo

This can be your subscription form, or product information form, event form.. you get the point

Mobile Devices are taking over

500,000 android devices are being activated every day.  Mobile brings a new way of interacting with data and viewing information wherever you are. It’s easy to use and get online.  The problem with current websites are that they are not made for mobile devices however mobile usage is growing exponentially every day.

Our Mobile Website Development Methodology

We develop a site that works both on iPhone and Android.

This is how we work with mobile website development.

• We research if you need one for start. Everyone will need a mobile site at some stage but you might be best waiting 3 months.
• If you can leverage a mobile website, we don’t want to copy your exact website. Mobile users will have different requirements than normal web users. You want to put specific converting copy in mobiles. So we will find out the best sections of your site to turn into mobiles.
• We create wireframes and send it to you
• We build the site and test it
• We finalise the site and go live

Mobile website Platforms – iPhone and Android

We develop websites on HTML5 and CSS3 which works into both iPhone and Android. So our mobiles websites are platform independent. The websites will look great in both iPhone and Android.

Mobile Websites with WordPress

If you have a website with a wordpress CMS we can utilise the existing mobile themes that natively work with wordpress or we can build a custom one that works with the existing data that you have with wordpress.

CMS Driven Mobile Content

Depending on whether or not you have a CMS, you might leverage with a custom CMS created specifically for you to improve your content.

Mobile Website Gallery

Here are some of the mobile websites that we have built in the last month.

Pointpal Mobile Website

MonstaG Mobile Landing Page

DzineClub Wodpress Mobile Blog

What is QR code

A QR or a “Quick Response” code is a black and white square code that contains information such as a link, product, website etc. A mobile phone with a camera and a QR reader will be able to read the code and display the information on the site.

Who uses QR codes

QR codes are actually a really good technology but hasn’t picked up as well in Australia, but is everywhere in Japan, Korea and picking up in very well in USA.

QR Code Testing at an Event

We are testing QR Codes for one of our clients tonight and will update the results when they come up today.

QR Code Videos

We all know that we now look at videos more than read any text so here are some videos that discuss QR Codes.

We have just created a widget that shows the total value of products being sold through our DIY Online Store platform.

The widgets are updated in real time and as clients add new stores to the platform or more products the values will add up.  So feel free to visit our site at any stage and look at the updated running total.

The widgets come up in three spots

Home Page Widget

Side Bar Widgets

What is a Bounce in Email Marketing

Bounce means that your email has returned (bounced back), the server where it was sent rejected it for a reason and sent it back to you. A bounce means that your email was not delivered. There are two kinds of Bounces

A Hard Bounce (can’t deliver email at all)

This is your more logical reason for a bounce, that the email address is invalid or doesn’t exist. Reason for a hard bounce can be

• The subscriber has left the company (and their email has been removed from the server – not redirected but removed)
• The domain has changed or removed (the company has changed their domain or stopped using their domain)
• The email address is spelt incorrectly

A Soft Bounce (can’t deliver email at that time)

Soft Bounces happen when there the email could not be delivered at that time. The email address is still valid but couldn’t get the email at that time. This could be because

• The email is too large than the servers size limit
• The subscriber’s mailbox is full and cannot accept any more emails at that time.
• The recipient mail server is temporarily down

 

How does DzineMail DIY Email Marketing platform handle Bounces

Dzinemail handles the two bounces separately

• Hard Bounces are automatically put into bounce list and not sent any more emails
• Soft Bounces are not sent any more emails if they have bounced 3 times in a row. Dzinemail does this since this is very unlikely for normal email addresses and there is no point in sending out emails to someone who cannot receive emails.

How can you Reduce Bounces?

Obviously, there is no point in sending emails to subscribers who have moved on or can’t receive your emails. Depending on your list, you can expect for it to reduce by 10-30% over a year by purely bounces. It is very important to make sure that you are cleaning your data as well as bringing new subscribers to your list to make up for the cut.

Make sure all of your data is opt-in

Obvious but we have to say it. Make sure your data is all opt-in. So many times we see clients trying to send their email to the whole world and that just means you are paying more. Only communicate with users who want to hear from you.

Want to make it even more focused? make it a double-optin list

Clean up the email address mistakes

Hotmail.com.au, yahooo.com, gmail.com.au etc  Is there a ! in place of a @. Make sure you go through your list quickly before and after the email to make sure that there are not email address mistakes. Don’t rely on your subscribers to give you the right information.

Follow up with a phone call

Depending on how big your list is, or how big your average order value is, this might be a good strategy. If you see an email address as bounced, get someone to give them a call and get their right email address. It will build up the relationship.

Domain Delivery Reports

Sometimes some servers block your emails. Happens to everyone

We once managed email for a huge company, who had paid subscribers but one of the ISPs blocked the emails. This meant that the paid subscribers couldn’t get their emails. This popped up in one of the domain reports that there were about 25 users on that domain but no opens and clicks on the domain. We had a quick chat with the ISP, threatened them that we’ll ask our members to change ISPs and they enabled the emails.

Always keep an eye out for the domains and if you see any irregularity in domains. If you see a lot of bounces under the same domain, there might be something wrong.

Check your email for spam

Make sure you check your email for spam before you send it out. Every time you send out an email you should at least get a spam report on it. Sometimes things combine to push you just over the line. Over time, if you have spammy emails, your emails will start bouncing.

Need an email marketing platform with capability and a team with the smarts?

Contact us for a pricing. We work with clients all over the world in email marketing.