As a recent college graduate, I have been exploring my post-grad options. In my quest for knowledge (and my desire to delay the real world), I began looking into graduate and law programs at various institutions. As I’ve been conducting my research and going through the application and enrollment processes, I have been sorely disappointed in the marketing efforts of many of the institutions. Sending me information packets or postcards with events that might interest me is only one part of marketing; these institutions are largely ignoring their interactive marketing capabilities. This starts with their websites, which I have found to be generally buggy, confusing, and just plain broken.

Creating a website is considered by many to be “easy” (see Tracy’s post about what you should keep in mind before building a website). But maintaining a website, solving reported issues, and optimizing the website for the best possible responses seem to be issues for these institutions, which I view as unacceptable. For an institution who will toss out applications because of spelling, grammatical, or typographical errors, I expect a higher quality website. Here are a few dos and don’ts when it comes to marketing for an educational institution:

DO: Make all your important information readily available.

DON’T: Rely on the search function. If I have to use your search bar, your site is not adequately designed with user experience in mind. This is website building 101: prospective and current students should be able to intuitively navigate through your site and find everything they need without having to search for it. Read the rest of this entry »

When a company’s website is the foundation of its interactive marketing strategy, that foundation can’t be weak or the house won’t stand. Recently, I’ve talked to a few people who are thinking about building websites for their organizations. While it’s becoming easier to build a website quickly and with minimal technical skills, without some basic knowledge, that foundation is bound to be weak.

Before I knew better, I built a few of these shaky websites myself, and if I weren’t so embarrassed by them, I’d point you to them as examples. Take my word for it: I built bad websites because I didn’t know what I didn’t know, yet forged ahead independently.

Below are the basics I wish I knew then, and now use every day working with Right Source Marketing. If you’re building or redesigning a website, read this primer for help building a site yourself or conversing with whoever is building it for you. If you’re an expert and this bores you, I’d love to hear your additions in the comments section below.

Content Management Systems (or CMS): Gone are the days when only a techie can update a website. Thanks to content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, Expression Engine and any number of others, anyone can edit a website (yes Dad, if you’re reading this, I mean you, even though you’re not on Facebook or LinkedIn).  Make sure your website is built using a CMS so you can edit it quickly, easily, and independently.

Web design vs. web development:  A “web designer” isn’t necessarily someone who builds websites. “Web designers” create the look of a website, and “web developers” actually write the code to make it happen. While web designers are often web developers, and vice versa, you might want to split the roles, especially if your project is complex. A web developer who specializes in back-end data systems probably won’t be the right person to create an aesthetically appealing design. A web designer with a graphic design background probably won’t be the right person to build you a complicated custom app.  Find the right talent for your specific project.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve touched on this topic before, in a great piece Mike wrote last year — All I Need is a Web Designer (which I highly encourage you to read) – but I was reminded of it again in a lunch meeting with a friend last week.  The company recently went through a rebranding process, and as part of this process hired a firm to redesign their website.  So far so good right?

Well, after taking a quick look at the newly launched website it was clear to me that, while the face looked good, there were major issues behind the scenes.  Much like when buying a home, websites can have pretty exteriors, great colors on the walls, but significant issues with the structure and foundation that a home buyer would never know to look for or even how to evaluate.  Hence, the building inspection business.  A good home inspector is worth their weight in gold, but who serves that role as you go through the website process?

For most companies, the process goes something like this:

1. Engage a web design firm, individual, or “digital agency” (whatever the heck that phrase means — whole separate topic for a future post).
2. Trust that everything is being done right, because we hired “somebody that knows this stuff” and we don’t have the knowledge or resources to verify that the right things are being done.

So, getting back to the start of the story, my friend’s company’s new website launches and things look good.  Sure, he said, it was frustrating to be behind schedule, launch late and not know why, but they came away with something they thought looked good, and functioned the way they wanted it to.  And, of course he assumed that it had to be built right because they hired a shop that boasted big name clients and a fancy portfolio.  So, despite the hold-ups and some frustration they were confident that their site was delivered in tip-top shape.

You already know from the beginning of this post that the reality was anything but that.  The newly launched site did not try to keep the same URLs where they could (big for SEO), had no 301 redirects from old pages to new where a new URL was necessary (again a big SEO factor), had the same title and description on every single page (SEO no-no), a slew of images with no alt tags (again, SEO and usability no-no) and a host of other issues the client would never be expected to notice or even know about.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gentlemen, we can build him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world’s ideal web designer. We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.

Who will be that man? Or woman?

I love web designers. Hell, I am actually envious of the really good web designers. It’s a field I wish I had explored further back in college and during the early days of my career. Great web designers – the really great ones – are invaluable pieces of the marketing puzzle.

I can attest to the value of a great web designer because at any given moment, our firm is actively working with 3-4 web designers. Right now, we’re redesigning this blog, creating a client microsite, and plowing through various stages of 3 website redesigns. We can’t do any of that without a team of talented web designers. [And by the way, we're always looking for more. Drop us a line if you meet the criteria below.]

That also means that I can attest to the weaknesses of the not-so-great designers. Surprisingly, these weaknesses are rarely related to design skills. Here’s some simple advice for transforming yourself (or your design firm) from good to great:

Read the rest of this entry »

Whether you live in the Baltimore/Washington area like we do, or have only heard about it on the news, everyone knows we’ve been hit here by record snowfalls.  I saw yesterday that Baltimore just passed Syracuse NY for first place as the snowiest city in the U.S. this winter.

While technology has allowed me to continue working on just about everything I would in a normal day, some of the down time “snowed in” got me thinking about how people might use some of that down time to address items on the “marketing list” (you know, that list some people never quite get to).

With that mind, I went back through some of our posts to highlight 5 pretty tangible and actionable items you can think about, evaluate and improve right away.  And while I tried to avoid the “clip show” format — Didn’t you always hate when sitcoms did those episodes that were just recycled material? – It did seem to work best in this format.

So here you go – 5 Marketing Fixes for a Snowy Week.

1). Fix Your Core Messaging:

We all know how important it is to have a clear and consistent message – But do you have a messaging problem?

Your Marketing Message in 30 Seconds

2). Diversify Lead Generation:

In an ideal world, you are managing multiple buckets of leads, each bringing a different volume, a different quality, and a different set of metrics.  But are you putting all your eggs in one basket?

Buckets of Leads

3). Convert More Visitors to Leads:

Make sure you are getting the most from your online visitors.  Tune up your contact forms and landing pages by looking at 5 common problems.

Better Contact Forms = More Prospects

4). Improve Your Search Marketing:

Writing ad copy for pay-per-click ads, particularly for Google AdWords, is an extremely challenging task.  Are you getting the most from your paid search campaigns?

The Most Challenging Copywriting Job in the World

5). Update Your Website:

Your company may have all kinds of exciting things going on – new customers, partners, upcoming events, etc.  But if from the viewpoint of the random website visitor, you’re not doing much lately it may not be worth taking the next step to get in touch.

Keeping the Newsroom Fresh

Implementing these 5 fixes will help you to upgrade your marketing — And give you a reason to avoid that snow shovel.

Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow@willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.