After working with Co-operative Energy last year to launch a new website, we are really excited to continue to help and support the energy provider further via a new channel. Co-operative Energy were looking for a way to increase sign-ups from their customer service agents out in the field. They needed a mobile experience that would provide a fast response over the mobile data network.

We worked with them to develop a fast iPad optimised version of the ‘compare and sign-up’ part of their website that could be used to sign people up there and then in the store.
It uses the jQuery mobile framework to enhance the mobile experience for the customer service agents, using a dedicated iPad site which is a trend that we believe will become increasingly popular over the coming year, where a fast and focused solution is required. The result is better in store conversion and faster signups of a highly targeted audience – exactly what Co-operative Energy is looking for. The new initiative was launched nationwide in January.

Nigel Hunter, former chief executive of Fuse8, has joined us as a non-executive director. He is the third non-executive director to join the agency, following Spencer Gallagher and Peter Hoole, and will support our growth strategy.

Nigel also previously served as managing director of An Agency Called England and resigned from Fuse8 in September.

Adrian said, “It’s great to welcome Nigel on board to help take Blueleaf forward. His drive and enthusiasm, coupled with his digital agency knowledge and experience will be invaluable.”

Nigel will advise us on operations and strategy and we’re really pleased that he’s joined Team Blueleaf.

…introducing the Blueleaf showreel starring Team Blueleaf during a normal day in the office! It showcases some of our clients and the work we’ve done for them as well as taking you on a tour of Blueleaf HQ. A huge thank you to Soup Creative who have produced this for us. We love it! Did you know that the music was written especially for us, how ace is that!

We’ve been doing a lot of work here at Blueleaf HQ on goal-setting and focusing on what we want to achieve in the coming year, both as a company and as individuals.

There’s always a lot of talk at the start of a new year about setting resolutions, with most of it focused on why resolutions don’t work. And to be honest, I would tend to agree.

The main reason I believe that resolutions don’t work is that they tend to be too vague – something along the lines of “I want to lose weight”, so have you achieved that goal as soon as you’ve lost 1lb in weight? Or “I want to increase the sales coming in from my website”, so 1 extra sale would be enough?

You might have heard about setting SMART goals and this helps to set the parameters for the goal so you know when you’ve achieved it. Sorry if we’re teaching you to suck eggs here, but it’s worth revisiting what SMART means:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Timed

So, an example of a SMART goal for your business might be ‘By September 2012, I will have improved our website’s conversion by 25%”. It’s specific and measurable – increasing conversion of the website by 25%. Is the goal achievable and realistic? Well, that really depends on what the current conversion is but that’s something only you can judge! And it’s definitely timed – the goal could even be broken down into smaller goals to be achieved every week or month, to make it feel more achievable.

Another concept we’ve been looking at is having 3 words to focus on for the year ahead, inspired by our Digital Director Rob and his following of Chris Brogan. We’re all in the process of coming up with our 3 words – or in some cases 5 or 6 words as it can be quite difficult to narrow it down! Having just a few words to think about every day really helps to focus the mind – find out more on Chris Brogan’s website http://www.chrisbrogan.com/3words2012/. This principle can also work really well in a business world, for example if you’re planning a new website, thinking about 3 words that will sum up what a successful website looks like for you can really help define the goal and help you focus on what you want to achieve.

So, have a think about your goals for the year ahead – both for yourself and your business – and make sure they’re SMART!

In the run-up to Christmas, we asked you all for your help in choosing a worthy cause to which we could donate a £500 gift. As discussed in a previous post, the elves chose eight year old James Cheetham.

The team here at Blueleaf were very privileged to meet James, his sister Hannah and his grandparents Rose and Pete earlier this week when they came to visit us at Blueleaf HQ. To begin, Chris Jones,  Creative Director and Pete Smith,  Senior Developer showed our VIP’s how we go about designing and building websites. After cakes and sweets, James and his family then had a tour of our new offices and even had a go on Adrian’s penny farthing!

We wish James lots of luck for his upcoming trip to the Mayo Clinic in Minneapolis in February, where he will undergo a series of further tests to learn more about what has caused his condition, Bronchiectasis, and how to treat it. He has promised to let us know how he gets on!

You can view more photos of James’ visit on our Facebook page here

…and are now ready to announce who will receive the £500 present from under Blueleaf’s Christmas tree.

It was such a tough decision as there were so many suggestions of worthy causes but in the end the elves settled on giving the money to James Cheetham – an 8 year-old boy with a condition called Bronchiectasis.

James was diagnosed with this illness as a baby and it means that he is prone to infections and can’t clear his lungs himself. He has to have physiotherapy twice a day, which he hates and needs antibiotic injections for two whole weeks every three months. As his veins can’t hold needles, he has had to have a portacath inserted in his chest, which allows his medicine to enter directly into his main vein. This means that he can’t play any contact games because if the portacath gets knocked it can be very dangerous.

James’ family and friends have been working really hard to raise funds to buy an Airways vest for James which makes physiotherapy easier and to also take him to a clinic in Minnesota, USA which may be able to help him. With the funds raised so far, they have been able to buy the vest but need another £5,000 at least to take James to the clinic. His family have spoken to the clinic and hope to have an appointment date soon for some time in February.

James’ story and the courage, commitment and positivity of the Cheetham family and friends deeply moved the team. We hope that James will keep in touch as we are looking forward to hearing how he gets on. If you’d like to read more about James, his family and fundraising events for this worthy cause, please click here

We would really have liked to give the money to everyone but as this isn’t possible we are putting our heads together to come up with some ideas to help the other worthy causes in different ways. We’d like to thank everyone who made a suggestion and watch this space!

Here at Blueleaf we are continuing with our ambitious growth strategy by adding three new members to the team.
We recently added Scott Marshall to the project management team, joining Blueleaf from Bank of America where he was Senior Project Manager for Ecommerce. Scott will bolster the agency’s project management team by using his experience of working client-side to add to Blueleaf’s reputation for exceeding client expectations and delivering excellent customer service.

Also joining the team, as web developers are Dan Branwood and James Rand. Dan comes to Blueleaf from Triangle Software where he managed and developed software from design through to completion and James joins the development team from Companymedia Creative Communications Agency where he took websites from initial concept through build to launch.

Rob Smith, Blueleaf’s Digital Director said, “We’re really pleased to welcome Scott, Dan and James to our expanding team, which has grown in a year from twelve to twenty. The skills and experience that they bring with them will help move Blueleaf towards achieving our ambitious business goals for the future.”

We’re really pleased to appear again in the Recommended Agency Register’s Top 100 agencies outside London.

RAR is an impartial organisation formed to assess agency’s performance based on client feedback, meaning that it’s a really worthwhile gauge for comparison. Our accreditation as a Recommended Agency is due to our clients’ opinions of us based on client service, creativity and value for money and from this, we then qualify to be considered for the top 100, which is ranked on turnover and gross profit.

2011 has been a fantastic year for Blueleaf and receiving an accreditation such as this is thanks to our hardworking team and our clients. We’re looking forward to having another successful year in 2012.

‘Tis the season for giving and we’d like to give someone really deserving a special Christmas gift of £500, but we don’t know who. This is where we need your help.

What can I do?
Simple. Just tell us what you think we should do with the money and why. You could nominate a favourite charity, a particularly deserving individual or maybe you could come up with something clever we could do with the money to make even more for a good cause. We’ll pick our favourite on 21st December and make someone’s Christmas that little bit merrier. As a thank you for coming up with the winning idea, you’ll get a nice little stocking filler from Santa.

Where do I send my suggestion?
The easiest way is to Tweet us @bltweets with the hashtag #blxmas. Feel free to retweet our messages about this so we can spread the word as far and wide as possible. If you’re not a Tweeter, visit this page on our website where you can also see all the suggestions we receive between now and Christmas and submit your own suggestion.

So get your festive thinking caps on and tell us who deserves a really special Christmas present.

It just remains for us to wish you all a very peaceful Christmas and a happy 2012.

We’re really excited to have been working with Paul Tattum and Paul Walters of Future Projects, based in Manchester, who have just launched the first project management consultancy focused solely on delivering retail projects. We’ve been helping them to develop a brand that represents the retail environment and then carry this through to a website showcasing their skills and experience.

Founders Paul Tattum and Paul Walters, who collectively have over 40 years of experience delivering retail projects, set up Future Projects to represent a new approach, focusing all their resources into providing a new standard in project management. Their mantra is “We are retail specialists” with their experience, systems and management style having been developed through decades of delivering retail projects, in a retail environment.

It was Blueleaf’s job to work with Future Projects to develop a brand that represents the retail environment and then carry this through to a website showcasing their skills and experience. The end result is a website that shows off our design and development skills, using parallax scrolling and responsive design to make the visitor experience as engaging as possible whilst delivering the information in a user-friendly way.

Paul Tattum, Director of Future Projects comments:
“We were blown away when we first saw the design for the website as it was quite unlike anything we expected it to be! We’re delighted with the end result and can’t wait to show the site off to everyone.”

Visit the new website at www.wearefutureprojects.com