Avatar News December 07, 2006

Written By:
Steph Kendall
Edited By:
Tara Topliff
Published By:
Avatar Ltd

Santa Matt's Movember

Hey ho, Web buddies!

The Christmas summer holidays may seem like the time to down tools, but this time of year is also a key time for surfing on the Web, as well as on the waves. So this month, we're offering you a few tips on what you can do to protect your potential online customer, advice on email marketing best practices and a small reminder about bringing your Web site bang up to date for the New Year.

Our very own Santa Matt (pictured right) grew his whiskers in aid of the 'Movember' appeal. A big "yay" goes out to Matt for raising a few dollars for the Prostate Cancer Foundation (and to his wife, Sara, for putting up with that mo').

Finally, you can find out why Santa is always 'ho, ho, ho-ing' in our usual mixed bag of silly (and interesting) tidbits and check out our latest sites of interest.

Have a cracker of a December!

In This Edition

How to Create Online Goodwill

Thinking about what you can do to extend a little goodwill towards your online customers? Here are a few ideas for what you can do to keep your customers' interests in mind when you are selling products or services over the Internet. By offering online customers more 'protection' when they shop, you can make great strides towards enjoying a happier, warmer and fuzzier trading relationship together.

10 top tips for safer online trading

  1. Provide adequate address and contact details — phone, fax, email and street address (not just a PO Box number) on every page of your Web site
  2. List all of the costs relating to the purchase of a particular item (include the cost of the product/service, GST, delivery, postage and handling)
  3. Provide details about your site's secure online payment handling
  4. Enable people to print out their order and include unique reference numbers for each transaction
  5. Clearly provide access to your guarantees, return, exchange or refund policies
  6. Provide details of how customers can lodge a complaint with you and what your complaint procedure is
  7. Specify which legal jurisdiction will apply to the transaction (i.e. your country or your customer's) and/ or which disputes resolution processes may apply (e.g., an ombudsman scheme or industry code)
  8. Clearly state what currency the purchase is in
  9. State any restrictions or conditions that may apply to the purchase (such as geographic or age restrictions)
  10. Include a privacy policy (it's always a good idea to provide a link to your privacy policy at the point at which customers are required to provide any personal information such as email address, postal address or payment details).

More information about trading online can be found on the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Web site.

Bring Your Booking Forms Up-To-Date

Bring Your Site Up-to-date

If your Web site includes a booking form, double check to see if people can make bookings for 2007 and 2008. If they can't, you'll need to get some new fields added to your form. You may also want to check pricing and any other information on your site and bring it up-to-date for the New Year.

Let us know what you need doing and we'll book your updates before our Christmas break.

Tips For Email Marketing Best Practice

Last month, we talked about creating spam free Web forms and this month, another spam issue is on the cards, that of "email spam". Hefty fines have recently been imposed on email marketers, who have flouted US laws on commercial email marketing. However, don't let that put you off! Email marketing remains a very cost-effective and efficient way of reaching your target audience. Here are a few tips for making sure your campaigns follow best practice guidelines:

Avatar's emailing software, Rocket Mailing, has made two changes recently to help ensure best practices for permission-based email marketing are being followed:

If you have any questions about using your Rocket Mailing account, or want to find out more about setting up an account, please contact us.

Avatar Christmas Break

Avatar Christmas BreakWe're not downing our tools until Friday 22nd December, so you've still got plenty of time to get hold of us for any Web site update requests, Web design and programming services, optimisation questions and queries. However, even we have to stop and make way for Christmas pudding, turkey/tofu and a couple of weeks of R&R. Emergency contact details for the Christmas break will be posted on our Web site nearer the time, but if we don't hear from you in the meantime, we look forward to working with you in 2007. We're back at Avatar HQ on Monday 8th January 2007.

Interesting Tidbits

Sites of Interest

Here's a selection of sites we've designed, updated and/or promoted recently...