In December the phone rang and my client called to ask if taking me to St Thomas might be a good thing for our web strategy / build project. She had an excess of frequent flyer miles and wanted to use them wisely. Being a Michagander, I said… yes. How could I turn this down?
Jumping ahead 6 weeks, here we are on our first full day. We spent 4 hours today working on developing personas, as well as some linguistic analysis.
This is the 3rd or 4th site that I’ve been commissioned to build for her company. She is a great example of a wonderful client. What a creative use of her frequent flyer miles!
For me, the relationships I build with my clients are of the utmost importance. But the relationships go beyond that. How do I build them? I listen to them. I hear them. I respond to them. It’s vital that they can rely on me to provide them with the most current thinking on internet marketing strategies and tactics. They all know I am not a “yes person.” I challenge their ideas to ensure that we are going down the right path. And, it is a “we.” I’m in it too. If they don’t succeed, then I can’t. While they are the client, I am the expert in online exerience. That is what they are paying for.
My clients become my friends, and sometimes, my friends become my clients.
The successful web site is built on a thorough analysis and understanding of needs. Asking some basic questions will help determine the direction on your site. The very first thing to do is to define your targeted audience.
Here are some basic questions to help assist your process:
- Why are they coming to the site and what are their expectations?
- What is their level of expertise in your field?
- Are they existing customers, are they staff, or are they surfers looking to gain knowledge?
- Do they come with expectations?
- Will the site offer products and services, customer support, or simply serve as a company “presence” on the web.
Interwoven with determining your target audience is exploring your market segment and what motivates your users. This will directly affect your marketing strategy, copywriting, level of interactivity, and promotional efforts. Some of the questions are:
- What is the purpose of your site?
- What is your site’s mission?
- Will you need to have content developed? An online application?
- Are you selling a product or service?
- Who is your specific audience?
- Who is your viewer?
- Why are they coming to the site and what are their expectations?
- What is their level of expertise in your field?
- Do they come with expectations?
- What are your web site needs?
- Do you want it to be ADA compliant?
It is important to answer these questions, and more, and to perform an in depth analysis of your web site strategy first. This is the basis for building your site. The more upfront planning, the smoother your project.
The importance and relevance of blogging for marketing a conference
Typically, my clients have been living in what I’ll call ‘traditional’ marketing. They have been immersed in the world of print, sending out waves of marketing collateral. First it’s the save the date postcard. Then a flyer with more details. Then a pamphlet. Oh sure, they definitely will have the content on the web site, and send out regular emails with updates and calls to register.
But it can be so much more!
It’s About Engagement
The 4 I’s of Engagement (from Forrester):
Involvement—Includes web analytics like site traffic, page views, time spent, etc. This essentially is the component that measures if a person is present.
Interaction—This component addresses the more robust actions people take, such as buying a product, requesting a catalog, signing up for an email, posting a comment on a blog, uploading a photo or video, etc. These metrics come from e-commerce or social media platforms.
Intimacy—The sentiment or affinity that a person exhibits in the things they say or the actions they take, such as the meaning behind a blog post or comment, a product review, etc. Services such as brand monitoring help track these types of conversations.
Influence—Addresses the likelihood that a person will recommend your product or service to someone else. It can manifest itself through brand loyalty or through recommendations to friends, family, or acquaintances. These metrics mostly come from surveys (both qualitative and quantitative).
So, how can this relate to increasing registration at a conference? Blogging is a means to more publicly release the same information as you might in your emails & web site. But you are also able to reach out and build community, buzz and visibility. Ask questions and LISTEN to the answers. Write about your presenters, ask what your attendees want.
There is another side to all of this. It’s not all about your own blog. Get involved in other blogs that relate to the topic. Read and comment on blogs.
Here is my take on the 4 I’s
Involvement – Get involved in blogs that relate to the topic of your conference. Mention them in your blog. Tweet about your blog. Reach out and get involved in the online community within your target market.
Interaction – Ask questions, listen and respond accordingly. It’s about the conversation that you are building
Intimacy – Speaks to the emotion that you are creating. A goal is to get people passionate or excited to be involved in your community. This intimacy is a bonding agent.
Influence – The goal is that with the above three I’s in place, your community will be influential with their peers. Therefore, not only registering for your conference, but forwarding posts on, creating a viral marketing effort.
I’ve been in the Ann Arbor Toastmasters and Friends Club for 2 years. It’s Fall and that means it’s speech contest time again. In the Fall it’s for Table Topics & Humorous speeches, while in the Spring is the International Speech and the Evaluators Contests. Toastmasters has been key in improving my communication skills. Having better communication skills has changed my whole approach to EVERYTHING. But this is another topic. Today, I’d like to review questions that help one evaluate a speech better. Or, if you flip this on it’s head, here is a list of questions to think about in preparing your speech. This doesn’t apply only to Toastmaster speeches, but this list will help anyone improve their speaking engagements and audience response.
Over all general questions:
- What is the objective of the speech?
- What is the primary purpose?
- Did they achieve this goal?
Introduction:
- Was the introduction appropriate to the speech and audience?
- Was it appropriate to the audience size and target?
- Was the opening effective, did it have a hook?
- Did it clearly establish the intent of the speech?
- Was it memorable?
Body:
- Was the body of the speech focused?
- Were there statistics to support arguments?
- Did they use metaphors and symbolism?
- Was it organized logically?
- Did the transitions flow smoothly?
Conclusion:
- Was the conclusion concise?
- Was it memorable?
- Was there a call to action?
Delivery Skills:
- Was the speaker enthusiastic? How did that show?
- If there was audience interaction, was it effective?
- Was the stage used appropriately?
- If humor was used, was it appropriate and effective? Relevant?
- If there were visual aids – how effective were they?
- Posture, were they confidence and poised?
- Were gestures natural and timely?
- Were there any distracting mannerisms?
- Was the speaker easy to hear?
- How about eye contact?
- Were soft and loud variations used appropriately?
- How was the pace?
- Was the language easy to understand?
- Were rhetorical devices used? (Repetition, alliteration, the rule of three)
Intangibles for overall evaluation:
- How did it make me feel?
- Was I convinced?
- Would I want to listen to this speaker again?
The phone rings and the request is for a new web site. They know that their site, as it is now, isn’t working. It’s my responsibility to figure out exactly what is not working and how to best serve their needs. It starts by me asking lots of questions and LISTENING to them. Questions like:
- What goals do you have for your company, short and long term?
- What do YOU see as not working?
- What are your customers/clients asking about most?
- Who are your customers/clients?
- Who is finding you now through the internet?
- Who do you want to target?
- When do you expect to have a new site up an running?
- Where are you located?
- Where are your clients located?
Listening to their answers is an art. There is a balance between what they are saying and projecting my own twist. My goal is to communicate clearly in language they understand, how I can fulfill their requirements.
The way I achieve this is with the old stand-by of repeating their questions in my own words as a summary. In my proposals, I use an executive summary to recapture this conversation.
Writing an RFP can be a daunting task, especially if the project is something that you have little expertise. If this is the case for you, try to collaborate with a content expert. As a web designer/developer I’ve been on both sides of the table. I’ve been a consultant assisting with the writing process as well as a respondent. Having been on both sides, I’ve a unique view on what it takes to generate a well-written RFP.
There is a line between adding too much information and not enough. Your goal as the author is to give enough juice that your respondents can give you a valid reply, but not too much to limit the creativity of the respondents. They can bring to the table a great wealth of information and talent. They will become your team for the duration of the project and your goal is to find the best available.
Your RFP will set the tone and structure for the project. If it is organized properly, it becomes the guide for the process. You’ll want to include background of the company, a summary and goals for the project. It’s a good idea is to put in your expected timeline of the RFP process. One of the general goals of good project management is to keep it on schedule. What better way is there, than to start it off with one?
Dates in your RFP process timeline might be a pre-proposal Q&A session, the proposal due date, potential bid winner interviews, contract award, kick-off, expected project completion.
Most projects are subject to the triangular foundation of time, quality and price. The project descriptions you provide will relay the quality you’re seeking. Quality and price is in the ballpark of the respondent. These are the variables you’re attempting to gain control of with your RFP. I read somewhere that one can get a sense of the whole project’s temperament by the bid/contract award process. If the process becomes thorny, the project itself is doomed to go that route. Obviously the opposite is true as well. So far, this has been consistent with my own observations
Whether I am writing an RFP or responding, my goal is to break the items down into self-contained modules, or deliverables. I’ll extract these and put them on a time line and monetize it. As an example, let’s say I want a calendar in my application. As the writer of the RFP, I’ll define all the elements that I want in the calendar. These can be; general description of the calendar, event description, date, time, toggle on repeat daily/weekly/monthly, alarm etc.
Putting in this type of detail will allow the respondent enough information to determine the who, what, how and how long, and the quote intelligently.
Along with the actual project details, you will want to outline the contractor’s responsibilities. What do you expect of them? Do you want them to only use employees? Or is it okay for them to hire contractors? Do you want to know who the contractors are? Do you want veto power over their selection? Do you want a firm company representative? You’ll also want to ensure that you put in selection criteria.
Most of all, you need to realize that you are building a partnership. This is team building at the very least. Try to keep it all in the positive vein.
Here in the year 2008, I start this blog with the urgings of those who know me. I’ve been in the ‘web design’ business since 1995. As time goes on, my educational background, BBA – Mktg, my business skills (this is my second company), along with the artist in me, has combined to put me in the thick of an incredibly fast paced, and fascinating field.
In 1995 none of us knew that the field would be where it is today. Oh, we had clues. I was positive that this medium would be PERFECT for distance learning. In 1996 I was contracted by Gardner Communications, in a collaborative effort, to provide CREN (Corporation for Research and Educational Networking), Internet2 and Merit Networks a shell exactly for distance learning purposes.
Back then, the challenge was that the platforms were all in a very fast paced development phase. The tools were Netscape (Number 1 browser by a landslide) and the very new javascript. Every time we made some headway in the project there was a new release, either of the browser or javascript and we were back a few steps. Rick (our programmer) was on the phone with the Javascript developers pretty regularly, as I recall. We pushed through and created a cutting edge environment that allowed for synchronizing of video, graphics and animation. It relied on Netscape 3.1, SMIL, html, and javascript. As long as you stayed with Netscape 3.1 it worked perfectly! The problem was no one had a pipe big enough to view our educational series online. The final delivery was a CD!!!
My part of this groundbreaking technological feat, was that of information architect (a brand new field set into being by 2 friends who had their office one block from mine – Peter Morville and Lou Rosenfield), creative director and coder.
Ahhh, but I digress. Here it is way down the road and I am still here. I LOVE this field. I no longer “make” web sites. I am a marketer who understands the powerful effectiveness of a mindfully produced site. A web site is an integral portion of a comprehensive marketing strategy. The biggest development in the field that facilitated the importance of the online presence is metrics. We can now measure the effectiveness of our online marketing effort. We can determine what is working. We can, through persuasive calls to action, drive traffic through a specific path and achieve a specific action. Metrics bring the whole effort together. But you have to know how to get it done.
