January 2009
Family firm Simply Inspired announce the launch of their new web site, built for them by Silkmoth. Simply Inspired is making major inroads into the the supply of supplies and amenities to hotels and small independently owned guest houses. This is soap, shower gel and dental kits to you and me.
Sarah Glynn, Managing Director of Simply Inspired said "What we're doing is offering very high quality products with environmentally friendly credentials to hotels and guest houses throughout the UK. These products are often only found in the larger chains of hotels. We are supplying those larger chains but also want to make the same quality of product available to smaller businesses as well."
Keith Jones, Silkmoth's Managing Director, said, "we were staggered when Sarah told us how big this market is. The Internet is a natural way to serve such a large and diverse market. The site will allow on-line ordering and the orders will be automatically picked packed and despatched to the customer providing a fast, reliable and very cost-effective service for Simply Inspired clients. This sort of project is exactly the sort of thing that Silkmoth excels at - we're delighted to be working with Sarah's team on this project."
The web site is now live. Visit Simply Inspired's Hotel Supplies site
Silkmoth Day 2008 will bring together our customers and business partners for a day of information exchange.
Our goal is to help everyone who attends learn something new that will help them to use the web even better.
You'll hear from Silkmoth clients how they've used the web in their businesses. Every business is unique, and our clients operate in widely differing ways. But at the same time, an idea in one business can quite often be valuable in quite a different business. When you hear what other Silkmoth customers do, you'll very likely spot an idea that you could use in your own situation.
We partner with a number of companies, and we've invited some of them to share their experience too. From marketing strategy to creative design, they'll be showing how the web influences the work that they do, and providing ideas for developing your use of the web.
And of course, Silkmoth will be letting you know about current trends and techniques - and celebrating the successes of our clients.
This is the programme for Silkmoth Day 2008.
Keith Jones / Silkmoth
Keith will explain the principles behind the Customer Driven Improvement process that Silkmoth has recently started to carry out. He will summarise the results of the exercise, outline some of the changes that have been made as a result and discuss the expected benefits for customers.
Michelle Aldous / Constructing Better Health
The goal of Michelle's organisation is to improve the health of 2.5 million construction workers - and keep 186,000 employers, several trade unions, and the Government happy too. The web is at the heart of making making such a massive undertaking happen, and Michelle will discuss some of the challenges and how the vision will be realised.
Andrew Preece / Hitwise
Hitwise provides 1,400 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers. The power of competitive intelligence on the web will be revealed using real data in a retail sector case study.
James Kelly / ITIS Holdings Matthew Goldsbrough / Goldsbrough Consulting
Leading traffic information provider ITIS Holdings is expanding rapidly overseas. Since late 2007, the international marketing strategy has been web-centred, to support the activities of a small international business development team across five continents.
Trevor Budd / Timpson Locksmiths
So, when somebody does you can be fairly sure they need one. Timpson Locksmiths' marketing strategy is to maximise their exposure across the touch points customers turn to in an emergency. On a cost per lead basis the Web easily outperforms more traditional media. They are now experimenting with a highly targeted Adwords campaign and the early indicators look good!
Jenny Norton / Huet Aminto
Online advertising works a treat! This case study demonstrates how the web works when embraced as an integral part of the marketing mix and emphasizes the importance of analysis and effective targeting.
Diana Hastie / Country House Wedding Venues
Ten years ago, Diana started a business at her kitchen table, setting up a network of privately owned wedding venues. Using the web as the primary way of creating demand, that business has grown to a point where many thousands of inquiries flood in every year. Diana will describe some of the challenges that have been overcome in the journey, and give some thoughts on what might happen next.
It's easy to spend money on Google Adwords - but much more difficult to spend it in a way that makes money for your business in a consistent and measurable way. Silkmoth currently manages over a million pounds of Adwords spending by Silkmoth customers. Keith will discuss the techniques used in monitoring and optimising Google Adwords campaigns for Silkmoth customers, to ensure that they get the results they need.
Matthew Goldsbrough / Goldsbrough Consulting
A company's website used to be something of an afterthought, once other marketing programmes were in motion. Today, that's flipped on its head, and your web strategy should be at the heart of your integrated marketing.
Ed Beattie & Paul Wilson / Through Creative
When it comes to great web design, less is definitely more. Paul and Ed will share with you some tips for keeping things simple and show how this really can improve the user experience.
Carl Dean / Silkmoth
Google Analytics is running on the websites of every Silkmoth customer, collecting valuable data on how those sites are used. Carl will show how to make sure you're not blinded by all the numbers, and help you to focus on key measures that will help you to tune your website's performance in your business.
01 October 2008
On the 1st October 2008, WBB Minerals, one of the world's leading industrial mineral companies, adopted the name of their parent company Sibelco.
The new WBB Minerals/Sibelco UK website, designed by Silkmoth partners Northstar Brand Communications of Manchester was launched on 1st October to coincide with the company's rebrand. Based on Silkmoth's successful Wirenet™ web platform the site offers full content management.
Silkmoth's Managing Director, Keith Jones, commented "the Sibelco website is one we're really proud of. Working with our partners at Northstar we've produced a beautiful looking website with some striking photography."
29 September 2008
Silkmoth have added a new eCommerce website to their portfolio. Designed to sell wooden sheds, metal sheds, garden furniture and accessories, GardenShedsAndFurniture.com has been designed to provide extensive product information and beautiful photography to make the decision to buy an easy one for visitors.
Denise Sherwood, Silkmoth's Development Leader, commented on the new site:
"By analysing the competition we realised that very few websites in this market do justice to the products on sale. With high quality imagery, alternative angle shots and a zoom facility for every product we believe the products on offer will sell themselves. Coupled with very competitive pricing we think GardenShedsAndFurniture.com has a rosy future."
23 September 2008
As businesses outgrow their accommodation so, occasionally, do their servers.
Yesterday at 11:00am Silkmoth's servers became silent for the first time in three years. An hour later they were re-homed and up and running again selling all manner of things from tyres to labelling machines.
Carl Dean, Silkmoth's Technical Director commented on the need to move servers:
"Essentially we've outgrown our current accommodation. We need more equipment because of the growth of our business and that of our customers' websites. It make sense for us to keep everything together and the space we had just wasn't enough any more." "Many customers have asked us why we didn't do the move in the middle of the night or at the weekend. It's quite simple really. Like all small to medium sized businesses we rely on partners and suppliers. Had something gone wrong in the middle of the night it would have been been virtually impossible to rally the appropriate troops. For instance, had we dropped one of the servers, and it does happen, we wouldn't be able to buy a new one until business hours." "As it happened we planned the move meticulously and it all went like clockwork. We've now got plenty of room for further growth and don't anticipate another move for at least another three years."
"Essentially we've outgrown our current accommodation. We need more equipment because of the growth of our business and that of our customers' websites. It make sense for us to keep everything together and the space we had just wasn't enough any more."
"Many customers have asked us why we didn't do the move in the middle of the night or at the weekend. It's quite simple really. Like all small to medium sized businesses we rely on partners and suppliers. Had something gone wrong in the middle of the night it would have been been virtually impossible to rally the appropriate troops. For instance, had we dropped one of the servers, and it does happen, we wouldn't be able to buy a new one until business hours."
"As it happened we planned the move meticulously and it all went like clockwork. We've now got plenty of room for further growth and don't anticipate another move for at least another three years."
The elves are back...