My New Internet Marketing Blog

Hello folks! I launched a new blog in October 2010 in order to have more control over branding, SEO, and general features. I will no longer be updating this particular blog. If you are interested in learning about internet marketing and practical ways to execute campaigns, check out the site and subscribe to Twitter and the blog's feed. I'm committed to providing only information that grows us as marketers in practical ways.

My Spot | Internet Marketing

I look forward to talking with you.

Sincerely,

Daxon Edwards

Seven Tips for More Productive and Loyal Employees

I used to work for a startup marketing optimization agency here in Nashville, TN named [meta]marketer as an Optimization Specialist (prior to January 2011). My primary role was to manage a team of freelancers who did most of the link building I directed for our search engine optimization (SEO) clients. We paid the freelancers just above minimum wage, and the amount of work fluctuated based on our SEO strategy and client load. Most of the people we hired were just out of college or had jobs in areas not related to our area of work. As a result, and due to the lower level of compensation and repetitive work, I found it challenging to keep freelancers motivated. Most of the workers were millennials--a.k.a. Generation Y. Opinions as to the exact birth dates for this group of individuals varies, but they generally range between the mid-1970s and mid-2000s (quite broad) (source:Wikipedia).

I attended a presentation on this day by Travis Robertson, a small business strategist. His discussion was on Millennials in the Workplace. I found it helpful to hear another person's opinion on how to manage and motivate people in that age range. Often we hear that this generation is lazy, disloyal, and distracted (i.e. A.D.D.). But as Travis points out, they are also considered the most creative and technologically advanced generation. How do you maximize the length and productivity of a millennial?

First, you won't be able to keep them as a long employee. Get that in your head, then turn around to focus on how to make the most of their time with you. Businesses generally love the idea of a long employee. They provide a level of experience that anyone replacing them typically won't have. They are usually more satisfied employees and don't have the same level of maintenance as new, younger employees do. But that world is fast fading. And that's okay. As employers, we have the opportunity to modify our management and expectations. There is a lot of benefit to come from playing to the strengths of this new age group.

I sit right at the cusp between Generation X and Y, but stayed at one of my employers (Thomas Nelson Publishers) for over 9 years. In my point of view, I am quite atypical. Granted, I would have left the company years ago if they had not promoted me regularly, invested in my education (I have an MBA in ebusiness from the University of Pheonix), or not regularly promised me growth in the near future. I eventually left the company (I still passionately believe in the company) due mostly to my desire to broaden my knowledge in another kind of business. Thus, I still came to the same spot many Generation Ys do--needing growth and purpose in a way a company can't provide. I also have many people around me within 10 years of my age, and have watched the millenials' experiences. Their career movement and level of satisfaction typically responds to the balance between how valuable they are and their level of responsibility. Bonuses or compensation rarely had a large effect. Those things were often used as excuses, but it really came down to how much they perceived their own appreciation for their work.

Travis' presentation focused on several suggestions for us managers to help motivate and encourage the younger generation so that they can become effective and valuable to the company. His top three points are:

1. Lead, Don't Manage
2. Motivation Instead of Compensation
3. Overhauling Company Culture

Check out his blog posts, Millennials in the Workplace, for details.

In line with his prodding from this day, the following things I plan to do to motivate my workers and help encourage them to stay as long as they can with us.

1. Give small gifts four times a year (birthday, Christmas, and two random)
2. Provide small compensation growth in connection measured goals (where possible)
3. Reward with growth in responsibilities (i.e. thereby communicating their value to the business)
4. Express "thank you" regularly and encouragement
5. Communicate clear assignment structure and performance grace/forgiveness
6. Provide insight into their career growth and perception, and structure responsibilities that add to their experience
7. Offer interest and a listening ear to their own passions

There are many leadership materials on these subjects. I expect most of us have had them come across our desks or in our education. I could expound more on these by referring to times when I utilized these simple tactics with employees and agencies. It's amazing to me how little money it takes to keep an employee happy and appreciative. Of course, we need to offer raises, but most often these seven actions produce more loyalty than a large raise ever would. Across my career utilizing these actions, I have gained loyal workers, agencies, and employees with very little expense. If you start to incorporate the seven tips, you will find your work environment healthier, employees engaging in better collaboration, and everyone having more patience with one another as we grow and learn. And we all know we need that!

Behavioral Ad Targeting Debate

A recent article by eMarketer spread word on a new study saying people don’t want targeted ads. Earlier studies say differently. How conductors educate the participants within and around questions is just as important as the actual question itself. Context can easily change meaning. Even the order of questions affects respondent perception and subsequent answers. Issues in this conclusion (i.e. data security and customization) need to be approached separately at first and combined down the questionnaire so that customers prioritize their opinion aptly and fears controlled.

My opinion remains unchanged. Customers dislike loosing control of their personal information, yet appreciate customization services. If we communicate our responsibility to protect their information, they will appreciate the benefits we serve and their purchases and activity will speak that message.

As marketers, we must treat customer information tenderly and honorably while using buying behavior and click-throughs to target content. It’s a service first and foremost. But we also benefit from it.


Image source: eMarketer

The Palm Pre, by Sprint

Just got the new Palm Pre, offered by Sprint. I'm usually not an early adopter. That allows other people to work out the bugs for me. But I was ready to be off my Treo 700p and something more iPhone-like.

[Photo taken from CNet's review of the Palm Pre]

I've had it for three days now. Spent a few hours working on getting it up to speed. It's an awesome phone and I'm glad I have it. I certainly recommend it.

Check out Sprint's website for the Palm Pre for a fancy presentation. The phone goes a little slower than the presentation. Sometimes quite slow. But I found based on several videos on YouTube that the phone is faster with most things compared to the iPhone 3G and a few things on the iPhone 3Gs.

My top issues with it are:

1. When typing and wanting to change a word earlier in a sentence or paragraph, it's EXTREMELY hard to put your cursor at the right point. I talked with tech support today and the engineers are aware of this and are thinking through ways to offer a solution in future software updates.


2. Battery life is really short. Definitely not better than the iPhone. Probably worse. I certainly have to charge each day. If I have a couple long conversations, I have to charge even earlier in the day. There are some extended batteries one can buy, however--unlike with the iPhone.


3. BlueTooth goes off if it's not connected to a device. Just talked with tech support on this one as well. Even if you switch it on within the phone, if you don't have something connected to it soon thereafter, it will disengage. Then if a Bluetooth device comes close to it, the device won't recognize the Pre until the Bluetooth application is started.


4. It isn't a problem yet, but plugging in the charging cable will get on my nerves. It has a flap covering the port and it's really hard to get off. They offer a charger that doesn't require you to connect anything to the phone (Touchstone). Cool, yes. Expensive, definitely. However, I found a site out there that offers it for $50.

At this point, I don't really have any other complaints. I've worked with several of their apps. And they do need more, but it's only been out about two months, so I expect more to come. Sprint stores can't keep the phone in stock.

Problems Importing Info from Old Phone.

Contacts and Calendar. I had trouble getting information from my Outlook. It's connected via Microsoft Exchange with my company. The Pre is supposed to have that ability, but it depends on how a company setup their Exchange system. Due to the immediate complexity, I used Google's services for contacts and calendar. I exported my contacts via CSV and imported to my Google account. I then downloaded Google's calendar sync program for Outlook. So, the calendar stays relatively up-to-date, but my contacts will get out of date eventually. I'm still working with my I.T. department on an Exchange solution.

Memos and Word Docs. I have not transferred over my memos (if possible) and my Word documents. The latter shouldn't be hard, but I may have to let go of all my memos. If you have a non-MSExchange version of Outlook, transferring everything to your Pre is really easy for free. They offer a DTA program. But it only transfers the information once. It's not a sync program. You'll have to buy a third party app to continue doing that. However, if you use Google services for calendar, contacts, etc, it stays up-t0-date on the phone pretty effortlessly.

Other than those things, I'm impressed with the phone. As I understand it talking with other iPhone users, moving data to the iPhone wouldn't have been easier. I certainly recommend the phone. It's worth going to a store and playing with it.

Importing Audio Books into Your iPod

Okay, so this isn’t web related, but it’s important enough to put it out there.

Working for a book publisher and owning an iPod and liking audio books means I want audio books on my iPod. Thomas Nelson has many audio book products (fiction, nonfiction, bibles, gift books, Spanish). If I don’t buy audio books off iTunes or Audible, then I have to import them from MP3 CDs or audio CDs. The problem with iTunes is that Apple didn’t really consider the process of importing audio books. Instead, iTunes treats any audio file like a music file unless it has an M4B extension (as of iTunes 7.6 and earlier versions). M4B is Apple’s audio book file format.

What You Really Need to Know: If you change the extension of any AAC file (mp4 or m4a) to M4B and add the files to your iTunes library, it automatically applies its audio book features to the file. There is no special encoding to the file needed.

The rest of these directions offer two different ways to do that, but you may have other options you prefer. One important addition I talk about below is combining CD tracks into one audio book file. It may make some of your audio books easier to use once in iTunes or on an iPod.

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For those of you new to this…

Disadvantages to Non-M4B Files:

1. You can’t put the file into your “Audiobooks” category (keeps it out of your shuffle settings on your computer)
2. You can’t use the bookmark feature, where the playing picks up from where you last left off when listening to the file.

Solutions to Making Audio Clips M4B Files:

1. Convert the audio file to a M4B
2. Change the file extension from AAC to M4B

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Convert MP3 to M4B

Step 1: Import Your CDs as MP3 Files. This is my recommended option. In all my web searching thus far, I’ve only found one converter to do this. Unfortunately, to use the software, your files must be in MP3 format and you must be on a PC. So, if you’re on a PC, you’ll first need to use another program to convert your CDs to MP3s.

In the following steps, they list how to use iTunes for converting your CDs—assuming you want your audio books in iTunes. If you already have the CD in the drive and are planning to use iTunes, hopefully it has already identified the CD and is displaying all the titles and info for each track. If not, don’t enter the information until you import the M4B file later in these steps.

Using iTunes to Convert CDs to MP3 Files. The default audio format iTunes converts to is AAC (i.e. M4A). You’ll need to change the settings to MP3.

1. Under the “Edit” menu, choose “Preferences”.
2. Go to the “Advanced” tab, then in the next level
3. Click the “Importing” tab.
4. From the “Import using” dropdown, choose “MP3”.
5. Next, change your compression setting by selecting “Custom” from the “Setting” dropdown.
6. In the next dialog box, select 36kbps.


1. That’s best for audio books that are comprised mostly of someone simply reading a book.
2. You can go up to 64kbps if you want, but any more than that and you’ll just be taking up space on your hard drive.
3. If the book has a lot of music or sound effects, a 96kbps setting would be better. All the rest of the settings don’t make a big enough difference in my opinion.

Step 2: Combine and Convert the MP3 Files to M4B. Use the Audio Book Converter software suggested by a fellow blogger (reference below). Unfortunately, the converter is only PC friendly. It will combine as many of the MP3 files you want into one file while converting the files to M4B formats. Audio bibles, reference books, or possibly even training books won’t benefit from this as much since you may want to listen to a particular book or chapter. If that’s the case for you, then the next main topic below “Changing the File Extension to M4B” may be a better process for you to follow.

Meander through the Audio Book Converter software after you’ve installed it. Hopefully you can figure it out. If not, comment to this post and I’ll answer your question as soon as possible.

Step 3: Import Your M4B Files Into iTunes. Once you’ve combined and converted your audio books, you’re ready to import them into iTunes. Pay attention to where iTunes (or you) put your MP3 files in the folders on your computer. I suggest they be with the rest of your music files.

The “import” option in iTunes is not the appropriate option to use. Importing sometimes also includes converting, but iTunes will only do one file at a time via that route. Instead, choose to “Add File to Library” under the “File” menu. Select all the files you just finished converting and click “Open”. Since they are M4B files, they’ll go directly into your Audiobooks category without needing to be converted. From there, you just drag the files to your iPod.

Refer to the post from Shivaranjan from Mumbai for more tips—especially keeping the audio books out of your shuffles. Cudos to him. He gave me some key points I posted here—the best being the audio converter.



Changing the File Extension to M4B

This option is best used if you don’t want to combine the audio files into one file or download the software above. It’s also great if you have a lot of AAC tracks to change the file name or extension for—or any file for that matter.

Summary: Remember that iTunes needs audio book files to first be M4B before it will put them in the Audiobooks category. Generally, to get a file into a M4B format, you first make it an AAC format (i.e. MP4 or M4A) and then change the extension to M4B. If you used iTunes to convert the files, remove them from your library. Then, re-add them to it (via “Add to Library”). iTunes will automatically place them into the Audiobooks category at that point.

Step 1: Get the Files Into the AAC Format. I suggest iTunes for this. Before inserting the audio CD, check your import settings. The default in iTunes is AAC. Under the “Edit” menu, choose “Preferences”. Go to the “Advanced” tab, then in the next level, click the “Importing” tab. From the “Import using” dropdown, make sure it says “AAC”. Next change your compression setting by selecting “Custom” from the “Setting” dropdown. In the next dialog box, select 36kbps. That’s best for audio books that are comprised mostly of someone simply reading a book. You can go up to 64kbps if you want, but any more than that and you’ll just be taking up space on your hard drive. If the book has a lot of music or sound effects, a 96kbps setting would be better. All the rest of the settings don’t make a big enough difference in my opinion.

Insert the Audio CD. If iTunes asks to import the CD, go ahead and do that. If your audio book came on more than one CD (which is most common), insert the other CDs and import those as well. They will all be imported into the AAC format. Too bad iTunes didn’t simply include their M4B format from the drop down. It would be so easy to import audio books then.

Entering Track Info. If the title and track info was not automatically entered by iTunes, go ahead and do so at this point. I suggest starting the titles with an abbreviation or the title of the book, then either simply calling them Track 1, 2, etc. or if you know how they are separated, enter that. Leave the album and artist info empty. You can enter it if you want, but it’s not necessary. If you want to, enter the track title info first. Then select all the files at once and change the information so that you do them all in one fell swoop.

Step 2: Change the File Extensions. Download and use the 123Renamer software. I in no way can guarantee or promise you won’t have problems with this program. I merely used it for my purposes and it worked great. It’s not freeware, but it has a 20 day trial. So, if you’re only planning to do a couple audio books or file name changes, then it should work fine for you. But if you buy a lot of audio books, then you may consider buying this or start buying them all via iTunes or Audible. There are several bulk renaming software programs out there. Just search for “file renaming bulk software” via Google or FreeDownloads.com and you’ll get a lot.

123Renamer Software Settings. Once the program is installed, it comes up with two panels. In the small panel named “File Renaming Panel”, on the first tab named “Case/Extension”, in the area named “Extension”, click “New Extension:” and in the dropdown, type “M4B”. Now, in the larger window, go to the folder where iTunes saves the music files. Most likely that’s in you’re “My Music” folder. It probably saved your audio book under “Various Artists” if it didn’t have info entered for it yet. Otherwise, look for the name in the artist field for the tracks, then look for album. You may have changed the way iTunes saved your files, so however you set that, you’ll know what to do. Click on that folder and you’ll see all the M4A files listed on the right. Select them all.


Running 123Renamer. Then, in the small dialog box named “File Renaming Panel”, click either “Apply” or “Preview”. If preview, a new column will display next to the file names in the main window showing what they’ll look like. You’ll have to widen that column out at the top, but if they look right, click “Apply”. And all the file names will be changed.

Step 3: Deleting Old AAC Audio Book Files. Now, go back to iTunes. And, you’re going to hate me with this next part. Delete all the audio book files you just imported. That’s right. Delete them all. But in the box that pops up “Keep Files”. DON’T move them to the Recycle Bin. The files no longer exist since you changed the extensions, but iTunes won’t know that.

Step 4: Importing New M4B Files. Now, add the M4B files to iTunes by going to your “File” menu, choosing “Add File to Library” and going back to the folder where your audio book files are. Select them all and click “Open”. They should all be added to your Audiobook category with the title and track info already present. From there you can just drag them to your iPod folder.

For more tips, refer to the post from Shivaranjan from Mumbai—especially keeping the audio books out of your shuffles.

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I hope this helps those of you who may have had challenges like most of us here. If you have any advice to offer, please offer it here. There are many people with these same concerns. Thank you.

We Are Media

I cannot authoritatively speak for all of us, but from what I have seen, we in the print publication industries find it hard to include digital products in our business. But I think it’d be no surprise to all of us that if we don’t consider publishing more digital products in the near future, our business will be on track for exinction.

But I want to take the concept farther. If we don’t intricately integrate digital publishing into our publishing process and product concepts, we will eventually fail in the dust of other publishers who do. And I’m not looking 10 years down the line as we may naturally feel it is. It’s much, much closer.

I’d like to give some basics to be sure we are on the same page. When I speak about digital publishing, I’m not talking about creating a book or magazine in Adobe InDesign or Quark and then having it printed out. I’m talking about two general concepts.

The first is creating a print product and making it available in a digital form. Magazines have been doing a much better job of this in the last couple of years. You can get many of them in both an online form and print form. Books on the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader fit into this as well. Google’s Books Library Project relates as well. And practically all educational text books are available in a digital form now.

The other concept, and what I really want to encourage all of us to adopt, is not just thinking about taking a physical product and finding a way to use it online. Instead, I want us typical print-version creators to become digital creators.


What Does This Mean?

Consider creating an article with a video component. Integrate the two where each cannot stand alone. Use the video to convey concepts that can only be communicated visually. Use the videos to expound on the text. As they read the article or book, provide a video that dives deeper into the background of a story or concept.

Consider the ipod. Create audio versions of your physical products instead of just text versions. Podcasts pretty much do this. Here’s an article talking about this concept (Podiobooks)

What about a handheld unit that reads books to us almost as clearly as if we were listening to an audio book? It’d be a massive undertaking to have someone read and store every word in the English language, but they could start with words of a popular classic and slowly expand the database with each new title. Each additional book would require fewer unique word recordings. Each book would be a software update until most of the words are recorded, then a simple PDF would work. People could choose to either read or listen as they want. Publishers wouldn’t need to create an audio book version anymore. Taking it further, what if we included dialects for customers? TomTom and some other navigation units provide language and dialect options for many of their units’ spoken directions. What if a person wanted to hear a book read in a female British accent? It would considerably change and customize a book’s experience for her.

What about when selling a digital version of a book or article, it included a video of an author Q&A or a personal message from the author? Or what about the author expounding on the world behind their novel—almost making up another 5 to 30 minute piece. Make it sharable and it becomes a marketing piece for the novel.

What about alternative endings? Remember the movie Sliding Doors? What if I could start reading one book and then choose to split it off and read two simultaneous theoretical experiences? Or what if the digital version gives me enough options to where I almost choose my path for the characters in the book. The story then soon becomes my story and the character becomes my character and takes me along the adventure I create. Maybe the next time I read it, I choose another direction. I think this is a novel idea (no pun intended).

What about marketing promotions? When someone enters a contest to get a book, they’ll also get a personal video from the author to that person along with the book. Think about the ‘cool factor’ they would have when sharing that video or audio with all their friends. “An author actually recorded a video for me. Check it out!”

Here is an article that I think helps traditional media companies think outside the box: The Future for Publishers


Who We Are

To close my thoughts on this subject, I was recently passed a blog post that points out a concept I’ve realized for a few years now. We are no longer a book publisher. We are a MEDIA company. And we will not grow unless we see ourselves like that. No longer can we think in words on a page or pretty designs constrained by 6x8 pages. The day is near if not already when we have our authors’ conceptual messages before us, one of the first questions we consider will be what media we we’re going to launch them in.

In this day and time, we publishers shouldn’t be experimenting with integrating digital publishing into our general book publishing process. It should already be a staple part of our publishing process. Our time and effort wouldn't then be taken up by worrying about how and who's going to create it. Instead, our efforts would be on thinking about how to produce better digital products--like we do today for print products.

But thinking digitally is hard for so many of us editors and publishers. We are so ingrained in printing and editing text concepts, integrating digital for us feels like trying to turn a 1954 Cadillac into a 2008 hybrid. But I encourage all of us to steadily grow and expand our knowledge of digital options and make it a priority to integrate this thinking at the initial book concept. We must start exercising our minds and explore more ways to become digital, not simply adapt to it.

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Trusted Sources of Information

In a growing Web 2.0 world, consumer-generate content is becoming a staple for successful sites and sales. This is a big advantage for word of mouth marketing (WOMM) and those of us interested in using it. But as a novice in this area, you may not be sure what mediums to start with. eMarketer posted an article today with studies indicating people’s most trusted sources and where influencers flock.

As I say in most of my posts, identifying the niche for your product is most important place to begin. The niche(s) determines the subject of your messages and where you go to advertise your product. This perspective still applies with word of mouth marketing.

Information in the following charts can help us understand where consumers trend. We can use the information to choose where to begin our word of mouth campaign or even our general advertising.

We all know family and friends typically give us our most trusted information. The following graph presents consumer-trusted sources by popularity. When thinking about your WOM or advertising campaign, your goal is to get people on board with the following type of classifications or experiences.



People spread the word about a product with varying intensities. The most intense word-of-mouth communicators or “influencers” are the most attractive. One major component of WOMM sometimes crosses with publicity by attracting key persons to review your product and talk about it in articles or on their blogs. The chart bellow from eMarketer, based on a 2006 study, identifies key places influencers go to get their information. The first column, adult influencers, represents key influencers who shape consumer attitudes.


If you want to attract key people to your product, locations in the chart above is where you should start either advertising or request them to review your product.

For those of us who don’t think our product is excellent or that flaws in the product will be learned quickly, I suggest not advertising in some of the locations above. If your product is sub-par, people in these places will be the first to find that out and potentially spread the information on how much your product fails. That statement may seem unethical, but most of us at some point represent products we don’t have in confidence. Yet, we still want to do our best to make it sell as best as possible. Word of mouth marketing doesn’t work positively for weak products. The word will get out about its ineffectiveness (or people will simply not say anything about it). But, it’s possible to slow down the discovery and get strong initial buy-in using other traditional forms of marketing.

Online Advertising Affects Offline Sales

comScore released on Monday results of a study they and Yahoo! conducted of 5 major online retailers with offline store presence.

Article Stats:

• People exposed to both search and display advertising spent 41% more in stores than those who saw neither ad.
• People exposed only to search advertising spent 26% more in stores than those who saw neither ad.
• People exposed only to display ads spent 11% more in stores than those who saw neither ad.
• 89% of consumers shop for information about products online.
• Less than 7% of all sales happen online.
• Almost 90 percent of the incremental sales generated by online advertising take place in-store.
• For every dollar spent online resulting from an advertising campaign, five more were spent by the same group of people in the store.

Why This May Not Directly Relate to You:

The study watched activities and sales of five major retailers. The announcement didn’t mention them by name, but the types were three national department stores, a major apparel retailer, and an office products supplier.

Due to the type of companies, the information may not directly apply to you. The companies in the survey probably have a strong Internet presence. They also can afford to put on large advertising campaigns and provided excellent and clear landing pages and cross-promotions on their own sites. The study also focused on consumers who were spending a bit of time researching products they were thinking of buying.

When putting together an advertising campaign, information on your products needs to be full, complete, and consistent from the ad to the point where the buy process begins. Those elements plus the ability for customers to pickup the product at a location nearby will help produce the results described in the article. Therefore, it’s not just placing the ad that makes a difference, but everything else in-between.

But what if you don’t have retail stores and you only produce the products other retail stores sell? Focus on providing all the right information on the products and then display the retailers near them that sell the product. Although you may also offer an online buying option, you can be confident that significantly more people will choose an offline option than who buy from you.

Conclusion:

Click-throughs are just as important as they always have been. Therefore, this study doesn’t replace the need for targeted advertising. This simply shows that our advertising programs may be significantly more successful if we can make it easy for people to find an offline location near them to pick it up.

References:

• comScore: Yahoo! and comScore Study Finds Online Consumers Who Pre-Shop on the Web Spend More In-Store
• eMarketer: Search and Display Work Better Together

Types of Internet Marketing by Popularity

eMarketer just released an article discussing the effectiveness of RSS. Within this article they provided two graphs prioritizing the types of advertising marketers use the most (presented below). This really was the gem of the article for me.

They represent the conclusive expertise from seasoned marketers on where to best spend your internet marketing dollars. So, if you are wondering what the most effective types of online marketing may be or are trying to determine where to start your spending first, use these graphs to help you make your initial decisions.

Keep in mind that the product/service or company you are trying to advertise may get better results using a less “popular” advertising medium. Identifying your product’s niche is really the most important component. From there, you can decide which medium is best and how to present your ad within it. Good luck!

Viral Marketing Techniques

As I mentioned in a previous post, word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is a recent craze for marketers. Viral marketing is one form of WOMM. It specifically uses social networks to increase brand awareness by creating content people naturally want to spread. Wikipedia defines this in more detail and lists a few techniques. As a person wanting to expand your marketing initiatives or simply learn about viral marketing, you may be wondering what the best performing kinds of viral marketing techniques are.

Effective Social Avenues

Based on an article from eMarketer, the following chart lists techniques and marketers’ effectiveness rating per customer focus.

Finding Your Customer

Knowing your customer and what social sites they visit on the web is an important element to an effective viral marketing campaign. If your company serves a niche, it’s easier to identify the right blogs or informational sites and receive strong results by simply searching the web and talking to industry professionals. If you serve an interest that is broader or in a market that’s relatively saturated, you’ll have a harder time breaking through the clutter. Getting reviews, interviews, or holding your own webinars announced through industry networks may help grow your exposure and ability to get people talking about what you provide.

Focus on Speak-Worthy Content, First

It takes time, but be patient. The most important element to remember in all this is to focus on creating content that is worth passing around. Without it, any viral campaign you embark on will fail. Content that improves one’s life or career or content that is entertaining speaks best. For some industries, creating this content is easy by the very nature of the products or services. But for others, it’s tough. If you can’t think of appropriate content, don’t waste time on this approach. Choose another. Without relative and speak-worthy content, even if you place it on the perfect social site for your industry, it will die or fizzle away. Start with appropriate, honest, and entertaining content. Then find the best places to post it.

Find the Innovators

Expect the curve to be long—as in months. Sometimes, it’s shorter. Sometimes longer. But the most attractive part of this approach is that you get people to be marketers for you. Find the kind of customers called innovators. They are the very first people to come on board. They’ll be a very small segment, but they will be the ones most willing to speak about your product or service. They are also the most forgiving as you develop your product and message. The entire customer adoption curve can be seen in the image below from Value Based Management.

Going from left to right, each kind of customer is less willing to come on board and is influenced by the people to the left of them. As you engage your viral campaign, you may see your message change as the message passes through each segment. You want it to.

Recommended Material

The information I give here is the very tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more to convey if we had the time. I wish you luck as you delve into these activities. It’s fun, exciting, and inspiring to watch people begin to see how usable and awesome your product is. Massaging this process as it travels from one customer adoption to the next is explained more in Seth Goden’s easy read, Idea Virus. Basic tips on how to build an email viral campaign can be found in an article by EmailLabs, a company focusing on viral research, technology, and consulting.

The Rise of Word of Mouth Marketing

If you’ve been following any online marketing trends, word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is a recent craze. eMarketer sent out a newsletter today noting information about the rise of WOMM. Based on information from a BIGresearch study, the article points out that 91% of people in the U.S. sought advice on products or services between November and December 2006—the biggest buying season of the year (chart #080344 below). Ninety-four percent (94%) of us gave advice to others (chart #08033 below).

The article also points out the types of marketing most people prefer to receive based on a DoubleClick study last January (see chart #080163). The top five are:

1. Recommendations from friends (58%)
2. Opted-in email newsletters (33%)
3. TV ads (32%)
4. Catalogs via mail (30%)
5. Magazine ads (30%)

See the full article by eMarketer (available until July 4).

What is Word of Mouth Marketing

I’m about to post information about an eMarketer eblast. Before I do so, I wanted to give a quick overview of what Word of Mouth Marketing is. Wikipedia also has excellent information on this topic.

In the past month or so, I’ve heard TV and radio news programs report on this new trend. Both talked negatively about WOMM. But I think they were looking at the abusers of WOMM instead of those who are using it respectfully and accurately. The basic gist of WOMM is to encourage individuals to give an honest recommendation about your product to others. The realization is that people put more weight on the words from a friend or a person who has already experienced the product.

Abusers of this approach basically hire freelance sales reps to “sell” the product to people they know. Payment is usually received as free product or coupons. The companies strongly suggest what the customer needs to say about the product and the sales goal they need to achieve before a “gift” will be sent. When a company determines what a customer will say, it certainly is not word of mouth. When there are achievement goals to attain a "reward", it is not word of mouth. I don’t have a problem with the approach. But I do have a problem with calling it word of mouth marketing.

To properly entice a person to talk about your product, it’s okay to offer things to increase excitement or to let them know you are thankful they chose to spend their money with you. Usually notification of those gifts happen at the purchase or receipt of your product. What makes WOMM different from incentive programs, such as frequent flyer clubs, are the type of gifts you give. The goal is to enable the person to spread the word about your product with the gift. I suggest checking with the customer to see if they are interested in spreading the word. That can be done simply by providing a means to do so or asking if they want the item you offer to further the discussion. Things given as a “thank you” of course do not need to be opted into. Your return rate on those would obvious be proportionately smaller, but overall activity should be larger.

Other ways of encouraging WOM is to simply provide a vehicle to discuss your product. This can be via an “email a friend” link (although I’m personally not a fan), emailable sample chapters if you’re a book publisher, customer comments on your site, product giveaways for the buyer to give away, or even bumper stickers.

The most important part to remember in all of this is that you need a product that’s worth talking about. Creative marketing can only go so far. If you have a bad product, it’ll come out in WOMM. That was one of my concerns with my websites or products. What if people don’t like them. I’m then empowering people to talk negatively about my product. But even if you don’t attempt to further discussion of your product, people will talk about it anyway. In fact, they already are. The advantage of being more engaged in the discussion is that you’ll find out sooner if the product won’t perform. You'll then be in a better place to allocate your resources in directions you know will succeed.

For more information, I’d recommend a book by Greg Steilstra titled Pyro Marketing. I haven’t read the entire book, but I’ve met with Greg to get its gist and discuss some of my concerns with the WOM approach. He explains things well in the book. His fire metaphor makes understanding the WOMM concept clearer.

There is also an organization, named the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), that is committed to furthering and educating people about WOMM. They also conduct training sessions, webinars, and provide an email newsletter if you want to become a stronger advocate for WOMM.

Favorite Internet Marketing eNewsletters

I subscribe to many electronic newsletters, most of which focus on Internet marketing. Here are the one’s I most highly recommend:

1. eMarketer Daily (left side)
2. MarketingVOX News (the very top-right of homepage)
3. iMedia Connection (halfway down on left)
4. BizReport.com (top-left on homepage)
5. CNET Webware Weekly

The publication I make sure to read every day is eMarketer’s newsletter. The content is concise and doesn’t overload you with various topics. Most articles review studies from other agencies. This gives me insight to consumer behavior and advertising opportunities. My next favorite newsletter comes from MarketingVOX. They include significantly more information, but focus more on the activities of leading companies in Internet Marketing.

Unfortunate in some ways, I typically don’t visit web sites or blogs to learn about information related to marketing or development. I suggest doing so if you have the discipline since many sites without an enewsletter signup can give you excellent information. I prefer information be delivered directly to me since I don’t always remember to visit sites for information and since the schedule of my day varies so widely. Plus, I can then easily archive the information for later reference and pass it around to others in the company.

Another option you can take is to start your own blog aggregator and look for site RSS or ATOM feeds. Internet Explorer 7.0 has an easy aggregator function within it. I haven’t had much luck finding other programs I appreciate. An aggregator enables you to go to one location to view the best content from your favorite sites. As an example, Thomas Nelson created its own aggregator combining blog posts from employees who have them. All of the sites I listed above have RSS feeds. The feeds typically include more information than what I receive from them once each week.

Conversions Increase with Ad Frequency

A study by Atlas Institute found that conversions increase as impressions when advertised across sites (see chart below). I’m not sure about you, but I think that information is common sense already. But what’s different in this study is that the percentage of conversions increase as the number of impressions increase. Instead of the percentage of responders staying relatively consistent no matter where the ad is placed, the overall portion of respondents grows with each ad placement (generally speaking, of course).

The study goes on to indicate that 9 out of 10 people in the study who eventually made a buying decision were reached by the ad in at least one other location (see chart below). We know that repetition is important in advertising. This article helps us know how much our repetitive advertising helps us.

One important note to make is that repetition is not best in all advertising applications. Plus, we should not simply advertise in various locations, but targeted locations where the same consumer visits. That requires a better knowledge of who is coming to our sites and where they shop.

Although, that could be a topic unto itself, I wanted to give you a couple recommendations if you're interested in learning more. Hitwise is a company that provides this data most accurately. But it comes at a steep price. There are some web analytic tools you can buy for your site that attempt to find out this information as well. Both WebTrends and Omniture provide this information if integrated appropriately. They can also be pricy, but if buying the WebTrends software (not the company's hosted solution) the use of the software can be depreciated over time. However, the best reliable option I quickly found for almost any size business is Google’s latest Google Analytics package. It’s totally free unlike the others, but Google then gains knowledge of your site’s performance and visitor behavior. Typically, that won’t be a problem. However, it’s certainly important to note.

The study is summarized pretty well by eMarketer. You can view this article until around July 4.

Standard Corporate Signature Template

For the past two years, I’ve been working on a standard corporate signature for Thomas Nelson Employees. We wanted to have a central place where we could modify a signature template and then, on-the-fly, incorporate the employee’s contact information when they compose an email.

Two years ago, I couldn’t find applications pre-built for this purpose. It was also at a time when the company’s computer operating systems ranged from Windows 98 to Windows XP and Outlook 97 to Outlook 2003. As a result, we decided to hire a Visual Basic programmer to build an application. Unfortunately, due to the varied systems, it became too risky to roll it out at that time.

Now, due to the recent reorganizing in the company, we’ve decided to revive the initiative. Fortunately since 2004, we’ve upgraded all of our computers to Windows XP and Outlook 2003 (or Outlook XP). This significantly reduced the variables we need to consider.

OUR REQUIREMENTS

So that you can put the following tools in context, here are the requirements I used to evaluate options:

1. The signature had to be viewable when composing an email
2. Contact information had to be pulled into the signature for each employee via Active Directory
3. The employee’s computer needed to check regularly for changes to the template
4. We needed to have the ability to use different logos or signature templates for various company divisions
5. The HTML in the signature needed to be relatively compatible with Mac Entourage, PC Outlooks 2000-2007, and most major email clients
6. The signature needed to work with Word as the email editor in PC Outlooks
7. The signature template needed to be easy to update
8. We needed to be able to choose the fonts, colors, signature, and stationery settings in employee Outlooks
9. The application needed to be capable of handling over 600 accounts
10. The application needed to be able to grow with the company and technology

OUTLOOK AND ENTOURAGE SIGNATURES

In order to understand how the solutions I recommend below work, you need a little background on how the signatures work in Outlook XP, Outlook 2003, and Entourage. For the purpose of reducing length, I won’t talk about HTML email coding restrictions. If I haven’t posted an article about this, feel free to comment on this post with your questions. I’ll respond as soon as I can.

Outlook XP and 2003
Three signature files are used for every signature you create. When editing via the signature editor in Outlook, you are editing the signature using HTML. Once you save it, Outlook then creates three files: HTML (htm), rich text (rtf), and plain text (txt). It does its best when creating the rich text and plain text versions. But if you added any graphics or copied and pasted anything from Word (especially with tables), you’ll find spacing is weird or the signature may be totally different than its HTML counterpart. This is why using solutions that create separate versions of the files is important to reduce inconsistencies between the formats. Outlook selects the appropriate signature format based on an email’s format. For example, if you receive a plain text email and reply to it, Outlook selects the plain text version of your signature to use.

The three signature files are located in the following location on your computer (most likely):

C:/Documents and Settings/[your login name]/Application Data/Microsoft/Signatures

Note: If you are not on a corporate network, your login name will be whatever you entered when first installing Windows.

Another option is to have your Exchange server automatically add a custom signature to each email as it goes out. Users won’t be able to see the signature when editing an email since it will be added after the user hits “Send” in Outlook. Unfortunately, these won’t work for Nelson at this time, but I mention my top two favorite solutions for this at the end my list below.

Entourage
Unfortunately, Microsoft’s Entourage is very limited in what code it will allow when composing an HTML email. It views received HTML emails fine, but strips out most of the HTML when composing, replying or forwarding. It also manages signatures completely different than PC Outlook versions. It uses one signature file to store all the information for all signatures a person creates. Up to this point, I haven’t conducted extensive research into whether this file can be programmatically altered.

Mac users’ only option is to modify their signatures manually. For Nelson, we created an HTML version that is friendly with Entourage so that Mac users can simply copy from an email, paste it into their signature editor, and then change the contact information. The disadvantage to this approach is that when the design changes we’ll have to notify and rely on each person to adapt their own. There is no reporting or verification available, and it requires more administration for our I.T. department. This also enables Mac users to have more control over the look and content in the signature, which the company is trying to regulate.

SOLUTIONS

As most of you know, technological advancements in software occur regularly. Therefore after two years, fortunately, a few more appropriate applications exist. The following list includes the best applications I’ve found. If you find others, please add links as comments for all of us.

1. Symprex Mail Signature Manager (my top choice)
2. Fliximation Systems Mailbox Central
3. ITeFlx Adolsign
4. Exclaimer Mail Utilities (honorable mention)
5. SecurExchange AutoContent Edition (honorable mention)

Symprex Mail Signature Manager

This is by far the best one I’ve found for our needs. The features outweigh many other tools I’ve found and what we’ve created with our own programmer. The price is reasonable for us (a little over $2000). The company, Symprex, located in the United Kingdom, provides excellent information about this application on their site. This tool meets all of our requirements when combined with Group Policy.

Features I especially liked:

1. Easy to use editing tool
2. Easy to install on the server and each person’s computer
3. Deployment reporting
4. Customizable signature templates or content for specific departments or groups of employees
   Works with Outlook Web Access

More info >>


Mailbox Central

The pricing for this application is unfortunately very expensive (via personal quote), but the features are in-line with our requirements and it offers a few more options than what we get with our own programmer.

Unfortunately, the information about this tool on the flexnet.com site isn’t helpful. The information never really discusses anything but overall benefits. However, responses from the Fleximation sales team were quick and with patience. They were willing to answer any questions I had and provided me with the User Manual to answer the bulk of my questions. The company is based out of Ontario, Canada.

The most beneficial function not included in this when compared to Symprex is that it does not affect Outlook Web Access. The implementation also looks a little more complicated.

Basic Features:

1. Central editing tool
2. Works with Active Directory
3. Uses a database to create signature
4. Users can see the signature when editing emails
5. Can use this across Outlook profiles (or persons using the same computer)
6. Customizable per employee group in Active Directory

More info >>


Adolsign

This is the cheapest (at $130) and the most basic application I’ve evaluated. Unfortunately for us, a couple fields we want are not available in the application. We could repurpose a couple of the fields already available. However, I contacted the programmer, and he was willing to make modifications as needed at an additional cost. This tool does the basics of what our programmer has already programmed for us when combined with Group Policy. It does not have a central signature editor or reporting capabilities, and we would need to add the ability to have a different signature for specific groups of employees.

Basic Features:

1. Creates signature files from user information in Active Directory
2. Can create vcards (Outlook contact info files) and attach them to emails sent
3. No known limitations with Outlook XP and 2003 on Windows XP

More info >>


Exclaimer Mail Utilities

This is an excellent tool although it doesn’t meet all of our requirements—specifically the capability for users to see their signature when editing emails. However, if that isn’t important to you, then this tool is one of the best out there and has a sales team (in four countries) that is quick and patient when answering emails. Pricing is not available on the site but I have not inquired about a quote.

Just like my #1 choice, it affects signatures for emails sent via the Outlook Web Access, but it also works with emails sent via Blackberrys or the like. It also has the capability to change the entire look of the email by adding a header, employee photo, and much more (see example image). In addition to those, the Mail Utilities come with many other features you may find helpful, including footer disclaimers, auto-responding, spam control, etc. The flyer (PDF) seems to be best resource for getting information regarding this application.

Best Features:

1. Entire email template design control, not just signatures
2. Affects signatures for emails sent from Blackberrys (or other PDA device) via the Exchange server
3. Can setup different signatures for various groups of employees
4. Comes with several additional utilities especially helpful for small businesses

More info >>


SecurExchange AutoContent

The final application I want to recommend is just as powerful as Exclaimer. Created by Nemx Software Corporation in Ontario, Canada, it offers several additional utilities your business might find beneficial. I don’t know what they charge for this application.

Although, this tool does not meet our requirements, it offers significantly more features than would be possible on a client-side signature application. I won’t list all of them here, but if you want controls over more than just the design of the signature, you should definitely check this out.

Best Features:

1. Emails customized to employee groups
2. Ability to exclude signatures for certain recipients
3. Central editing tool
4. Significantly more control than possible on a client-side application

More info >>



I hope you found this information helpful. Glad to share my research. Good luck selecting your own corporate signature management application.

---

DEFINITIONS:

Microsoft Exchange—This is the central system providing all of Outlook’s functions on a corporate network such as calendar, email, contact information, etc. It is typically not necessary for running Outlook, but on a corporate network it provides content protection, collaboration, a central source for schedules, employee information, and much more.
wikipedia info | back

Active Directory—An element of Microsoft Exchange that offers the ability to control many computers in an enterprise. The signature applications I reviewed use this to access the LDAP database, which contains our employee contact information (LDAP is also part of Microsoft Exchange).
wikipedia info | back

Group Policy—Works in conjunction with Active Directory to control Windows operating system settings globally for every employee computer on the corporate network (including Outlook settings). There are of course limitations based on the operating system and version of Outlook, but most of our setting requirements can be managed via this application since we all have Outlook XP or 2003. What isn’t naturally part of the system can sometimes be programmed or worked into the Outlook COM Add-in (see below).
wikipedia info | back

Outlook Web Access—This is basically the web version of Outlook for employees that want to access email away from work. It does not have as many features as the Outlook software, but a person can handle the majority of their needs for conducting communication. This feature is only available on Microsoft Exchange version 5.0 and higher.
wikipedia info | back

Visual Basic—This is the programming language used in Microsoft Office applications. A novice can begin coding in this language via Microsoft’s scripting tool included with Office. Using this language, you can modify Outlook (or any Office application) to perform any number of simple to complicated tasks. This includes modifying the look of Outlook, creating a customer resource management tool, changing Outlook settings, and creating your own toolbar with your own set of functions.
wikipedia info | back

Outlook COM Add-In—Created using Visual Basic, this module offers a company the ability to expand features in Outlook tailored more specifically to its needs. Integrating this is as simple as dropping the add-in “dll” file in a specific folder on the user’s computer and “turning it on” in Outlook. Since I want users to see the signature when composing an email, an add-in is the only way to make this happen. All of the “solutions” I offered above use this approach.
wikipedia info about COMs | back

DLL—This stands for dynamic link library. These files extend the capability and features of a program (exe file). An Outlook COM Add-In is basically a dll file. Visual Basic is used to program the file.
wikipedia info (link didn’t work at time of post) | Other Info | back

I'm It!

As started by Mike Hyatt here at Nelson, I’ve been “tagged” by Jim Thomason, the Vice President of Human Resources for Thomas Nelson Publishers. We’re to tell five things “You Don’t Know about Me”. So, here it goes.

I grew up in the funeral business. My dad is the third generation running his family’s funeral home chain in Fort Smith, AR. His favorite part of the job is to wait on families and help them through the process of honoring their loved ones. He loves his business. However, I wasn’t so dead set on it. :o) I have a great appreciation for the service, but it’s not something I wanted to do for my future. I decided instead to go more creative routes.

I play the piano. Since I was five I’ve had my fingers on a piano. But I didn’t fall in love with it until I was about 13. Since then, I’ve never stopped my love for the instrument. Unfortunately, I haven’t been serious about it for 12 years. So my skill has dropped significantly. As an example, here’s a spur of the moment recording of a song I was writing nine years ago. I have plans this year to bring it back up. But, reading sheet music? What’s that? :o)

I grew up playing golf. My dad does two things every day: work and play golf. Nothing else unrelated really computes with him. As his son, he made sure that I learned golf as well. I was eventually good enough to play on a golf team in high school. But I didn’t like the person I became on the course. So eventually I decided to stop until I was mature enough to play the game with respect. Unfortunately since then, I’ve rarely picked up a club. When I do (about once a year), my shots are so sporadic it becomes more of a fun betting game. “Five dollars you’ll duff it!”

I enjoy photography. For about three years now, I’ve taken a greater interest in photography—as in taking pictures of God’s world around me. I would barely call myself an amateur since I don’t really even study the art form. Camera equipment is expensive, so for now I have a compact Canon PowerShot S1. It has a 10x zoom. Surprisingly, I’ve been able to capture a few okay photos. Recently, I went to Haiti with a ministry here in Nashville and was able to capture some good shots. The album you’ll see is meant to be a summary of the trip. So, you’ll see good and average shots in there—for an amateur of course. :o)

I went to college to be a sound engineer for recording studios. Although I loved making music (singing mostly) in high school, I realized the future was slim. So, instead of pursuing that life style, I decide to stay more technical and work on sound scaping. :o) Toward the end of my collegian experience, I realized that lifestyle was even worse than if I had decided to pursue being an artist or song writer. So, since I have a passion to serve, I decided to pursue work in Human Resources. Although that initially sounds right, we can all make life-changing impact serving people in any position and career. Fortunately though, I learned through the position that web design was the perfect blend of creativity and technology for me. So, I quit my job (with the little web experience I had) and went to look for a job in the web world. Soon after, a lady here at Nelson decided to take a chance with me. That began my career at Nelson about six years ago.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. :o) I’m now going to send on the honorable task to Christy O'Flaherty, Larry Downs and Thom Chittom. Tag! You’re it!

If you have any questions, feel free to comment. I'll respond as soon as I can.

Site Requirements Documentation

If you have never developed a web site before or you are a novice and are planning to develop a web site in the future but wonder how to communicate your site to a designer, here is some information that may be helpful to you.

If you are reading this, you probably know the purpose of the site you want to build. However, there are many steps between where you are now and actually having a web designer build the site. The first thing I suggest you do is build what we in the industry typically call a "Requirements" document (a.k.a. site requirements). This is typically a written document that has everything you can think of in it. Examples may be what elements you want on the site, design ideas, how you plan to support it, marketing efforts, etc. The last two are typically not in an 'official' Requirements document, but it will significantly help you put your head in the right frame of mind and know what commitment is necessary to make your site a success.

Building a great site is not enough. You need to get the word out. You also need to make sure you have the time to give to making your site a success. Of course success is different for everyone, but defining that success and how you will reach it will go a long way to help you develop a winning web site.

For the marketing directors I work with, I have them answer at least three questions:

1. Who's this site for
2. Why are you building it
3. How will and why are you promoting it

They seem like common questions, but each one helps:

1. a web designer know visually what the site needs to look like and how easy-to-use vs. artistic the site needs to be,
2. you to know what your goal is,
3. you to know what you're going to do to promote the site, and
4. you to know what your mission is with the site.

By going through these questions, you can then have an end in mind and can begin planning your site out in more detail with the Requirements documentation.

I've put together my suggestion on what you should begin with for a basic or small web site. My example only contains three sections. In the past, I've had Requirements that number of 50 main sections and hundreds of pages. Starting small is important. You'll find that as you build your document, it will naturally grow as you think through each element and what you want to acheive. The sections I would start with are are:

1. Key Features
2. My Support
3. Questions

Key Features

The key features are probably what you already naturally have in your head when you're thinking about your web site. This includes a list of the most important elements you want on your site, what you think visitors will like about it, and the basics of what you know you need on the site but that may not be as interesting. For example, if I wanted to build a site that sold 60s style furniture, I would develop the following list (phrases in parenthesis are to help you know what I'm thinking behind each feature):

1. Photos of furniture (With furniture or any product, photos are the best selling points of an items. This needs to be as many as I can get my hands on. Interiors of images, photos of all angles of a product, etc. People can't handle the product like they can in a store, so you've got to help them do so online. This is one of the weakest elements of large retail sites. But if you're starting small, you have the advantage and maybe time to provide excellent information on each product or service you have.)
2. Rotating home page furniture feature (This is a flashy element and serves as an ad for your products. Target.com and other retailers use this feature. Doing this feature cheaply is hard, and thus requires more maintenance on down the line. So, if you want this, make sure you know what the process of updating the images will be. If the designer says it'll be easy, force him to be detailed. Sometimes what is a small task, won't be so small for you.)
3. Videos talking about the quality of the pieces and how they are made (This will be hard to do well on small budgets. But the idea of this is similar to feature #1 where since people can't handle the product, you should help them. This is not a necessary feature, but one I think would be great and helpful to the users. Plus, I also need to make sure to look into its feasibility.)
4. Ecommerce using PayPal (PayPal is an inexpensive and easy way to add ecommerce capability to your site. However, if you want ecommerce capability on your site that is seamless with your design, your web designer may know of inexpensive services.)
5. My business description
6. Seasonal promotions (If you are selling products, be sure to categorize them. But more importantly, if you plan to advertise products based on season, special events, or other format, thinking through those in detail before designing your site will make it much easier and less expensive when it comes time to begin that promotion. Thinking through it will help you know what you need to have on the site and what you want it to look like.)
7. Monthly eblasts (Sometimes this can be quite an undertaking, but if you are an author or someone who has a small list of people, it may be simple to do. In your eblasts, you may want to use some of the design elements of the site or include links to specific locations in the site--even maybe on a page. This is important to know for a designer so that he can include that in his design initially. This will avoid you having to pay for him to make a change down the line when it will be relatively more expensive.)
8. Search engine marketing (This is important because you will need to know how to optimize your site for search engines. This is a science in itself, but some basics are to make sure you have a descriptive and specific page title for every page in your site, for section headers or any important pieces of content on the site the designer use html header codes [H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.], and finally write your text on the page with the keywords people may search by to find your site. Sometimes using industry terms is not what most of your buyers will use when they think of your products. Include the common terms many times in all three of those elements, and you'll go a long way to improving your placement in all search engines.)
9. 60s motif (I'm basically talking about the look and feel of the site. If you know of others out there, or you have pictures of your furniture, give these things to the web designer. It will go a long way to helping them create a design that reflects your intention on the site.)
10. Image heavy design with bright colors (Image heavy sites are slower to show for people than mostly text sites like Amazon.com. However, images are worth a thousand words. Finding that balance is challenging. I just how image heavy a site should be based on how artistic or creative what I'm selling is. If I'm an author, a cool looking site is great, but people aren't there to see a cool site. They are there to find out about me. The rest is icing. If I am a designer, however, a cool site is important to showing my capability and eye for design to my clients. If I sell excentric furniture, don't use low prices to attract buyers, then I would choose a more artsy design to represent the quality and care in design I take to my products.)
11. URL (have you reserved it yet? You'd be surprised how many marketing directors start developing a site, but don't try to buy the url until they are ready to launch the site, only to find it's not available. This is the very first thing you should do. If you're going to build a business around this, don't delay.)

Making a list of features or site needs is the most important list you can make prior to talking with a designer. Additionally, he or she may have other ideas that will improve your web site and make it more fun for them to design and for your visitors to experience.

If you need recommendations of designers I have used for small and medium sized projects, check out the following:

• www.staffordstreet.com
• www.acfconsulting.com
• www.pixelgrazer.com

My Support

This section is a list of what you can offer to support the site as it is developed and once it is up and running. It could include places you realistically can advertise the site (i.e. Marketing), how often and how much time you can give per week to update information on the site, contacts you can utilize to help gather content and find out information, and the budget you have for the year on this. For my furniture web site, I would include:

1. Monthly eblasts
2. Search engine marketing
3. 4 hours per week
4. $9,000 for first year
5. Trade show brochure ads
6. Local newspaper ads
7. Blogs
8. Grassroots efforts
9. Johnny Doe Web Designer (the person you want to design your site)
10. Long John Hosting Company (the company that you will use to host your web site. A designer can help you with this. There are many cheap services out there. One I strongly believe in is www.dogbark.com.)
11. eBusiness 2.0
12. etc.

The purpose of this section is to understand the efforts required and the limitations you have to make the site successful. When you discuss your web site with your potential designers, they may know how to develop a system that will work within your means and not just your budget.

On a side note—regarding your budget, I recently read an article that said companies creating a new web site should expect to spend on advertising at least twice the amount spent on creating the web site. That’s a hard call for small businesses or personal web sites. But that should also give you an idea of what to expect to spend to promote your web site—whether it be business cards, web banners, direct mail, etc. Many people have this belief that if you build it, they will come. A web site is similar to products; you must market it before people can know about it. Even then, there is a lot of advertising noise out there. Getting past it is quite a challenge. …But that’s a posting for a later time.

Questions

As a novice planner, you probably have a ton of questions. Write them down before you talk to a designer. Be honest with yourself. Categorize the questions. This will help you be clear with the designer as to your level of web understanding. One note of advice, do not select a designer until you feel like you have an understanding of the project and what is required. It may take a while to get there and a lot of reading. However, if you are hasty in your selection and the designer begins working on your site, it’s possible you may have incorrectly identified your needs, your customers, and how to meet those needs with the web site. Most especially when funds are tight, haste really makes waste.

Questions I may have written down for my first web site:

1. What ecommerce options do I have?
2. What is Flash?
3. What is web hosting?
4. What’s a server?
5. What is ASP and PHP?
6. What can we do to make this site as easy to maintain as possible?
7. Do I need any special software?
8. What do you need from me to make your job easier?

Utilizing the expert advice from designers can be very valuable. Sometimes you don’t know what questions, support, or offerings you have until you begin talking with them. But having something written down from the beginning, no matter how vague, can be helpful in gathering your thoughts and letting you know where you stand—and where you need to go.

Conclusion

Utilizing Requirements documentation will help spur further discussion when you talk to potential designers. They also become what the contract is based off of so that both parties know what to expect. The documentation will also help you conceptualize what you are really asking for and whether or not you can afford it. The designer can then work with you on developing a plan that will still meet your needs but also be within your budget. Never rush a low-budget project and plan as much as possible prior to beginning the work. It will pay off when the site is finally ready to launch.