Project Management Skills

It's been a long time, the spring's been and gone and now the summers' pretty much been and gone, but it's been a busy time here.

Project management work has been coming in, with our online marketing skills, especially SEO expertise, I think that we provide a good service for clients and y'know what, it's enjoyable!
Pitching for new client work, looking at how the site can be better designed for usability and adding extra functions to increase user engagement are good fun to work on, something to get the teeth into.
You can basically think of a wish list and add it all in! As long as it's backed up with rationale.
Proceeding that, having won the contract with all the marketing innovations just listed, then becoming the middleman between the client and developers is a great lesson in relationship management. But it's a satisfying job, bringing the project in on time, within budget and creating a site that both the client and it's users like. So, I say, bring 'em on!

Metrics for Understanding Customers

Happy New Year to One and All.
My new year's aim is to get much more involved in Analytics, using the data to help clients provide a much more user centric site. There's so many tools out there, free and paid for, that with the right analysis can really make all the difference between a mediocre site and a remarkable site that fits all it's visitors requirements.

I've started by among other things, reading Avinash Kaushik's "Web Analytics An Hour A Day". It's written in a very easy to follow manner. What's interesting is his focus on how Analytics data of old was IT centered and how it's come into the Marketing realms only recently and with this is the new focus of customer centered information that we require from the data, rather than IT focused info.

He says that a business that has implemented his process of data analysis will have the following key metrics at it's core for understanding how the site is delivering for customers:
Primary Purpose - Why are you Here?
Task Completion Dates - Were you able to complete your task?
Content and Structural Gaps - How can we improve your experience?
Customer Satisfaction - as Avinash says "Did we blow your socks off as a result of your experience today?"

Through the use of traditional Analytics data, complimenting that with online tools such as heatmaps, site overlays and using research tools such as surveys and testing we can benefit both the company and the users creating a resource that delivers exactly what the user wants and not what the company thinks they want.

Social Media Marketing - How to...

Like everyone else, I've been reading more and more articles about social media marketing, how some top brands are doing it right (starbuck, zappos), some are doing it wrong (Habitat, RyanAir) and some just not doing it at all. But the main point that it keeps on coming back to, is How to do it.
First, you've got to decide if it's for you. Have you got the energy or manpower to actually find an appropriate channel or channels. This is something, that once started, can't be stopped. You're either in it or you're not.
So once you've decided which channel is best, or range of channels, after all, the more channels you use eg Twitter for customer service, Facebook for engaging conversations and promoting conversation, Youtube for videos etc, the more touchpoints you have.
Then you have to Listen. Don't just wade in, trying to sell your products, you'll quickly come out running with your tail between your legs. Listen to what people are saying, who they're talking to, what aspects of the conversation might concern you.
Then it's time to Interact. Be social, be funny (where applicable) be relevant, be helpful, consider your audience. Don't try to sell.
Then it's time to React. Having listened to what people have to say about your product or service, adjust it accordingly. Engage in conversation with people who have issues with your service - don't just ignore it.
Finally, the sales will come. Sell
It's proven that there is a direct correlation between the companies who are spending time engaging with their audiences and their financial wealth. It really is worth it.

Facilitating UGC For Your Site

One of the defining aspects of web 2.0 is based around User Generated Content or UGC. This is defined by "A web site owner provides facilities for site visitors to add comments or copy to existing pages create their own pages and reviews or upload their own media such as images, audio and video clips.” It is said that by 2010, UGC will account for 70% of the web’s content.

Enabling this facility on your website offers a wealth of benefits. It requires a certain amount of moderation but it means that your customers are doing your work for you. They are rating or reviewing your products, your quality of service, advocating your company to fellow users which in turn helps to both keep the site fresh for search engines and helps to retain those users as loyal customers.
On average, a loyal customer is 5 x more profitable to you than a new customer.

Enabling UGC on your site means customers are returning to the site to add content, whilst there, they may have a look around to see what else is new and what current promotions are being held.
A “sticky” site is something that every website owner strives to achieve.
Content can be provided in many different formats which can subsequently be shared via other social media tools – video files which can be uploaded to YouTube, photos which can be shared on Flickr, all linking back to your site. Once the content is taken off your site, it requires monitoring to manage your reputation. Tools such as http://www.google.com/alerts and http://www.blogpulse.com help you do this by sending you a weekly report with a round up of where your company has been mentioned on the web.
Remember that no matter how good your search engine rankings are, a static website will start to fall out of the search engine rankings unless content is regularly added to it. With so much competition, it’s up to you to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

Adwords Qualification

Well I finally got a bit of time to take the Adwords Professional qualification. I'd heard that it was difficult and that you really needed all of the hour and a half alloted to complete the exam.
In actual fact, it wasn't as difficult as I'd expected and took only an hour to complete - obviously I'm pleased to be able to say that I passed it :-)
I'm now spurred on to take the Analytics exam, although I think that might be a different case as analytics is pretty technical which I can only take soo far. I think that'll be one for the new year as I've my IDM exam coming up in December and need all the spare time I've got to gem up for that (and practice my handwriting - crazy that exams about using the digital medium, and we have to write by hand)

The 80/20 Rule

Having just had a bit of a discussion with a client about traffic for their site. Namely, what search terms are converting traffic, once you take out any references to the company name, I thought it an interesting topic.
You would expect any SEO campaign to focus on a core number of search terms with which to promote the site. My client has been complaining that those terms are not converting into visitors very well, that if you divide the number of visitors arriving at the site under those specific terms with the amount spent per month - it equates to a hefty CPC.
Well it does if you look at it like that :-) However what the client doesn't seem to appreciate is the other terms that are bringing in traffic to the site. You'd never expect to just see traffic to the site based solely on 5 terms for example. The Long tail principle, comes from the 80/20 rule. 20% of the traffic to your site is coming from those specific terms whilst the significant 80% is coming from related terms. The total number of low-number referred terms outnumbers the total of top 10 terms.
Once you bring in this 80%, the CPC looks alot healthier.

New Blog Setup

Well I thought it was about time i put pen to paper as it were, adding to the millions creating new blogs daily, making more noise in the blogosphere. I don't really use my website too much to market what I do, although obviously I should.... but with a blog I can do something a bit more personal and have a bit of fun with it. My posts are only gonna be short and sweet - please feel free to leave comments.

Online Marketing Basics - The Call to Action!
I was looking at a client's site today, trying to assist him convert more visitors to sales - isn't that always the idea ;-) and I'm just confounded by the obvious. The Call to Action. Surely this is a design basic, you have contact details, such as phone number and email address on each page, above the fold. It's not hard to do and makes all the difference, any visitor that is slightly inclined to contact you, will only look so far to get your details, if they have to navigate off the page they're on to do this, they have to be really keen to speak with you - therefore a high % will not bother.