Make a Splash! eMarketing proposal

What we’re going to do

Market the course via electronic media, the internet. Creating a two way communication between us and the consumer (potential consumer).

How are we going to do it

Out bound e-mail marketing using a cold e-mail campaign.

Strengths

• Global reach, the e-mail can reach anyone in the world that has an internet connection
• Properly planned and effective it can reach the right targets faster and more efficiently than traditional marketing strategies
• Personalisation, we can effectively market the e-mail by knowing the costumer profile of the recipients
• Lets us reach our targets instantly, many people use e-mail on their Mobile’s and PDA’s allowing us instant access to their attention even if they are not ‘in the office’
• The consumer will only be a few clicks away from entering our website, instant access to where we wish to send them
• Interactive possibilities, enable us to use a graphic, video, we could send the target anything that we would feel interest them

Weaknesses

• Presented badly could make the e-mail viral and kill the concept of the campaign immediately
• Our reputation is on the line every time we communicate
• Learning the best method to communicate via e-marketing is not a simple task, it has been done for years
• The design of the e-mail may look different on different systems, devices. Technical and delivery issues may hamper communication
• The results of the campaign need to be measured by web analytics.

Mini Learning Contract

Learning Objective

PayPal payment processing and website integration – Basic

 

Methodology

Most of my learning came through sourcing and reading material available on the internet in either PDF and HTML format, I also practised the techniques alongside reading the material to fully enhance my practical knowledge of what I had learnt.

Resources

https://cms.paypal.com/cms_content/US/en_US/files/developer/PP_WebsitePaymentsStandard_IntegrationGuide.pdf, https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_home&country_lang.x=true, http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/order/order-21.html, http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/168-Credit-Card-Processing-How-It-All-Works

Results

Payment processing is how money moves between individuals, the consumer purchasing or donating on a website and the merchant receiving the payment.

These are the primary parts within the processing network, in-between these are financial institutions the customers bank, merchants bank and the payment processor. There are two services that interlink the network, the Payment Processing Service that connect the individuals to the financial institutions, and the Gateway this is the data that moves back and forth between all parties.

The process between the network works in these steps,

1. The Consumer inputs credit card information to make the purchase on the Merchants website and submits the transaction
2. The Merchants website sends the Consumer information to the Payment Processing Service
3. The Payment Processing Service connects to the processor and delivers the Consumers information
4. The Processor sends the information to the Consumers banks
5. The Consumers bank verifies the account information and checks whether there are sufficient funds to make the payment and then sends the authorization or declination back to the Processor
6. The Processor sends the results back to the Payment Processing Service
7. The Payment Processing Service then sends the results to the Merchants website and website programming decides whether to accept or decline the transaction based upon these

Upon authorization similar steps are take but involve the transactions to be settled, the money is transferred by the processor from the customers bank and deposited into the merchants bank. PayPal acts as the processor, payments processing service and supplies the information gateway within this network.

Integration of PayPal and the payment process on a website is done by creating HTML buttons and forms,

• Buy Now Buttons that accept payments for single items at one time
• Donate Buttons that accept payments for donation and contributions
• Subscribe Buttons that let customers sign up for subscriptions to goods or services
• Automatic Billing Buttons that let customers sign up for automatic payment plans
• Instalment Plan Buttons that enable customers sign up for instalment plans that collect payments from customers over time
• The PayPal Shopping Cart that allow merchants accept payments for multiple items at one time

These can be generated simply by using PayPal’s website or customised by using HTML code, the consumer interacts with the HTML forms and hidden HTML input variables that are placed in the website when clicking the payment button.

The hidden input variables are what decide the type of button that will be created, from pricing to the type of button i.e <input type=”hidden name=”cmd” value=”_xclick> would be used within the form to create a buy now button.

These variables give the merchant a chance to give the consumer more option while purchasing a product, for instance the consumer can determine the size or colour of a product before purchasing while still using the same button to activate the form.

 

Conclusion

I found my learning contract experience infuriating to start off with, I feel I was looking for specific’s and my targets were over-estimated instead of entering with a clear mind and taking in as much as possible within the available time. I found researching and implementing techniques in smaller pieces that knowledge became knowing and a formula that I shall use in future studies.

 

On Route…

Arriving at the half-way point of the year and a quarter of the way through the whole course, time to look a back and evaluate my performance on the FdA Web Design ‘Journey’ so far. A chance to reflect on how, why and what I have learned in the space of 6 months.

The early stages of the course were always going to be the hardest for me and before I knew it the work had flooded in thick and fast. Work-Related Learning 1 module was first up, my non-existent understanding of the industry along with my GCSE academic skills last practised around 7 years before enrolment, I felt had already put me behind the rest of the class.

The only way I was going to achieve anything in this module was to get the right answers, providing me with the information in which to write a report. The research I did for this module was mainly on interview techniques, what questions to ask and then adapting them to be able to pass the criteria for my report.

This is the only mark that I have received back so far on the course in which I had earned a pass, although this came with a slight scare of a referral due to my word count. All in all the most pleasing thing is that I know if I could do it all again in the same time I would achieve a far greater mark.

The Personal Professional Development 1 module was up next and the deadlines came thick and fast. This was not a task I would shy away from it was one I tried to embrace, a way in which to practise my writing skills. PPD 1 gave me the chance to think more in-depth about how I learn and what I can achieve by using necessary skill sets.

The first really turning point in my education occurred while researching for my Where I am Now entry. Reading and completing the Honey & Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire helped me to understand myself and how I could improve. It showed me the thought process I go through while studying techniques and information. It helped to see the course in a new light, the way it is structured, the importance of the modules and how I must interlink all the principles and theory I together.

The Typography module is where I felt I made the most visible progression, I feel looking back that this is where I found a method for creating design. Not referring back to my notes while creating the design’s was the missing link in what I was doing. For the first 3 creative briefs I felt the basis of my designs weren’t really revolved around typography I was only choosing the typefaces to help create a feeling for the design without using the principles I should have been working by.

Interface Design was an area that I wanted to succeed most, creating my first web-site to the highest standard possible was everything. The chance to mould everything I had learnt so far on the course together and input my own feeling towards my hero within the design. To capture the true emotions and display them not just in writing but within a website design was something I felt capable of and wanted to achieve.

I wanted this project to be able to make user’s stop, think and feel what a true hero he really was. Taking on-board the information that is displayed within the context enhancing his reputation further than just the local community.

Hopefully I have achieved this and when the site goes live I can show it to his closest friends, family who helped me produce the content and make them proud. This would be the greatest reward for me.

Only I can measure how well I really did in each module on the course by analysing what I did, I wish to achieve at least a mark of 55+ for each of the remaining module’s.

Measurable areas in which to work to;

• I wish to achieve at least a mark of 55+ for each of the remaining module’s
• Look into possibilities of taking on work before the semester is out
• Improve my pitching and presentation techniques
• Actively seek feedback for each piece of work I produce

Where I am going

I feel that the direction I’m heading has many different avenues and not one defined route or destination. I cannot foresee my ‘end goal’ just multiple short-term targets at which to aim for. I believe my ambition and determination to understand and apply the working, is key in setting these targets. Not having a future goal or aspiring to earn rewards may not be logical but in the long-term will help me to create opportunities.

I do not wish to become motivated by the money aspect, money is a reward that will come through personal success. I thought coming onto the course that it was for the money factor but I never pursued a football career for the money, I wanted to become the best. The thrill of achieving what is sometimes not expected. Not my personal expectation because I still ‘dream’, these expectation’s have always been a measure of people’s opinions.

Frustration is what fuels my ambition, I constantly analyse and criticise my own working. I get frustrated with my writing skills, design work, the programs I am working with and most importantly myself. This frustration helps me understand what techniques and skills I need to develop, after all the programs are designed specifically and I need to be able to adapt to work with that program.

Key to developing business strategies and structures that I have been learning and plotting, I need to be able to possess a basic knowledge of how to adapt the necessary design skills. In doing this I can try to mould together each different aspect within the whole design of a website. Understanding the way different user’s interact between a network it will help me decide not just how to portray and present the content of website, but how the design keeps traffic within it.

As of present I have not received feedback on the work I have so far produced. This is not a bad situation for me, as long as I continue to assess and try to improve on the work I have already accomplished. After all the mark I am given will only reflect my ability at the time of submission. I must look for other sources of feedback on the work I am doing, not just from professionals but my friends and family and how they react to the content I create. Understanding their reaction will help me judge how content can be written to a wider audience.

Everything I wish to achieve will go hand in hand with the effort I put in, not just the work but understanding how and why I should have made it better. I currently limit my ideas to what I think I can produce, by consistently adapting techniques I believe I will finally be able to process the work I intend to produce. The dedication that I put into this work will determine my future.

The importance on adapting these skills is my current target. If I can create great design’s but not be able to then implement it into a web context, then the website’s I build independently would not meet my own standards and I hope to design for infinite audience. Different ways in which people see, react, and understand content will be the key to achieving this goal.

I believe that inventing a job is always better than looking for a job, and I don’t think I have ever looked for a job, more of just a financial aid. The more I interact, pitch and understand feedback with myself and others, and even the Internet gives me the chance not just to find but create opportunities. I don’t limit my criteria to just Web design, but compare with people I know who are architects, programmers and artist’s most of whom don’t realise their full potential and how to use their expertise create.

To summarise my short-term Targets;

• Become more driven, to never actually see anything as completed
• Continuous evaluation of my own work and working techniques
• Implementing design and business strategies towards my own ideas
• Researching techniques and create my own by manipulating existing ones
• Keep analysing my goal’s and possibilities for the future
• Developing knowledge of theories in colour and typography
• Research and practise HTML/CSS knowledge as it is the platform on which my work will be produced
• Keep developing my sketchbook skills, when solving design problems this will help me map my ideas

Where I am now

I feel like FdA web design is now only part of my journey, giving me a foundation in which to build knowledge. I have a developed my ability to structure my time around lectures in order to learn before and after they have taken place. The journey is now my career in an industry that doesn’t have time limits, in terms of design their restraints. The limits are my own.

I try to look at deadlines not as a limit, but something to surpass and then expand on, continuing the cycle in which I can learn. I try to expand my skills by evaluating the reading that I am doing, enabling me to understand why the top designers are the best at what they do, their writing is a way in which they express how they do it.

Andy Rutledge is a designer who’s power of words can make other people think, then create their own opinion. I am trying to develop the very skills he talks about. Putting these skills into practice has enabled me to gain practical experience and adapt his methods in order to make them effective for the way I work.

These skills make up the skillset standards, a number of intellectual peoples opinions in expressing the methods they used to become a great designer. To feel it necessary to understand all the content they portray and the ways in which they choose it to be displayed.

I want to have the ability to possess techniques to utilise structures in which the user can be manipulated by graphic into having opinions. Maybe by doing this I will be able to create images of emotions to a user, without ever even knowing who they are.

I believe I have been learning and developing my own techniques from using Peter Honey and Alan Mumford’s 69 page booklet. I am beginning to understand the skills in which I utilise well but more importantly the ones I need to develop. I assessed the ways Honey and Mumford worked including; the language, the letter typhase FF Din, and the ways in which they had used it. Also considered the amount of white spacing, lack of colour and images.

Hopefully, I have begun to understand the goals of the booklet, essentially why it was printed and what it set out to achieve. I am beginning to see everything in a design context. The internet is the most complicated structure of information being maintained, in a constantly adapting environment. There is no way of predicting this environment.

Continuous Personal Professional Development is imperative in order to constantly adapt and progress in an ever changing environment.

Analysing, building prototypes then producing, the product is always a test as there will always be some-one analysing it. Ultimately this is the user. I wish to view my work in the same way in which I learn best, blanking out my opinion’s, adapting my mind-set to not question or agree, but to understand and learn.

I have developed my ability to understand the methods in which content is displayed. While using ‘InDesign’ I look at the program as a structure, The grid’s within which I am creating this content, help me to see my writing. I try mapping images in my head of how I can design the language within a web-site.

Continuous Professional development enables me to constantly build on my C.V and therefore improve each time I learn and implement a new skill. To me this is almost as good as scoring a goal in front of 1000’s of fans. I am beginning to see the bigger picture, creating my individual of working in order to become a top designer. In a business context I have looked at journal’s, social media and SEO in ways to create my own corporate identity.

I found this possible to do this whilst reading Aaron Corby’s PPD entries, the link within my own wordpress page took me to his own portfolio. I now feel that if I can plan structures before I even attempt to create content, then I will be more effective in meeting the goals I set.

I’m trying to organise everything I learn from the FdA Web Design course, into ways of utilising it in a business context. The ways I can use journal’s and social media to create my own professional image. I could create a link between social media my website design and journal writing. Couldn’t I?

Where I Have Come From

After lots of questioning myself in terms of what I wanted to be and to achieve, I made a late, almost spontaneous decision to move home to Barnsley. The first time since leaving school at 16, almost 7 years. I felt the need to be re-skilled was what was necessary for me to work towards my future and to achieve my goals.

Upon arriving back in England I began searching for courses within the local area. I had already decided that a computer based course was what I was going to be looking to get into. Of the list of computer courses available the FdA in Web Design course at Wakefield College shone through and I picked up the phone straight away.

This was almost a sub-conscious decision; the perfect opportunity that I had been looking for. I didn’t consult anybody as to whether to take the course or do any research on what I was getting myself into. It was not long before the prospect of undertaking this challenge had sparked my desire to become a web designer.

The interview process I went through to get onto the course was very difficult for me. My confidence of actually being accepted on the course was very low, I had just left a professional career that I had pursued from as far back as I can remember. It was a decision that was both emotionally and mentally straining. The prospect of not being accepted, rejected felt almost real.

I’ve always had a strong interest in technology and the Internet. I had sort, of a basic knowledge about what was involved in creating a web site but this was very slim.

Graphic design is one subject that stuck with me as something that I enjoyed during my time at high school. I can remember it as a lesson that I could interact with and almost saw as a hobby rather than work.

But after being away from formal education for such a long time, I felt that I had been left behind and would not be able to achieve the standards required. I’ve always been comfortable and confident in most situations, I cannot recall many times that I have worried or actually thought about how people judged or perceived me.

The writing and structuring of an assignment was the most worrying factor for me. Being given the task of writing a personal statement to be accepted on the course was a real test. I really surprised myself and felt that it was the best that I could do, but the feeling that it wouldn’t be good enough to meet the standards needed was still true.

On being accepted the fears had vanished, the reassurance that I can produce good work was overwhelming. When walking into college for my first day, I had no worries of what was to come. I just knew that I was ready and willing to take everything head on.