In December 2010 Aine contacted me looking to revamp their dated web site. She told me about competitor sites and the attributes of them that they liked.
I met Aine, Jackie and Frank and they talked about what they wanted the site to do and how they wanted it to look. Initially I was nervous that it would difficult to deliver some of the technically complicated aspects but I felt that it would be a perfect opportunity to learn some new stuff.
I immediately set up a test server with WordPress 3.0.6 (the version is relevant) and contacted the designer I work with to create a web site layout for Body Connection Spa. She produced a layout with a lovely calm colour scheme within 2 days. Once approved by Aine, Jackie and Frank I got to work converting it to a WordPress theme based on the Blueprint CSS framework.
A big feature of the new site was to be time limited Special Offers. I implemented these with Custom Post Types – a feature introduced in WordPress 3.0. The Special Offer page displays the time left and has a large “Take Up Offer” button which, when clicked, reveals a short form for a customer to complete to avail of the offer. The form emails Body Connection Spa who call the customer to arrange an appointment.
Creating a Special Offer is simplified by the use of Custom Post Types. The page has the minimum fields required to create the Special Offer – Offer title, Description, Expiry Date and Time and price. The Date and Time fields are error proof through the use of jQuery plugins that ensure that the information is entered in the correct format.
WordPress 3.1 introduced Custom Post Type archives. This feature facilitated the development of the list of Special Offers.
Body Connection Spa have a very large customer list, many with email addresses for most of them. I helped them upload the list to MailChimp and they are now using MailChimp to send email newsletters. The open rate for their newsletters is well above the industry average!