What are the opening hours?

Monday 9am - 5pm Tuesday 9am - 5pm Wednesday 9am - 5pm Thursday 9am - 5pm Friday 9am - 5pm

Ampersand Studio, Banbury (2026)

15/06/2026

"What is it a battery?" Said multiple attendees!

Last Friday I got to try out my new merch at the Business Buzz Oxfordshire Matrix networking event and here’s what I’ve discovered about mint merch…..

The Downside
1. The witty marketing slogan I spent seconds coming up with was lost, as no one read it. ‘Freshen up your website with….. Ampersand Studio’ for those curious. And I know, it deserves more recognition!
2. Merch is meant to be placed somewhere to remind people of your brand. Pens, notepads, fridge magnets, key rings, mugs…. Mint wrappers get ripped open and chucked in the bin!
3. Apparently it looks like a battery or a torch! Which could be next on the merch list: ‘Power up your website with…’, ‘Illuminate your website with…’

The Upside
1. They actually taste good!
2. Once people knew what they were they liked them.
3. Fresh breath at a networking event has to be a positive!

A couple of positive reviews from Lisa Mallier, who scoffed the packet in 30 seconds, declaring them breakfast, and Matt Sleath, from GasWise, who initially fed back they were difficult to open but that didn’t stop him dipping his hand in the bag at the end - one for the road!

So what do you think? Is it a merch fail or winner? Comment opinions below and if you include a mint pun there’s a battery, sorry packet of mints, with my name on it, for you!

03/06/2026

Have you ever done Matrix Networking?

No?.....me neither but now I'm sponsoring a table at this event so why not join me and let's experience it together!

Why's it different?

1️⃣ 7 focused networking rounds
2️⃣ Structured one-minute pitches
3️⃣ Direct conversations with up to 49 business owners and decision-makers

It’s energetic.
It’s efficient.
It works.

✔ Maximum visibility
✔ Maximum conversations
✔ Maximum value in just 2 hours

If you think this sounds like something you'd be interested in sign up here and I'll see you there - https://www.business-buzz.org/oxfordshire/matrix-networking/

21/05/2026

Thank you, John, for this unexpected hamper! Totally unnecessary but very much appreciated. Anyone looking for website development in Ireland, check out !

12/05/2026

Have you missed us?

It seems to have been a long time since the last Bicester Buzz but we're back this week and we have a new look to the lineup! Regulars will be know David Babister and he's now joined the team as an ambassador!

Come and welcome David to the team!

All you need to know:

👉🏼 Informal networking
👉🏼 No industry lockouts
👉🏼 Pay on the app or on the door
👉🏼 Just be yourself

Details the same as always:

📍Location: The White Hart, Sheep Street, Bicester
📆 Date: 14th May
🕙 Time: 10-12

Jennifer Williams from Exec Support Solutions will be there to meet you, and although Victoria won't be there, this month, David will be on hand as our ambassador.

Our full sponsors lineup will be Emily Collins standing in for Zoe Lidster from Harwood HR Solutions, Vicky Ireson & Natalie Sansome from VN Accountancy & Bookkeeping Limited, Jenny Williams and Rob Williams from Oxford IT Solutions and of course Richard Holmes from Ampersand Studio!

If you've never been before then drop me a message and come as my guest!

Look forward to seeing you all there!

28/04/2026

Last Friday got to represent Ampersand Studio at the . Having been selected as a finalist in the Best Enterprise category I was delighted to attend the awards dinner, alongside my wife, .

Huge congratulations to all finalists and winners on the night, in particular to Pippa Birch from .insta for winning Gold in the Best Enterprise category!

I was honoured to to stand alongside the other finalists on stage as Ampersand Studio won Silver!

Congratulations also to the team at The Best SME Awards who put on a fantastic evening, with over 200 people in the room. We had great company on table 10 with Charlotte May and Giuseppe Venturini from Adooa, David Oglethorpe and Antoinette Oglethorpe, who was one of the judges, but also Gold winner for Best Soloprenuer Rachel Hayward from and her PA for the night Lindsey Hatfield! Congrats again on the win Rachel!

Special mention to the chosen charity Serving Our Superheroes who raised over £2.5k on the night!

Having celebrated being in business for 4 years, at the end of last month, it’s incredibly humbling to have been in the room with so many other fantastic businesses and I look forward to connecting with as many as possible over the coming days!

03/04/2026

Filling the data analysis basket!

🥵 Does Google Analytics make you hot, cross and bothered? Have you even tried to look under the (Easter) bonnet of Google Search Console? Did you know Microsoft can provide you with some Clarity?

If you’ve shyed away from these tools you won’t be alone, but all of them offer valuable data to understand how your website is performaing and more importantly where it could be performing better.

📈 As with most reporting tools you just need to simplify things and cut out the noise. What’s useful for you to know? An easy example could be that you’re only interested in UK traffic so we’d create a filtered report that only shows UK traffic. You might want to remove internal website traffic as employees don’t give a true reflection on how the website is used so we’d add the internal traffic filter.

⏩ Maybe it’s useful to know which buttons are being clicked and just as importantly which are being ignored. All this is possible with the right setup within Google Analytics and Search Console, just message me to set up a call and we can discuss what you need and how we can set it up for you.

🎥 Using a free tool called Microsoft Clarity you can actually record visitors on your website to see where they scroll, where they stop, where they might get stuck or hit a bottleneck. Which buttons do they click or miss and possibly find locations that they try and click but aren’t actually intended to be clickable.

Using data to make a visitors experience better just makes sense otherwise you’ll just be guessing and building a site that works for you but not your customers.

🤔 I hope the over the past week I’ve given you something to think about when it comes to your website and how you can get the best out of it. There have been some quick fixes and some thought provoking ideas but you don’t have to do it alone. Drop me a message, let me know which basket(s) you’d like to consider filling and let’s grab a coffee and a hot cross bun and put a plan together!

I have one more job to do on Sunday - deliver some Easter Eggs and then I can scurry back to my warren and get some rest!

Happy Easter All! 🐥

02/04/2026

Filling the user journey basket!

📍How many times have you visited a website and felt like you’re on an Easter Egg hunt, burying your head in one bush then the next trying to find the egg you need? What we really want is to create the easiest scavenger hunt possible. Signposts easy to find and information easy to digest.

As a starting point you need to think about what you want your website to do, in particular for each target audience you’ve identified. It’ll likely fall into one or more of the following categories:

🥚 Provide a professional presence as a reinforcement of your brand
🥚 To sell products or services online
🥚 Provide information and downloads
🥚 To generate leads

📋 I'm only going to focus on lead generation in this post and my advice, start at the end. How do you want a visitor to reach out to you? Is it email, phone, contact form or book an appointment? Possibly different for different audiences so how are you going to make sure you guide them to the right end point?

Does it make sense to have one generic contact us page or should you include the relevant end goal on internal pages. For example if you have service pages do you include the relevant contact details within that page or make them click another button to go to a generic contact page?

💭 Let’s say you provide childcare services and your audience is going to be parents and local authorities. The parents may be more inclined to want to pick up the phone and talk about their requirements, possibly email and possibly a contact form, if it’s not asking too many questions. A local authority will be less likely to pick up the phone but would be happier to fill out a slightly more detailed form request as they won’t be in an immediate rush and will be looking at many options.

🪧 Make sure your navigation and home page clearly signpost people into the relevant sections of your website. Using the same example have a section for parents and one for local authorities.

If all this isn’t enough you also have to factor in the stage the customer might be at. Are they just looking at what’s available or are they ready to take action and make a decision? The information you provide will be different depending on the stage they’re at.

🐇 We’ve gone down lots of rabbit holes here, it is a complex area to consider but I hope I’ve demonstrated how important it is that this basket gets filled!

01/04/2026

Filling the content basket!

If you got through the SEO borefest yesterday and are still with me, this is where it can get a bit more interesting - the content!

🍫 Stand in front of the Easter Egg aisle and what are you looking at? Essentially it’s all the same thing, rip off the box and the wrapper and it’s chocolate but it’s being presented in different ways with the sole intention to grab your interest.

📦 Some of you will prefer the bright colours, some the bigger the better and probably most of us the price but it’s all different ways to try and engage you in what is essentially the same thing - a chocolate egg!

This basket has no limits, it can be as big as you want and as full as you want. Just keeping breaking into your imagination and see what falls out!

So how does your website try and engage your visitors and differentiate you from your competitors?

🎯 Start with your target audience and think about the following:

🥚 What age range will they be?
🥚 What level of knoweldge do they have on the subject?
🥚 What do you want them to actually do?
🥚 What devices are they most likely to use?

We’re starting to hop over to tomorrows post, all about user journeys, but there’s a lot of cross over between design, content and user journey.

📹 Now think about whether imagery or videos would be more suited to your target audience then just text. What sort of language should you use, if you get too technical are you going to push people away?

Linking back to SEO, if you have an audit you’ll know the keywords that people are searching for and the questions that need answering so make sure your content includes the answers and keywords.

💭 Remember there’s not just one approach here. Some pages will be more engaging than others. A home page is your shop window and may be more interactive and a blog post might be more informative than visual, it’s not one size fits all but it’s important to recognise what types of content you are going to need to include on your site.

Tomorrow we’ll be looking at the user journey and how your decisions on content can impact your visitors!

31/03/2026

Filling the SEO basket!

🥱 I get this is a dull topic, that I’ve covered numerous times, along with plenty of others so I’m hoping a stupid image means you’ll give this a quick glance.

1️⃣ Unfortunately SEO is the starting point so I couldn’t hide this for you to find in a scavenger hunt. If you’re serious about filling other baskets this is step 1.

🐣 Remember the good old days when you’d crack open an Easter egg and there was a mini packet of buttons or similar inside? That’s what SEO is, if you crack open the shell to your website it’s what sits in the background, hidden away, but offers so much additional value.

💸 It doesn’t have to be costly!

An ongoing SEO plan will be hundreds a month but there is another way, just look at one off audit ( £750 + VAT, if you’re wondering ) that means the rest of the baskets we’re going to fill have value and are based on data not guesswork.

📋 The audit will look at the following:

🥚What keywords you currently rank for
🥚 What keywords you’re missing out on
🥚 What your competitors are doing
🥚 Provide a structured plan for your content generation work
🥚 Setting up Analytics, Search Console and Tag manager which we’ll come back to later in the week

✍🏼 If you’ve ever sat down to write a blog post and just not known where to start it’s because you don’t know what content is going to provide value and potentially generate traffic for your product or service.

An SEO audit gives you clarity and a plan to follow so every bit of content you add to your site will be focussed on gaining more relevant traffic to your website.

Tomorrow we’ll be looking at how to fill the content basket!

30/03/2026

Here we go then, who's egg-cited?

✝️ As we build up towards Easter I’m going to take you on a journey of discovery with steps to consider if you want to resurrect your website and bring it back to life!

🎩 I often get told, by prospects, that ‘we love how our website looks but we don’t think it’s doing enough for us’. Essentially all eggs went into the design basket, when it was created, forgetting about what else should go under the (Easter) bonnet!

🐇 Over the next 4 days we’re going to hop over to 4 other baskets you should consider filling to get the most value from your website.

🥚 Day 1: SEO
Always start with SEO in mind, whether it's organic, AI or both, ensure you know what people are looking for, related to your products or services.

🥚 Day 2: Content
What types of content should you consider? How do you structure your content?

🥚 Day 3: User Journey
What do you actually want visitors to do when on your website?

🥚 Day 4: Data Analysis
How will you actually monitor the changes you've made?

So if you gave up on your website for Lent, stick with us this week to make Friday a Good Friday for your website!

Ampersand Studio

15/06/2026

03/06/2026

21/05/2026

12/05/2026

28/04/2026

03/04/2026

02/04/2026

01/04/2026

31/03/2026

30/03/2026

Address

Opening Hours

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm