Currently we look after their SEO, SEM and email marketing requirements but their website was in need of a refresh.

We didn’t design the original website, so we were super keen to get our teeth sunk into a radical new design with fresh copy and functionality. It was built with wordpress so there’s also a user-friendly CMS, just in case the Tranquil Water team want to go in and fiddle around in the back-end. (They usually leave the tech stuff to us, but at least they’ve got the option!).

Their old website didn’t have dedicated product pages or images of all their water coolers and bottled water products so we made it our priority to feature these prominently.

It’s very important for their customers to be able to view the different water coolers so they can make an informed decision. We made this easy by installing a sexy light box feature so that all products can be clicked and enlarged to see their features close up.

There was also a lot of service information missing such as their filtered water system options and the fact that they recycle their bottles and have safe plastic options, so they’ve got dedicated information pages now.

Lastly, we integrated a blog so that the team can keep their customers up-to-date with the latest company and industry news. We’ll be updating this for them regularly, although the CMS means they can post stories easily too.

We’re very happy to report that Al, Lena and the Tranquil Water team are really happy with the result! Which is great news, because happy clients make us happy too :)

Want to see what it looks like? Click here to go to the Tranquil Water site.

If you’ve got a website that is in need of a makeover, get in touch via our contact form for a free, no-obligation quote.

The look and feel got a subtle refresh with nice clean white backgrounds and simplified right hand columns for recent posts and advertising space.

The body copy font and headings were updated along with special styling for recipes (see here) and a cute light box feature for all images – including gallery functionality for posts that have multiple images (see here).

The major changes, though, were for the functionality and social media features.

The recipe and review categories got new sexy drop downs and now auto populate on the relevant pages. New category buttons also feature on the navigation bar on the home page so that readers can quickly locate things like competitions.

We made it even easier to share your favourite Fig & Cherry posts on social media networks using the dedicated ‘share’ button that is displayed under the comments next to the post headline. It’s a great little UI where you simply drag and drop onto the icon of your choice.

There are also all the main social media buttons such as Twitter, Facebook and Stumbleupon at the bottom of each post just in case the sharing bug strikes when you’ve finished reading.

The interactive feature I love the most is the reply function in the comments. This isn’t really a super new feature for blogs in general, but it’s one I’ve been wanting for a while. I love being able to reply to readers individually if they ask a question or share an experience. It’s much more personal. Plus, I adore the little cherry icons that appear when someone doesn’t have a gravatar – so cute!

Finally, Fig & Cherry‘s email marketing was given an overhaul with a new newsletter signup form and email newsletter design. This is going to be great for notifying readers of future special offers and events.

I’m really happy with all the changes and think the blog is looking tastier than ever! A big thanks to Dillon for all his hard work and creative vision.

Have you got a blog you would like to beef up? Get in touch for a chat and a free, no obligation quote!

Ideally you’ll be a freelancer working in the online creative industry, but that’s not essential. As long as you’re fun, professional and don’t mind listening to beats while you work then you’ll fit right in.

$150 per week, per desk. Price includes:

• Desk and chair
• High speed internet connection and local phone calls
• Electricity, black and white printing and water cooler
• Meeting area (balcony + inside couches)
• Separate common areas as well as kitchen and bathroom facilities in the building

Get in touch via our contact form or call Christie at the office on 9280 1192 for more information.

We are very happy to have a brand new client here at Morning Copy and they are close by too – right here in our office building!

After working with clients overseas for so long it’s a really nice change to be able to just pop across the hall to discuss a quick change.

The boys and girls at CPS Property are a friendly bunch too, they even introduced us to their favourite lunch venue ‘Shakey’s’ which has $10 lunch specials (and cheap beer!). See why we like having them as a client?

CPS Property are the experts in property management, investment and finance in the Sydney region. So if you’re thinking about becoming a property mogul then you should definitely get in touch with them ;)

We are now handling all of their email marketing which includes a quarterly email newsletter and several other bespoke newsletters that are sent to their clients at important intervals (such as the 1 year anniversary of settlement on a property).

Very soon we’ll be helping them with search marketing and SEO services too and we’re looking forward to long and successful partnership.

It’s been over a year since we posted our original How to style Google Forms post – how time flies!

Our solution for embedding and styling Google’s Form app has garnered interest from all over the world and we are continually bowled over by how many questions, queries and messages of gratitude we get about this post on a weekly basis!

In this Redux edition of the How to style Google Forms post we:

• Revisit the original Google Forms post [Skip]
• Update our Google Forms and jQuery validation demo [Skip]
• Show you how to create multi-page Google Forms! [Skip]

How to style Google Forms

Our original post laid out step by step instructions for embedding a Google Form in your website, re-styling the form’s elements and redirecting the user to a confirmation page of your choosing.

Check out the original post and our new, improved version below!

• Original Post: How to style Google Forms
• Updated Demo: Styled Google Form with confirmation redirect

Adding jQuery validation to Google Forms

Our original form had one major flaw. It didn’t support Google’s in-built form validation. We solved that problem by throwing jQuery form validation into the mix.

• Original Post: Google Forms and jQuery Validation
• Updated Demo: Styled Google Form with confirmation redirect and form validation
  

Multi-page functionality!

Last year Google added a page break option to their forms and ever since we’ve been asked by visitors when we will update our solution to incorporate this new functionality. Well, the time has finally come!

Unfortunately for numerous head-scratchingly boring technical reasons our solution won’t work with Google’s page breaks, BUT we have come up with a way to build multi-page forms by taking a single page form and putting it into a  jQuery wizard.

The jQuery wizard we use in this tutorial was written by The Codemine. Please visit their site for more info and jQuery Wizard resources.

• DEMO: Google Form jQuery Wizard
• DOWNLOAD: Demo Pack
  

Step 1: Setup and embed your Google Form

Go to our How to style Google Forms post for full instructions on how to setup, embed and style your Google Form.

Step 2: Add validation to your required fields

Go to our Google Forms and jQuery Validation post and find out to add required classes to your required fields.

Step 3: Add your jQuery scripts

Add these jQuery scripts between your <head> tags. You’ll find all the scripts in our downloadable Demo Pack.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.history.js"></script>
   <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.validate.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.form.wizard-2.0.1-min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
  $(function(){
  $("#GoogleForm").formwizard({
  //form wizard settings
  historyEnabled : true,
  validationEnabled : true},
  { //validation settings } ); });
  </script>

Step 4: Separate your pages

In our demo we have made each question a separate step but you can have as many or as little questions per page as you like. Each page needs to be wrapped in a span with a unique id. In the example below the span is in bold.

<span class="step" id="first">
<span>Step 1 of 4</span><br>

<div class="errorbox-good"><div class="ss-form-entry">
<label for="entry_1" minlength class="ss-q-title">How blue is the Sky?</label>
<input type="text" name="entry.1.single" value="" class="required" title="This field is required."  id="entry_1">
</div></div>

</span>

Step 5: Replace the Submit button with wizard navigation

The last step is an easy one.

Simply replace the original Submit button…

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">

With the new jQuery Wizard navigation.

<div id="navigation">
<input class="navigation_button" value="Back" type="reset">
<input class="navigation_button" value="Next" type="submit">
</div>

That’s it, we hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

As always if you have any questions or want to say Hi, please leave a comment or email via our Contact Form.

Morning Copy is more than a Google Form building company!

We specialize in Copywriting, Email Marketing and Web Design so please drop us a line if you are in need of any assistance.

Are you an Email Marketing sinner? If you’ve been in the game as long as we have you have definitely been guilty of poor email practices in the past. Well, now is the time to repent sinners!

Read our 7 Deadly Sins of Email Marketing and save yourself from Spam Hell!

1. Boring Subject Lines
2. Bad Timing
3. Too many dispatches
4. Out-of-date mailing lists
5. Bland Content
6. Coding Errors
7. Too many images!

1. Boring Subject Lines

A strong subject line is pivotal to a successful email campaign. Your email subject line should succinctly sum up the content of your email in a way that sparks your readers interest enough to make that split second to decision to open your email and start reading.

2. Bad Timing

The timing is crucial to your email dispatch. For best results, try to be consistent and choose the same time of the day/week/month so that readers know when to expect mail from you.

3. Too many dispatches!

Don’t exhaust your database with too many dispatches. This will only annoy your readers and they’ll end up unsubscribing from your mailing list just to escape you!

4. Out-of-date Mailing Lists

Keeping your email database clean and up-to-date is a must if you are going to maintain the reputation of your list. Use your email bounce reports to find and delete the dud email addresses that bounce back.

5. Bland Content

Create appealing content, not junk mail! Boring copywriting and lackluster consumer offers will turn-off your readers and send them running to the Unsubscribe button.

6. Coding Errors

Coding for emails is completely different from coding for web and all the different email clients have their own quirks. The only answer is to test, test and test again!

7. Too many images!

There are plenty of arguments about the right ratio of images to text but all email marketing professionals agree that you should aim to keep images to a minimum.

Are you looking for someone to create a successful email marketing campaign for your business? Give us a call for a free, no-obligation quote today!

Spam filtering protects email users from receiving unsolicited bulk mail which could contain viruses, fraudulent offers or adult themed content.

However, direct e-marketing campaigns are also sent out in bulk to a database and because of the generic content, graphics and offers, a genuine mailer could be removed or have images blocked by the time it reaches your recipient.

Content and structure

All web mail clients have spam filtering as an inbuilt feature. If you get flagged as a spammer more than once due to the content and structure of your newsletter, then your customer won’t receive it. Plus, you could get blacklisted from your bulk mail service.

Web mail clients automatically score mail as spam for either content or reputation reasons and ‘bounce’ them accordingly. ‘Bounced mail‘ is delivered but gets relegated to the junk folder and recipients then have to manually move junk mail back into their inbox by adding the sender to their safe list.

Content bounces will generally be due to a low text-to-image ratio and the inclusion of words such as ‘credit’, ‘hot’ or ‘free’ as these are typical of pornographic, credit fraud or gaming site communications. It’s not just the content you send but mainly the framework in which it is sent which can alert spam. This is why correct coding and design is the crux of ensuring successful email delivery.

Reputation score

Mail servers will also treat your legitimate mail as spam if you hold poor reputation. To establish a good reputation score you must allow ISPs to verify your sender identity. A forward and reverse Domain Name System and correct authentication such as Domain Keys will raise your reputation profile, allowing mail you send to be received.

When using a bulk mailing platform, only use a company that will guarantee you a dedicated, whitelisted IP.

Another good rule to follow is not to send campaigns to purchased lists. These recipients have not opted in to receive your mail and you could be potentially sending to spam harvesters. Either way, your sender reputation will be ruined and you will be labelled as spam.

Database maintenance

Lastly, it’s very important to give your database careful and regular maintenance. Make double sure that people are completely removed who choose to unsubscribe and clean out recipients whose email addresses have expired.

Sending mail to old or expired lists means you are actually sending to hard bounce, soft bounce and disinterested recipients. In any case, it’s a bad situation because either the mail client will flag you or the email receiver will report you to spam.

Morning Copy are the industry leaders in achieving strong delivery results, helping you to retain and acquire new business. From coding, design, content, dispatch and reporting, we have the skills to make your next campaign a success. Contact us today for a free quote.

Morning Copy offers Email Marketing in Sydney.

At Morning Copy we always say that building a bigger email database should be at the top of every business’ to-do list.

Why is growing your email marketing database so important?

That’s easy!  Every new reader is also a new potential customer, and at the end of the day who doesn’t want new customers?

Here are 3 easy ways that you can build up your email database in an organic, ethical manner.

It’s important for the ‘health’ of your email database that your readers voluntarily opt-in to your newsletters because if your messages are forced upon them they will report you to spam filters and your message will not get through to the people who really want to read it.

1. Give your subscription form pride of place on your website.

Don’t hide your subscription form away on a low-traffic section of your site. You should give your email subscription form pride of place on your homepage so that it gets the most exposure possible.

2. Simplify your subscription form

We’d love to know everything about our database but most people don’t want to tell you their age/marriage status/phone number just for the privilege of reading your newsletter. Simplify your subscription form down to the need to know stuff like email address, first name and company name.

3. Incentivise sign ups with giveaways

There’s no shame in bribing your way to a bigger email marketing database!

A timely prize like a free iPad can generate a lot of viral interest on social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

If you decide to incentivise sign ups, you have to follow up with strong newsletter content because an incentivised member has less reason to stay subscribed after your promotion has ended.

Click here to read about Morning Copy’s Email Marketing services!

In the Morning Copy office we all use Apple Macs. We’ve found our Macs to be mostly hassle-free bits of kit, but there is one problem that seems to pop up on a semi-regular basis: Apple WIFI drop outs.

Drop outs don’t happen every day but they do happen regularly enough to annoy; especially when so much of our work requires us to be online.

Last month we put our heads together and decided to get to the bottom of the WIFI drop outs. After a few hours of detective work we found a solution that worked for us. That’s right, no more Apple WIFI drop outs!

Very important!

Morning Copy is an Online Media agency that specialises in Copywriting and Email Marketing. We are not IT professionals!

We provide this tutorial to help people who experience the same issue with Airport WIFI.

Please read over this tutorial before you change any settings on your computer or router and refer your problem to a real techy if you think it is above your knowledge level.

The problem.

When a new Mac logged onto the local WIFI network it would kick off the other Macs on the network. Navigating to the Network System Preferences would give you a message like:

• Airport has a self assigned IP address and may not be able to connect to the internet.
• AirPort does not have an IP address and cannot connect to the Internet.
• Another device on the network is using your computer’s IP address.

We realised that the new Mac was ‘stealing’ the IP address of the other Macs connected to the network. Our solution was to lock down the IP address so it couldn’t be stolen again!

The solution.

Quick temporary fix. Manually enter your IP address.

Open System Preferences and choose Network. Select your Airport network from the left hand menu and click the Advanced button in the bottom right.

Select TCP/IP from the top navigation menu, then select Using DHCP with manual address from the top drop down menu.

Find out what range of IP addresses (eg. 10.1.1.1 – 10.1.1.99) that your WIFI router uses, then enter your chosen IP address into the iPv4 Address field.

Click OK to return to the Network section and then click Apply to apply your changes.

We’ve listed this as a temporary fix because manually assigning the IP address could cause problems for the user when they try to log onto other WIFI networks.

Permanent fix. Assign an IP address for each computer on the network through your WIFI router.

Log into your WIFI router and assign a unique IP address to every computer on the network. This is a permanent fix because it means each user will not have to update their settings when they try to log onto other networks.

Note: You will need to find the MAC address of each computer before you can assign an IP address to it.

Working in online marketing makes it easy for me to communicate and promote myself online. Yet, I’m always surprised when ‘normal people’ (those who don’t work online), ask me about how to do it.

When I tell people I have a twitter account, or they see the feed coming through on my food blog, the first thing they ask is ‘What do you tweet about?‘.

Good question people. What comes naturally to me, other people find excruciating and frightening: ‘You really just tell complete strangers everything about your life?’ they say. Well, no. I’m not that stupid!

I barely ever tweet about the exact location I’m in unless I’m with other people I know can look after me should any internet weirdos be lurking about.

‘But my life’s boring!’ is another classic thing people say. Then don’t tweet about your life. Twitter is more than just telling people where you are and what you’re doing, it’s a way to share articles you find online, stuff you buy in real life or give opinions on issues that concern you.

When the people you follow use it correctly it’s an invaluable source of information and breaking news all in one convenient location. That’s why you should regularly contribute links, ideas and replies rather than just say what you ate for breakfast.

OK, so what exactly do I tweet about? I’m more than a little bit obsessed with food, nutrition and cooking so my personal twitter handle is @figandcherry, the name of my food blog.

I tweet about flavour combinations I’m currently loving, restaurants I visit, promotion for my blog posts and recipes I’m dreaming up. Because I don’t want to be a one-track pony (and I also have followers that aren’t into food) I mix it up with tweets about marketing, gadgets and running a small business.

I also re-tweet @morningcopy and promote posts from the Morning Copy news blog, just like this one.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I try to make my communication really varied so there’s tweets with links, replies, plain text, re-tweets or pictures that don’t double up too often. Even though I’m trying to promote Fig & Cherry or Morning Copy, I don’t want to come across as a spammer.

For live examples of all the things I’ve been blabbing about, check my twitter stream. Follow me, I won’t bite, but you might get really hungry.