Ellie Williams completes portrait of Simon Batchelar to enter into BP Portrait Award 2010 (see left).

We’re all very impressed – the proud Simon has even changed his Facebook profile picture to Ellie’s portrait. What do you think?

The Chichester Design team have their fingers and toes crossed for you Ellie! Keep checking back here for updates on Ellie’s progress in the competition.

Lucy Hackett Snow Photography

Many people were stranded at home at the beginning of the New Year as a result of the adverse weather conditions. Some had to stay at home and look after their children due to school closure in the Chichester area and some were forced to stay at home because they were snowed in. However, there were a number of Chichester Design clients who were able to continue working, make money and keep their businesses running despite the weather.

Chichester Design’s customers now benefit from the best possible email services and support around with Google Apps. The service provides reliable, secure online applications and communications wherever you work and whatever the weather!

Managing Director of Chichester Design, Ben Davis, says of the Chichester based design and marketing agency’s new service:

“As the service is run by Google but provided by us our clients benefit from the fact that we are in full control of the system with the added advantage of using Google’s servers and technology as well.

“Google offers a free, standard version of Google Apps but there are some fundamental differences between the standard version and the Premier edition that Chichester Design offers.

“With Google Apps Premier our clients can enjoy personalised Gmail with its 25 GB of email storage and 99.9% uptime reliability guarantee, so there’s no worries about running out of space or your email going down. There are no ads allowed, meaning you can enjoy reading your emails without ads popping up and distracting you. Benefits such as powerful spam filtering and anti-virus are included. Mobile services, with several options for accessing and syncing all your information while on your laptop, Blackberry and iPhone are also a great advantage”

Since the local design and marketing agency became an Authorized Reseller of Google Apps in November they have moved over a number of their clients, from local accountants and electricians to data centre relocators and interior designers, all of which have most certainly recognized the benefits.

Chichester Design’s Executive Director, Simon Batchelar has been signing clients up to the new service for the past two months and he’s delighted with the number of enquiries and positive feedback received. Simon commented:

“Google Apps is a service that will not only benefit individuals and businesses but also schools – the main benefit being that it’s free for educational institutions. We’re in talks with several schools in the area who are interested in the service”

Sam Dunster of www.opennshut.co.uk specialises in supplying and fitting DIY wooden window shutters. He helps customers measure and fit their own shutters and has made several TV appearances based around his expertise. Sam is one of Chichester Design’s happy customers who has been utilising Google Apps to work from home for some time:

“Following Ben’s advice I switched to Google Apps in July 09 to help me run my business remotely and to ensure I could stay in constant contact with my customers. With Ben’s help, I managed to set up and switch to Google Apps quickly and smoothly and have not looked back since.

“Its great having a service that works and I am looking forward to the integration with the new website that Chichester Design are building so that everything can be under one roof. Having the flexibility to access emails from any computer or my phone makes running my online business easier and more efficient, thanks Ben.”

Things are going so well that Chichester Design has also employed the services of local IT support technician, Pete Alner, to help them with the volume of requests for the Google Apps Premier service.

So while weather conditions of this extreme do not effect the Chichester area too regularly, there are so many other reasons why you might have to work from home and why not make it as easy on yourself and your colleagues as possible? The Chichester Design team have proved that having a reliable email system is a priceless business tool today.

If you would like to know more about Google Apps from Chichester Design please email simon@chichesterdesign.co.uk.

• We’ve grown 50% since last year
• We’ve completed projects for companies such as Field & Fork, Chalet Floralie and Mafi Mushkila
• We’ve incorporated a marketing department offering a whole new range of services
• We’ve moved to a bigger office in Chichester and set plans in motion for a London office opening in 2010
• We’ve acquired 2 more Google qualifications- Kate has become a Google AdWords Professional and Chichester Design has become an Authorised Google Apps Reseller
• We’ve temporarily taken on editing the South Coast Design Forum e-newsletter as well as taking care of compiling and sending the newsletter and maintaining their website

Chichester Design would like to thank all of our customers and colleagues for their support. Please read on to find out more in our yearly round-up.

Our team is growing…

Many of you might have worked with Ben and Jeremy over the years but here are a few more names and faces that have worked with us during 2009 and you might not have had the pleasure of meeting yet:

• Ben Davis – Managing Director, Project Manager, Problem Solver, Photographer and Nocturnal Mountain Biker
• Simon Batchelar – Executive Director, Financial Brain, Voice of Reason, Audiophile and Husband-to-be
• Jeremy Gilbert – Senior Web Developer, Coding Wizard, Cheese Loving Rugby Nut and Father-to-be
• Ashley Stevens – Junior Web Developer, Boy Genius, Web Enthusiast and Media and Photography Student
• Kate Lassetter – Marketing Consultant, Search Engine Optimisation Expert, Organiser and Lover of Tapirs

Did you know Chichester Design is now in East Pallant?

Chichester Design is now located at Hollybrook House, 4 East Pallant, Chichester, PO19 1TR.

You can find us just a few doors down from the Chichester District Council Offices and directly opposite the entrance to the Pallant House Gallery restaurant, Field & Fork.

This makes it really handy for meetings as Field & Fork knows how to make a good coffee and make exceedingly good cakes- Sam’s are far better than Mr Kipling’s.

As our offices are located on the top floor of a beautiful old Georgian building without a lift, we are more than happy to meet people in Field & Fork which on ground level and has wheelchair access.

If you haven’t been to see us in East Pallant this year, why not pop in and see us?

We’d love to see you and you can even have one of our spectacular limited edition pens – what do you think of that?

Would you like free hosting next year? Save £230 with the Chichester Design Referral Programme

We know that the best business is done by people recommending other businesses to their friends, family and colleagues.

We’d like to think that you would recommend us to someone you know and as a thank you for doing so, providing that your recommendation goes on to become a new customer, we’ll give you free hosting for a whole year.

That’s a saving of £230!

Would you like to recommend someone and claim your free hosting?

Either email us and let us know their details or feel free to pass on our details so that they can contact us.

Chichester Design has a new website

We decided that it was about time for a Chichester Design website design refresh.  The problem is that when you design websites for a living, regardless of how important it is to sell your services, your own website can tend to suffer. You always put those updates off and concentrate more on the bread and butter stuff.

But as we soon came to realise there is nothing more important than your own website when you’re in this business.

With more team members and more services to shout about we thought it would be a good chance to update our design and create a website that really reflects our brand as it has developed. The design is fresh, funky and highlights our love of the whole social media revolution as well as our commitment to exceeding our customers’ expectations.

Our website also highlights our new and improved range of services and features a load more additions to our project portfolio and examples of our photography for your perusal.

Check it out, you know you want to.

Chichester Design is here to Jumpstart your Google Adwords

Jumpstart for Agencies is a new business development service that makes it possible for Chichester Design to offer clients an extra element to their Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, at no extra cost.

We are currently the only agency in the Chichester area that Google are working with to offer a premium Jumpstart AdWords Management Service that can help to develop your business and, ultimately, maximise your Return on Investment.

What’s AdWords all about?

Paid search allows advertisers to tailor messages with precision in order to target the needs of their prospective audience and they have complete control over the budget – it is possible to set a daily budget for as little or as much as you would like.

What’s more, all campaigns are built according to a clients’ individual business objectives, whether these are to increase an online profile by generating more visitors to a website, or develop a more complex marketing strategy such as increasing sales of specific products.

What’s Jumpstart all about?

As Google AdWords Certified Professionals and part of the Jumpstart programme, Chichester Design’s Ben and Kate are now able to work closely with Google UK’s in-house AdWords team.  This enables us to take your paid search a step further.

We can create a bespoke campaign using Google’s industry-specific expertise as well as independent 3rd party reports from Hitwise on your direct competitors.

What’s the catch?

Believe it or not, there is no catch.  Our affiliation with Google means that you get the premium Jumpstart service absolutely free. Everyone knows that there’s no such thing as a free lunch but the reason that Google have teamed up with Chichester Design to offer this complimentary service, which will make paid search marketing strategies fly, is because it’s open to all those who spend £3000+ on their AdWords campaigns per month.

You can think of it as a reward for those clients who are interested in dedicating a proportion of their marketing budget to AdWords and are wise to the old proverb that you’ve got to “speculate to accumulate”. The current B2B online market is now estimated to be worth £200 billion, and Chichester Design is here to help you get right to the centre of the action, for just:

A one-off account set-up fee + a minimum spend of £3000 on your PPC campaigns + our monthly management fee

How can you resist?

To find out more about how Chichester Design can set-up and manage your AdWords account or how we can work with our affiliates at Google UK to maximise the efficacy of your AdWords campaign contact Kate

Chichester Design is now an authorised Google Apps reseller

We are offering you the Google Apps Premier service with local set up and support carried out by our trusty technicians.

Google Apps provides reliable, secure online applications and communications wherever you work.

Some of the main features are:

• Gmail – webmail (email through your browser) and mail client (e.g. Outlook, Mail) on your computer
• 25 GB of email storage – it’s usually around just 5 GB!
• 99.9% uptime reliability guarantee – so no worries about your email going down
• No adverts – enjoy reading your emails without ads popping up and distracting you
• Powerful spam filtering, anti-virus and automatic message threading
• Google-powered email search – allowing you to find information and emails instantly
• Google Calendar, Google Docs and many other useful tools
• Mobile services with several options for accessing and syncing all your information while on the go, on your laptop, blackberry, iPhone, you can be productive with Google Apps even when not at your desk

Interested?

You know you can’t live without Google Apps! For more information take a look at our website or to arrange a time for us to set up your account contact Simon

Team News

This year Chichester Design introduced marketing to their services.  Kate Lassetter has worked for the company doing bits of copywriting and SEO for the last 3 years but in 2009 she took the plunge to join us on a permanent basis.  Kate’s now a team member enabling us to offer our clients key marketing services:

• Copywriting – We can write engaging, informative copy to promote any product, any service, any industry, either off or online.
• Social Media – We can build your brand using the likes of Twitter, Facebook and more.
• SEO – We can get your website higher on Search Engine Results Pages.
• Marketing Consultation – We can discuss what will work for you and write a comprehensive strategy that will see a significant return on your investment.
• Google AdWords – We can work with our contacts at google to manage your AdWords account and optimise your ads for a maximum return on investment.

Our Executive Director Simon Batchelar has also been setting the cogs in motion to open our new London office.  Simon has been dedicating a lot of his time to learning about the Google Apps program and as a result Chichester Design is now an Authorized Reseller. Read more about Google Apps.

Ashley has joined the team and has been helping with the configuration, development and maintenance of websites. In his spare time Ashley owns and runs independent fashion blog ‘Thread Rave’ and has plans to launch indie fashion brand ‘The Rave Line’ in 2010.

And for a bit of ahhhhh factor – Jeremy and Celine are expecting a baby in the new year so we all wish them the very best of luck and look forward to meeting the little one.

Keep in the Know

We’ve always got something to say for ourselves. So why don’t you stay in the know about what’s going down here at Chichester Design through social media:

• Check out the CD blog
• Become a fan of Chichester Design on Facebook
• Follow us on Twitter
• See what we’re listening to on last.fm

Here’s looking forward to a prosperous and successful 2010, when we look forward to working with you on your web design and development or marketing projects.

Warm wishes and best regards,

Ben, Simon, Jeremy, Kate and Ashley

Chichester Design