Congratulations to our latest recruit Ruth on her phenominal achievement.

Ruth recently completed the London Marathon, all 26.3 miles in 4Hrs 22minutes. Coming from someone who failed at their first atempt to run such a distance, believe me this is a great achievement.

If this was not enough, Ruth also was snapped by a photographer and found here picture spread over the front cover of the Monday’s Daily Mail.

Had I known I would have doubled her sponsorship money and painted a bda logo on her forhead.

Any PR is good PR and all that.

When we are given a blank canvass to design HTML emails we take into consideration the following:

Preview Pane
We optimise the HTML template design for the top 2-4 inches as there is only this much space to tell the story and persuade the viewers to open our email instead of just previewing it.
75% of users use a vertical preview pane, 25% use a horizontal preview pane. To accommodate both sets of users we design the HTML email template messages so that it displays the most important call to actions and key content in the top left of the message.

Images
We do not use more than 30% ratio of images to text as most ISP and spam filter emails with will block emails with a higher ratio of images.
Up to 45% of viewers may have images turned off or blocked in their email client so we design the layout to focus the readers eyes on the key content of the message and also include image tags with full descriptions to encourage readers to download the images.

Width
We keep our HTML email width under 600 pixels to avoid users having to scroll to read the message.

Fonts
We use only universally supported fonts as non-standard fonts not supported by the reader’s computer may seriously affect the design layout.

Content
There are two distinct audiences, skimmers and readers. Readers are not a problem but skimmers will look at the top of the message, headlines and subheads and key bold phases throughout the message. We design the message, making proper use of bold face type style, so we can pull the reader down through the message and still deliver relevant content quickly.
Where possible we design the email to cover the main bullet points and use links to drive the viewer to your website. We encourage clients to include as many links as possible. Emails with many links will get a higher click rate than those with less links.
We include a text version of the email within the HTML so that it can be read by non-HTML email packages.

Scripts
We do not use scripts such as JavaScript as some applications view it as a security risk and will block messages. Instead we drive readers to a webpage where dynamic components are easily rendered.

HTML Code
We make sure our HTML code always conforms to W3C Standards. HTML code not conforming to WC3 can cause delivery and rendering issues.

bda speak out at an “Understanding Digital Conference” held by Williams Lea the print management giants.

As a result of some of bda’s ground breaking case studies we were asked by the Print Sourcing Director of Williams Lea to present our opinions and experiences in all aspects of digital technology.

The focus of our presentation was the utilisation of digital print to deliver one-to-one DM campaigns, and print-on-demand solutions (hence ‘now, now, now, now, now!’).

All clients want to add value, improve ROI, provide better response rates, better utilise their data and reduce wastage, but many don’t know how; we were there to illustrate how this is being delivering today!

We presented examples of; one-to-one direct mail where response rates hit 37%; an asset portal allowing personalised marketing collateral to be created online; and e-collateral, our print on demand solution delivering targeted, bespoke brochures minimising waste, eradicating bulk print and storage.

The 65 strong audience of account managers and directors posed questions on; the financial model; the effect of increased unit costs and how we are providing real ROI; deployment timescales and pitfalls in delivering such solutions; as well as where we see the print industry in the future.

To accompany our presentation we produced a personalised digital guide, swatch book and PURL allowing all delegates to download their own copy of the presentation and access additional information… So we got and idea of exactly how interested the audience was!

bda, always Strategic, Creative and Measured.

Back in mid-2007, Siemens Enterprise Communications made the decision to get away from mass-produced print; a decision that’s now helped them to engage customers one-to-one but also one that’s helping them to dramatically reduce their environmental impact.

Siemens Enterprise Communications wanted to provide printed collateral that spoke to customer’s needs and prompted dialogue, rather than pump out generalised product brochures in response to enquiries. Stockpiling brochures was also creating storage and logistical issues as well as creating huge waste.

Siemens Enterprise Communications appointed bda, specialists in the development of integrated campaigns for the telecoms/IT industry, to come up with a practical solution. Having seen the success of previous one-to-one campaigns developed by the agency, Siemens Enterprise Communications adopted the idea of personalised solution brochures with variable content as created by bda.

Siemens Enterprise Communications was keen not to “sell at” its decision maker target audience, but rather to identify business concerns faced by decision makers before presenting them with product solutions.

bda invented e-collateral, a method for Siemens Enterprise Communications to generate bespoke solution brochures on demand, available in either PDF or printed form.

Siemens Enterprise Communications drives enquiries to a website ecollateralfromsiemens.co.uk where they can access areas that relate directly to one of four operational issues: Grow Your Business, Reduce Operational Cost, Manage your Assets More Effectively, and Achieve Corporate Excellence. The user simply clicks on their area of interest, to then be guided through a short series of tick box enquiries that relate to more specific interests; this in turn drives the content choice for inclusion in the brochure.

The system, developed by bda and piloted in October 2007 in three languages, UK, US Englisha and German, fulfils the broad objective of providing bespoke content, but also offers a customer-friendly way to gather data which turn feeds Siemens Enterprise Communications’ own CRM. Depending on the areas of interested earmarked by the customer, brochure content can vary between everything from case studies to illustrations, with paragraphs of solution-oriented text tactically inserted to blend with the overall message.

“Both parties had a baptism of fire mostly due to the complexity of the variable solution sets available,” says Sharon Scott Global Marketing Manager at Siemens. “But we needed a way to present our portfolio in way that makes sense to the customer. E-collateral meets that objective perfectly.”

Going a step further to engage Siemens Enterprise Communications’ broad customer base, bda plan to implement programming which allows the tone of language used to vary subtly, according to the level of contact making the enquiry, industry sector or company size.

As for output - Siemens Enterprise Communications own research indicates that despite the demand for instant, downloadable information, many senior C-level contacts make decisions on choice of supplier based on receipt of a printed brochure. Enquirers from the e-collateral site are therefore given a choice of receiving a PDF version of their personalised brochure via email, or ordering a printed version online.

Delivery of the pdf version is instant with a printed copy taking just days to arrive.

As bda is affiliated to a well-equipped communications group which includes a print production arm, it has huge access to fulfillment options. An online request triggers the generation of high quality digitally printed items that are despatched immediately.

The environmental angle? Less waste, the eradication of bulk print, less space needed for storage, less lorries on the road.

“Looking around our industry there’s nothing like e-collateral in B2B areas,” says Sharon. “It’s early days yet, but working with bda, we will certainly increase knowledge of customer needs and product demand. Better still, it helps Siemens meet its commitment to minimise our impact on the environment.”

Take a look yourself

Well we’ve managed to do it, bda’s new website is now live, yet still not complete and likely to always be a work in progress. But, then that is a good summary of most of today’s sites.

I hope you like what we have put together. We feel it gives you a better view of us, our work, our personalities and our inspiration.

We’ve been making lots of changes at bda to improve every facet of the business both internally and externally, we hope you like what we’ve done.

Have a look at our portfolio, our news, blogs, moodboard, profiles and do let us know what you think, and make sure you keep coming back!

Will write again soon!