Email marketing offers a range of unique benefits that compliment (rather than replace) print advertising.

Cost-effective
Email newsletters are charged by the number of emails sent plus a standard delivery charge. This type of marketing tends to be more cost-effective than print because the advertising is much more targeted.

Live reports
As soon as an email campaign is sent you can view real time reports, every click can be tracked.

This powerful feature gives you the information you need to make informed decisions about future campaigns.

Email is instant
You can expect much faster response rates than print advertising, your call to action is only one click away.

Forward to a friend
Email newsletters make it easy for friends and family to pass on a great offer with one click. Greatly improving the potential success rate of your email campaign.

Email marketing is a great addition to any website or print campaign and can help you stay in touch with existing customers. Why not get in touch with d3creative to see how email marketing could benefit your business.

There are a few things that might trip you up and turn a quick install into a frustrating experience! This brief guide will help you bypass all that.

Once you have installed simpleContact Pro you need to make a few modifications, this involves moving some code around and creating a new Wordpress page template.

To keep things simple I will be using the default Wordpress theme.

Create a new Wordpress page template:

We need to create a custom page template that contains all of the required simpleContact Pro code.

1. Open your Wordpress theme folder, remember we’re using the default theme for this tutorial.

2. Find a file called page.php

3. Duplicate this file and rename it simplecontactform.php

Grab the simpleContact Pro code:

1. Inside the simplecontact_pro folder locate a file called contact.php

2. Highlight lines 1 – 5, copy this to your clipboard.

Modify simplecontactform.php:

1. Open simplecontactform.php paste the contents of your clipboard to line one.

2.IMPORTANT Change the sc_sdmin paths from:

’sc_admin/include/common.php’

to

‘wp-content/themes/default/sc_admin/include/common.php’

Make sure you change the word default to the name of your theme folder.

2. On line 11 write add this Wordpress template code:

Wordpress will now recognise this as a page template

3. Save these changes

Grab more simpleContact Pro code:

1. For the last time, go back to contact.php (located in the simplecontact_pro folder) and copy the code on lines 19 – 24.

Modify simplecontactform.php:

1. Open simplecontactform.php and paste the code you copied in the last step on to line 15

2. To help with positioning of the form wrap the code in a div, I always use a
div called SimpleContact, this can be styled with CSS.

3. Save simplecontactform.php

4. Upload simplecontactform.php to your server, make sure it’s the correct theme folder, in this case we need to upload it to the default theme folder.

5. You are now ready to apply your new page Template in Wordpress.

Activate the simplecontactform page template:

1. Login to the Wordpress dashboard

2. Create a new page and call it contact (or anything you want).

3. Under Attributes (on the bottom right of the page) click on the Templates drop down menu, here you will see a page template called SimpleContactForm.

4. Select this template and press Publish.

You have successfully integrated simpleContact Pro into Wordpress. If you haven’t already installed/activated simpleContact Pro your new template won’t work.

Please refer to my previous tutorial for a detailed guide to installing simpleContact Pro for Wordpress.

Your new template will require a bit of tweaking to get it looking right, you may want to hide the page title by removing the relevant code from the simplecontact.php template. Positioning and other styling can be controlled with CSS.

Lee Jackson’s old website needed modernising. He felt the most important problem was that he could not update the content himself.

The solution was to hire d3creative to design a build a new website. The new website is powered by an easy to use Content Management System (CMS). This gives Lee the ability to regularly update the website himself.

Every website designed by d3creative comes with easy to follow step by step video tutorials that explain how simple it is to make changes to your own website. See the example below.

Lee’s new site does everything a professional entertainer requires. The website features six unique sections, all can be easily updated via the CMS.

• 1. Homepage
  The homepage pulls information from other areas of the site to give a quick overview of the website.
• 2. Gallery
  The Gallery section features YouTube videos and photographs.
• 3. News
  Everytime a new story is added it automatically appears on the homepage.
• 4. About
  Detailed history of Lee Jackson performing as Elvis Presley.
• 5. Contact
  A professional contact form, with a newsletter subscription option.
• 6. Events
  Every live performer needs to keep their fans up to date with live appearances. As dates pass they are automatically removed from the website.

This design features room for advertising, this space is ideal for website link exchanges.

If you are a live performer, impersonator, stand-up comedian or in a band d3creative can design and build a website for your needs.

Why not get in touch today to see if d3creative can help you?

Client: Lee Jackson
Website: www.elvispresleylookalike.com
CMS: Wordpress

Installing simpleContact Pro is very easy. I will be using the default Wordpress template in this quick tutorial.

1. Unzip simpleContact Pro, locate the sc_admin folder and open the file called config.php

2. Enter your database name, username and password. Save and close this file.

3. Upload the sc_admin folder to your Wordpress theme folder, in this case I am using the default Wordpress theme.

4. At this point you are ready to activate simpleContact Pro. As you are installing this on a Wordpress site, you have to type in the absolute path to get to the simpleContact Pro login page.

www.yourwebsite.com/wp-content/themes/default/sc_admin/

5. If you have installed this in a theme other than the default theme, make sure you reflect this in the absolute path.

6. Fill in your details and setup simpleContact Pro to your own preferences.

SimpleContact Pro is now setup and you are ready to create your own Wordpress simpleContact Pro page template.

Contact forms made easy

simpleContact Pro adds a contact form and mailing list database to your website, with no programming. For designers it’s a solution, not just a script. For developers it saves time and money.

Website: www.simplecontactform.com

1. Inside the simpleContact Lite folder you will see two files and one folder.

2. Double click the simpleContact 1.2 folder and locate a file called sc_config.php, open it. Find lines 19, 20 and 21, enter your database name, database username and database password. Save these changes.

3. Upload the contents of simpleContact 1.2 (folder) to your web server. Make sure these files are in the same root folder as your index file.

4. Now go to your website www.yourwebsitename.com/sc_admin

5. You will see this screen (see below). To create an account, enter your email address and choose a password.

6. Visit www.yourwebsitename.com/contact.php here you will see a basic simpleContact form. This contact page can be customised with CSS to blend in seamlessly with the rest of your website.

8. Thats it, all done! Why not send yourself a test message?

One last thing…

Every part of simpleContact Lite is easy to use and well thought out. You probably won’t need it but below is a brief explanation of the five sections in the simpleContact Lite control panel.

Contact fields
Tick the boxes you want show up on your form, you can also decide if they are required or not. This means the form won’t submit unless all the required information is provided. Nice.

Recipients
Here you can add and remove email addresses that receive a notification every-time someone uses the contact form.

Redirects
You can specify your own redirects here if needed. Just like your contact form these pages can also be easily styled with CSS.

Response
This is set to off as default, turn it on if you want simpleContact Lite to automatically send out a thank you message when the contact form is submitted. The thank you message can be customised to your liking. Remember to save changes.

User options
Here you can change your login email address and password.

Pro version also available

As you can see simpleContact Lite really is…. simple! This free version is perfect if you only require a basic contact form. The Pro version is avaliable for only $25 (£15).

The Pro version allows you more freedom to customise the form itself, change the order of fields all without touching a line of code. Very cool.

It’s very easy to upgrade from the Lite to the Pro version, simplecontact Pro can detect the Lite version and simply upgrades it, keeping your database intact.

Visit  the simpleContact Pro website for a full list of features.

Based in leafy South Manchester, d3creative are well positioned to work anywhere in the Northwest of England in-house or remotely.

Wordpress Websites

d3creative uses Wordpress as the foundation for all it’s websites. Wordpress is a Content Management System (CMS) that has become one of the most popular ways to run a website, many blue chip companies use Wordpress.

Wordpress websites enable clients to maintain and edit their own websites, full training is provided via online video screen-casts and telephone support.

Professional Web Design

On a day-to-day basis website design and project management is carried out by d3creative founder Stephen Meehan. d3creative is also supported by team of professional freelance creatives specialising in Web Development, Graphic Design and Photography.

Why not get in touch with d3creative to see if we can help you with your next web or print project?

Whether your company needs a brand new website, a content management system (CMS), a simple design update, or just some jargon free advice Stephen is always happy to help.