By Annmarie Ely
Podcasts are a popular form of news and entertainment, and they are growing in popularity. According to PR Daily, in 2022, “62% of U.S. consumers listened to podcasts, up from 57% the previous year.” Being a podcast guest can be a great way to reach a specific target audience. Being on a podcast can also help add to the variety of ways you’re sharing your clients’ stories and thought leadership.
Below are five key tips to keep in mind when working with podcasts.
1. Research Podcasts to Find a Great Fit Before Reaching Out
You can find podcasts in a number of places. One great place to look is your existing media list. Explore websites from your current media list to see if any of the media outlets have podcasts. You can also find podcasts through trade shows, media databases, and roundup articles, such as, “13 Educator-Approved Podcasts to Listen to This Year,” published by Edutopia. Asking people what podcasts they like to listen to can also help you discover new shows in a target industry. Before reaching out, research the show, past guests, and what topics the podcast covers. You can often find highly-targeted shows which can provide tremendous exposure to a prospective audience. Get a feel for what the host talks about and make sure your client is a good fit for the show.
2. Share Concise, Scannable Information About the Potential Guest
When reaching out, share who the guest is, the topic they can discuss, and what qualifies them as an expert on the subject. It can be helpful to include a short bio, links to social media accounts like LinkedIn and Twitter, and examples of audio interviews if they’re relevant. For hosts and producers, it can be useful to hear audio of previous interviews with a guest ahead of time.
3. Prepare for the Interview: Consider Where it Will Be Recorded and What Your Client Will Need
Before the interview, consider how your client will get their message across and the types of content that may be used. Episodes can vary in length from shorter shows to long in-depth conversations. Find out how long the episodes will be and plan talking points with the length of the show in mind. Also, find out what types of content will be pulled from the interview. For example, will video or screenshots from the interview be used on social media to promote the show? Once you’re ready with talking points, remind your client to have an area for recording that is quiet, has a stable internet connection, and doesn’t have an echo. Check to see if the host prefers that guests use a headset or mic if recording remotely.
4. Remember that Podcast Hosts May Be Balancing Other Roles
Depending on the size of the show, the host may also be balancing other roles. Hosts also often book guests, edit the episodes, or create other forms of content for a media outlet. Keep this in mind when working with a podcast. According to Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2022 report, “most journalists surveyed create content in at least one medium in addition to their primary medium. Online (38%), print (25%), newsletter (17%), and podcast (15%) were the top additional mediums.”
Try to plan well in advance and be accommodating of any scheduling needs. Consider the topic, how often the show comes out, and the time needed to produce the episode. Choosing a topic that will be newsworthy for a longer time can be helpful for a podcast.
5. Share the Episode with Your Network and Encourage your Client to Share the Episode on Social Media
After the episode comes out, don’t forget to share it! A podcast episode can be shared internally with your team, utilized by sales during outreach, and on your website and social media. Make sure to share and promote the episode widely once it comes out.
Podcasts are popular with today’s consumers and can be a great way to reach a targeted audience of people who are interested in a specific topic. When working with podcasts, it’s important to do your research before reaching out. Share concise, easily scannable information about the potential guest and how they’ll add value to the show. Before the interview, find out how long the show will be, what content will be used, and what you’ll need for the recording. After your client has been a guest on a show, be sure to share the episode on social media and other channels!
By Lindsay Hull, Director of Media
You secured a media interview for your client. Yay! Now what? When you are asked to facilitate an interview, it is important to remember that the goal is to position your client’s organization in the best possible light – whether it’s for a product launch or a profile piece on an executive. If you (or your client) are not prepared, interviews can be nerve-wracking and sometimes frustrating. To facilitate a successful media interview, there are a few key things to keep in mind. Here are five tips for making the most of your next media interview.
1. Prepare Your Client
Preparing for a media interview is all about managing expectations and setting the stage for success. To do this, PR people need to consider the message they want to communicate and the audience they are trying to reach.
Once that framework is in place, the PR pro should develop a briefing document for the client that includes potential questions and key talking points, along with other important information like details about the reporter, past articles by the reporter, the logistics for the call, and so on. These details will help the client understand the goal of the interview, stay on message, and position the interview for the publication’s audience. Coordinating a prep call with your client to rehearse their responses is also a helpful tactic, particularly for high-profile interviews. For some interviews, it’s also important to practice how the client will react if confronted with tough questions or unexpected follow-up questions. By simulating different situations ahead of time, both you and your client will feel more confident when it comes time for the real interview.
2. Make Introductions
Once you’re on the line with the reporter and your client, it’s time for introductions. As the PR pro, it is your job to set the stage for a productive discussion and help everyone feel at ease. Be prepared with the client’s name and title and have a short synopsis of what they’ll be talking about during the interview (it’s a good reminder for both the client and reporter). If there are any topics that are off-limits, or if the discussion is under embargo, now is the time to remind the reporter.
Following introductions, it’s also important to communicate what your role will be during the interview: to support your client during the interview with additional information as needed, and to handle any follow up items that need sending – images, additional information, etc. This gives everyone on the line full transparency.
3. Monitor the Interview
Once introductions are complete and you hand the conversation over to the reporter to begin their questions, you have several jobs to keep in mind as you monitor the interview. The most important thing is to listen carefully and take good notes. Being an active listener in the interview ensures that you can intervene (if need be) so that the message you want to communicate is accurately represented in the story. Listening carefully is also critical for Step 5 when you provide performance feedback to your client. Plus, you may be able to pick up on some new details or tidbits from your client that can be used to craft your next great pitch! Lastly, if your client forgets to mention an important talking point, now is the time to bring it up. If you’re off exploring what your next pie recipe will be and not paying attention to the interview, you may miss your chance.
4. Close the Interview
As the interview comes to a close, always thank all parties for taking the time to conduct and participate in the interview. Second, you should invite the reporter to contact you if they have any further questions or need clarification on anything. Finally, while you have them on the line, you can ask the reporter if they had a sense on when the article will be published. This is key information so that you can send your hard earned media coverage to your client in a timely manner.
5. Provide Your Client with Helpful Feedback
It’s important to provide feedback to your client after a media interview, whether it was positive or negative. You can help them understand how they did and what they can improve upon for next time. This feedback is crucial for helping your client learn and grow as a media personality.
Following these five steps will help you prepare for and facilitate a successful media interview. Planning ahead and being prepared are essential to ensuring a smooth and stress-free interview. Let us know of any additional tips or information you may have!
By Megan Harp
Despite the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public relations and marketing industries, social media influencers have shown that they are here to stay, and incorporating a strong influencer marketing strategy continues to be a lucrative effort for brands. In fact, new research states that influencer marketing spend has increased by $8 billion in the past four years and is expected to reach $13.8 billion by the end of 2021.
What are the top benefits of working with social media influencers? Here are the top 3 reasons you should include an influencer marketing strategy in your next campaign.
Influencers Are Storytellers with Loyal and Targeted Audiences
To this day, word of mouth is still one of the most effective forms of marketing. Influencers are modern-day storytellers. They are experts at conveying messages and building strong, long-lasting relationships with their followers. Influencers tend to have followers that belong to a specific niche, such as moms, dog lovers, etc. As a result, using influencers is a great way to reach your target audience.
Influencers Are Trustworthy
Influencers share their personal lives and tell stories that resonate with their followers, which establishes trust: and trust is valuable. Research shows 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations. Consumers are constantly checking social media to keep up with the latest trends and are looking to influencers as a trusted source for their buyer decision process. A recent study found that 53% of women made purchases due to influencer-sponsored posts. Influencers provide detailed and honest feedback on products and services along with a friendly, established relationship, making them the go-to resource for what products and services to entrust your hard-earned cash with.
Influencer Marketing is Budget-Friendly
Influencer partnerships can be created with any size budget. There is a wide range of influencers varying from nano influencers (1-10K followers) to mega influencers (1M+ followers), so when considering influencer marketing cost, you should select influencers who fit within your budget and whose personas will resonate with your target audience. According to a recent poll, businesses are making $6.50 for each $1 spent on influencer marketing, with the top 13% earning $20 or more. The same study also found that influencer marketing tied with email marketing as the most cost-effective online customer acquisition channel.
Influencer marketing has proven to be an effective form of marketing that will only grow in the years to come. Ready to get started with your own influencer marketing campaign? Contact us to see how you can maximize ROI on influencers in your next marketing campaign.
By Patrick Reilly
We’ve all been there. The client has no upcoming announcements and the proactive pitches just aren’t hitting the mark. That doesn’t necessarily mean the pitch angles aren’t ideal or that the topics aren’t of interest, but as public relations professionals, we are in a results-oriented industry where it’s our job to deliver media opportunities and coverage.
In this scenario, the best option would be some good, old-fashioned rapid response pitching. For those unfamiliar with the term, rapid response pitching entails some due diligence in searching the internet to find relevant media coverage that aligns with your client’s industry or a particular pitch angle and, well, responding to them rapidly. This practice is a great way to build media lists and create new relationships while securing interviews and coverage. Here are a few tips to get the best results from your rapid response pitch:
Track Your Client’s Keywords
This can be achieved by using services like Google Alerts or Talkwater, where you set up alerts for keywords that are relevant to your clients. For example, if your client is focused on “Cloud Cost Management,” you should include everything that is related to this topic, which may include a broader term like “Cloud Computing” to something more niche like “Cloud Cost Optimization” or “Collaborative Cost Management.” Major players in this industry should also be included, such as “AWS” or “Azure” in this example, to see who is writing about these organizations.
You should also include your client’s top competitors in your search. These might actually end up being the “low-hanging fruit” in terms of getting interest from reporters. Rapid response presents an opportunity to reach out to editors and explain what your client is doing and how they are better, different, or deserve inclusion in future story ideas. In addition, you should also customize all of your alerts to get notified as soon as they happen – this way, you’re one of the first to get the hot news stories.
Check Media Alerts Often
PR professionals should start the workday by checking their media alerts and repeat the process throughout the day. While scanning keywords for proactive pitching, you can identify whether the article is a good fit, as you will quickly find that a good portion of articles that come through are not relevant or come from small outlets outside of your client’s target geographies.
If you find a great article from a desirable outlet, you then move on to the next step (see below for how to go get ‘em). Another avenue to consider is a simple Google Search on related topics and see what the media is writing about in the last month that might be worth some outreach.
Go Get ‘Em!
Ok, you identified a perfect article – so, now it’s actually time to respond. The subject line I like to use is a simple “In response to your recent article in the Wall Street Journal” or something more broad and ambiguous that is more likely to grab a reporters attention. They are getting hundreds of pitches a day, so a subject line that is not too specific might encourage them to open the email – especially when you are talking about something they already wrote. The best way to start an email is to politely touch the reporter or editor with a simple lede that starts off something like the example below:
Hi xx,
My name is Patrick Reilly and I help conduct the PR efforts for “Clients Name.” I notice that you recently wrote the article entitled “XYZ,” and I’d love to connect you with “Spokespersons name”, “Title” of “Clients Name” – “Clients Key Message” to talk about “pitch angle.”
After your intro, customize the rest of the pitch to fit the angle and make it more personal. Sometimes the article might follow exactly along the lines of the angle you are pitching, and the reporters might not be that interested in speaking to your client since they just wrote about that topic. In this situation, it is still a good idea to reach out, as the reporter might have a follow up story or want to keep your client on radar for any related stories they’re working on. With pitching, the worst answer you can get is “no” – but you can move on and find another article of relevance to rapid respond to.
Responding to Rapid Response
I think this might be the most overlooked part of rapidly responding to the media – forgetting to follow up with the initial email. It is a good idea to respond directly to the email you originally sent, which gives you a ‘second chance’ to send another broad and ambiguous subject line that references what the reporter already wrote. For example, the response email can look like the example below:
Hi xx,
Just bumping this email to the top of your inbox!
Let me know if you can set up a future call with “Spokesperson name” “title”, of “Companies Name” to discuss “relevant pitch angle” for a story idea. Let me know what time/date works best to schedule a call.
Let me know if you also might be working on future related stories where you can use “spokesperson’s name” as a source.
Thanks!
XX
I wouldn’t follow up more than once on a rapid response via email – but you can also call the reporter on the phone to follow up with a similar message. Since the first note is a rapid response, the follow up is more of a courtesy reminder, after that – you are just annoying the reporters.
Timing – How Soon Is Now?
The ultimate idea of rapid response pitching is exactly that – responding right when a news article is fresh. However, since we are not robots and because systems like Google Alerts are not always reliable, it’s not always possible to get to every relevant story immediately. Ideally, rapid responding to articles should be within a few hours to days after they run – but it’s ok to reach out as far as three months after the story has ran. This also depends on the angle you’re pitching and the story itself of course. If the original article is a feature on “sustainability in cloud management,” you have more time to respond. However, if it’s a major announcement from a company, I think two weeks might be the most time you have before it’s considered ‘old news.’
Rapid response pitching is a fantastic way to create new and strong media relationships, build media lists for reporters that might not be listed on Cision or other media monitoring platforms, and above all, get a new interview in a desirable outlet that will hopefully turn into coverage.
Surveys can be an excellent way to generate media opportunities and gather data to support your key messages. One of the most popular sites to use for creating surveys is SurveyMonkey. In order to produce the results you want, execution is key. However, if you’ve never used this tool before, it can be tricky. Below is a checklist of best practices for creating and promoting a survey for your PR or marketing program—this is no time to monkey around!
- Plan, plan, plan. The most important thing to do when planning a survey is to determine what your main objective is and to formulate the right questions in order to reach your ideal outcome.
- Think like your audience. When writing your survey, be sure that the questions and answers make sense and are easy to understand. You want respondents to be able to navigate through your survey without any hiccups caused by unclear wording.
- Spice things up. Use different types of questions to keep your survey interesting and your respondents engaged, i.e. multiple choice, ranking and open ended.
- Control V. You can manually type in each question and answer, or you can copy and paste into the text boxes. The latter can be a huge time saver if you already have approved text.
- Concise is nice. Make sure every question you ask gives information that will help you accomplish your main objective. Survey fatigue begins to set in after about 20 questions. Answer quality will decrease after that, so be mindful of the time commitment you’re expecting from your respondents.
- Be logical. Your survey may include multiple paths based on how respondents answer certain questions. This will require you to use the “page logic” and/or “skip logic” features. Page logic allows you to jump from a question on one page to a new question on a different page. Skip logic allows you to skip from a question on a page to a different question on the same page. Use these wisely to give respondents a more personalized experience.
- Practice makes perfect. You should have several people run through the test version of your survey multiple times, taking each path, in order to check for any malfunctions, errors, or mistakes in the logic.
- Pick your poison. Will you purchase respondents or use an existing list to deploy the survey?
- Leverage SurveyMonkey list(s)
- SurveyMonkey offers incentives to the people on their lists and handles the distribution of your survey for you.
- Email the link
- You can create a custom list or use an existing list to mail out the survey link with instructions.
- Post the link on social media
- You can easily share a link to the survey on social media platforms with a message asking your followers to complete it.
- Leverage SurveyMonkey list(s)
- Responsible for responses. If you purchase a SurveyMonkey list, you will need to specify the number of responses you need. The survey will automatically close when the desired number of responses has been reached. There is a required minimum of at least 50 responses.
- It’s all about results. You will be able to view the results several ways.
- Question Summaries – This gives you a breakdown of every answer for every question. The information is presented in a bar graph with percentages, as well as in a chart with physical numbers and percentages. This is the easiest to read and most helpful option for analyzing the results of your survey.
- Data Trends – This utilizes bar graphs to portray any trends that may have occurred within each question.
- Individual Responses – This allows you to view each completed survey, one by one, to see how every respondent answered each question.
- Excel Export – This gives you the option of downloading an Excel spreadsheet with all of the results by clicking “Export All.”
With SurveyMonkey, you can develop, distribute and analyze your survey to provide reporters with important statistics and proof points. Getting reporters to cover your survey results requires effective execution and promotion. Remember these 10 tips and get started on your survey today!
Ah Wikipedia! The stand-alone source that almost everyone goes to when in need of instant information that is written in plain language on just about anything. With so many people using Wikipedia, adding your story to a wiki post can increase awareness, visibility, credibility, and traffic to your website.
Wikipedia can serve as a valuable channel when leveraged appropriately, in an unbiased way.
Here are 5 tips to posting on Wikipedia:
1 – Research: Before jumping into the Wiki-sphere, it is critical to review posts where you think your input would be suitable. It is best to steer clear of pages with limited information or many errors. If a Wiki page has many postings from different contributors, try and join the conversation in the best way possible.
2 – Wording: Always stay neutral. One of the five pillars that form the foundation for all Wikipedia policies and guidelines is that Wikipedia has a neutral point of view. This is what makes it such a valuable source for its users, so Wikipedia does everything in its power to stay that way. Posts that appear to be self-serving or biased will be deleted. Additionally, posts that are taken verbatim from another site will also be deleted. Posts must be written in plain language or you will not be accepted as a contributor.
3 – Plan: Plan your approach. After conducting your research, make sure you write down everything you plan to say for your contribution. Determine where, and in what order, you plan to post. It will look suspicious if you are contributing several posts on one page, so post to one page and then move to another. This also spreads your name around to various topics, which helps increase credibility and visibility.
4 – Timing: While you may be eager to establish a page for your brand immediately, it is best to start with baby steps. After determining your plan of pages to contribute to, post once a week and slowly build a reputation across various sites. Be patient – it will pay off!
5- Sources: Every post you add in Wikipedia needs a source. Period. If you can’t find a source on what you are trying to say, then rework the post so you can add a source. Your source cannot be from a company website, it needs to link to third party articles such as news sources or press releases posted on news sites.
Do you have any other tips for building your Wikipedia presence? Leave your comments or tips below!
Post by Patrick Reilly, Strategist
First things first: the Creative Brief.
So, what is a creative brief?
Think of a creative brief as a sort of map that will lead the team’s creative thinking from problems to solutions. Now, more than ever, creative briefs are a necessary first step. They provide a skeleton or blueprint for your creative approach, which includes well-identified and well-articulated summary of the key factors and variables that can impact a project. It also includes things like client preferences, information about competitors, business and brand goals, and project particulars. Attempting a project without a brief is like going on a journey without a map.
A creative brief will answer the following questions:
- How is the project defined? What is to be created?
- What is the purpose of the project?
- What are the challenges, if any?
- Who is the audience (both business and end-user) and why will they be interested?
- Where will the end product be used?
- What are the brand guidelines and how much of the brand should apply to the project?
- Who are the competitors?
- What are the client’s specific preferences/likes/dislikes?
- When is the project due? What are the expectations both internally for the team and externally for the client? What are the milestones along the way? (if the project is multi-faceted)
Who creates a creative brief?
It is extremely important that the creator of the creative brief has a true knowledge and context of what is needed for the project. There should be a level of insight into how the deliverable will be used and the expectations of the client. The creator of the brief should truly understand the goals of the client and should hint at the beginnings of creative strategy so that the team can utilize this information to further develop creative possibilities and ideas.
According to Communication Arts, (http://www.commarts.com/Columns.aspx?pub=5861&pageid=1627) here is a sampling of Creative Brief content:
1. Background summary. Who is the client? What is the product or service? What are their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT)? What does this client value? What does this brand stand for? What is their position on social responsibility, culture and technology? Can the client provide any research and reports that help us understand their current situation?
2. Overview. What is the project? What are we creating and why? Why does the client need this project? What are the client’s key business challenges? What’s the real opportunity? Are there any emerging ideas and trends to consider?3. Drivers. What is our goal for this project? What are we trying to achieve? What is the purpose of our work? What are our top three objectives? What are the essential consumer, brand and category insights? What thought, feeling or action can we bring to life? How will success be measured?
4. Audience. Who are we talking to? What do they think of the client? What will make the client more appealing to them? Why should they care about this brand? What inspires, motivates, interests and amuses them? Who are they talking to? How can we help them better connect with their own community? What causes buzz in their world? What competes for their attention?
5. Competitors. Who is the competition? SWOT analysis on them? What differentiates the client from them? What are they telling the audience that we should be telling them? How and where do they engage with the audience? Why are they really better (or not)?
6. Tone. How should we be communicating? What adjectives describe the desired feeling, personality or approach? Discuss how content (images/words), flow of information (narrative), interaction (physical/virtual) and user behaviors (pro/con) should affect mode and style.
7. Message. What are we saying with this piece exactly? How can the client back that up? Are the words already developed or do we develop them? What do we want audiences to take away?
8. Visuals. Are we developing new images or using existing ones? If we are creating them, who, what, where are we shooting and why? Should we consider illustrations and/or charts? What type of thematic iconography makes sense and is appealing? How do existing style guides and brand manuals affect the project?
9. Details. Any mandatory info? List of deliverables? Pre-conceived ideas? Format parameters? Limitations and restrictions? Timeline, budget? The best delivery media? And why?
10. People. Who are we reporting to? Who will approve this work? Who needs to be informed of our progress? By what means?
Managing the Creative Brief
Of course, once the brief is created, it should be a reference point throughout the project and managed as such. As a common ground, the brief becomes the center of the project and grounding point for ideas that may stray too far. Creative directors, art directors and account leads alike should look to the brief as their map to success and any changes to the direction should be noted for all to see!
Post by Lauren Innella, Principal & Creative Director
“If you build it, they will come.”
Maybe that statement works for building baseball fields, but it doesn’t hold true for boosting Twitter followers. Gaining followers takes work. Half the battle may be creating an account (and getting the best handle name known to man), but the other half is what matters most – following and being followed. It’s essentially the entire premise of Twitter.
For PR specialists, Twitter can be a vital tool for disseminating messages, reading breaking news and reaching reporters or editors. Growing your followers can be tricky, but it’s not impossible. My colleague discussed this topic on our blog a while back, below are five additional suggestions on how to increase your followers on Twitter:
1. Treat Twitter like a short-term addiction
A recent article in Forbes, written by @dorieclark, suggests making Twitter your top priority for a month or two and creating lots of content. Studies have shown that the more you Tweet, the more followers you’ll get. Therefore, Tweet as often as possible!
2. Live Tweet
Top Ten Social Media (@TopTenSM) suggests, “being a live Tweeter for events in your industry.” Determine what conversations your followers react to and then join in on the live convo. In fact, according to a Nielsen Social data report, AMC’s Breaking Bad had the greatest reach of any TV series on Twitter in the U.S., from Sept. 1, 2013 through May 25, 2014. Thanks to stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul live tweeting during the series’ finale episode, a record 9.1 million people were reached on Twitter.
3. Start using Twitter Cards
Just this past June, @twitterintroduced Twitter Cards that promise to drive traffic to your website and make your Tweets more engaging by attaching rich photos, videos and media experience to Tweets. Simply add a few lines of HTML to your webpage and users who Tweet links to your content will have a “Card” added to the Tweet that’s visible to all of their followers. This can help make your Tweets more engaging and thus increasing the odds of gaining more followers.
4. Show your true colors
More simply put – show yourself. Your Twitter will become boring to followers if it’s a list of article links that you find interesting, and followers can’t sense a personality behind the screen. Tech writer @jmbrandonbbsuggests inserting a few jokes here and there. Followers may be more inclined to stick around longer when they feel like they’re interacting with a real person and not a robot.
5. Ask questions.
That’s what my dad always told me, anyways. In an article posted on Mediabistro, writer @AllisonStadd advises to ask for a retweet (RT) in your composed Tweet. This can help you expand your network quickly!
Boosting followers can be a game of trial and error. Figure out what works best in your industry, come up with a game plan and execute. What other tips do you have to help users increase their Twitter followers? Leave suggestions in the comments section below.
Post by Lindsay Hull, Senior Strategist
Change is a constant – in business and in life. Embrace it or fight it, there’s no denying it. Change is disruptive, often messy and always challenging. It is also necessary for innovation and growth. In marketing, it is vital to innovate often – moving faster and smarter than your competitors. Where new products and solutions are concerned, the first to market has a clear advantage to dominate mind and market share. Even established brands that fail to recognize user needs and respond quickly, and with the right message, are in danger of becoming irrelevant. Apple’s iPod took out the Microsoft Zune not because it was a dramatically better product, but because Apple did an absolutely fantastic job of marketing the device. Almost 10 years later, the iPod is practically a synonymous term for MP3 player, and I can’t name you a single competitor.
Similarly, managing internal change and innovation, such as the development of a new website or the implementation of a new strategic marketing plan is all about embracing and leveraging change. The most successful businesses understand change is inevitable. They don’t resist it – they pay attention to it, anticipate it, and strike while the iron is hot to make the most of it! These are the businesses that end up influencing change. At Zer0 to 5ive, we have had the honor of working with some amazing and innovative companies, and in doing so, have been able to observe the beauty of change and innovation when it’s done right.
These are my top (0 to) 5 tips on the successful management of change.
0. Always start with research.
Proactive research will ensure you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the market. Identifying market trends and understanding customer buying habits, demographics, economic shifts and competitive landscape can guide your team in making smarter, faster business decisions. It also provides your team with a compelling business case for change and a platform to start selling the idea internally.
1. Buy-in starts with the executive team, but it shouldn’t end there.
Getting the buy-in of the executive team is an important starting point for every change initiative. Unfortunately, it often stops there. Lack of communication or mishandled communication can create resistance and negativity down the chain of command. Sell the vision and the benefits of the change so that everyone involved is excited as opposed to fearful.
2. Have a plan.
Seems pretty obvious, no? A lot of people say they have a plan, but in fact only have a vague notion of how they are going to get from Point A to Point B. In my experience, change is a whole lot easier if you have mapped out your path and shared it. While any plan is (theoretically) better than no plan, a good plan will provide clear and concise direction and include timelines, milestones, roles and responsibilities, challenges, potential roadblocks and measurable goals.
3. There is no such thing as over communication.
Clear and frequent communication is an essential aspect of managing change. People fear the unknown. Communicating ideas, progress and yes – even problems – helps people to feel more involved and secure. Good communication bolsters confidence and makes people feel more secure. Additionally, open dialogue can lead to creative solutions for problems your team has yet to face, cutting the time it takes for your message to reach the market.
4. Focus on what’s important.
You’ve established a strong foundation through research, gained buy-in and insight from your organization, put together a killer plan and communicated it effectively – now all that’s left is delivery! Keep the team engaged, communicating and focused on the right activities at the right time for the right result. Focus on the end goal and execute against the plan.
5. Be flexible, open minded, and embrace the unexpected.
Roll with the punches and have fun!
Post by Cole Naldzin, Director
by Katie Cannon
Creating a website can be a fun and inspiring project, but can also become a headache if the right steps are not taken. Having an online presence is more important than ever. With more individuals beginning the buying cycle online, an easily findable, informative ans functional website can make a world of difference.
At Zer0 to 5ive, we find developing an effective website is a tightrope walk between creativity and delivering up to the standards mandated by your client. Remember you have been hired by your client and the ultimate creative vision is their’s. This does not mean you cannot be creative or engaging. Communicate the client’s key messages in a professional, yet original and innovative way will help set your site apart from the millions of other .coms in the space.
Here are a few tips I have learned from experience that can help you take your website development to a new level:
• Connect with your client. Get into their mind – what are they looking for? What image and message do they want their website to convey about their company? Connecting with the client from the start is crucial – getting on the same creative page as your client will save you countless headaches down the road and make each stage of design, development and implementation a breeze. Ask them for sample art, photos and other sites to draw inspiration from
• Luckily, there are millions of new Web 2.0 features available for free to no cost. Investigate what features and widgets would help you best achieve your client’s goals. Think about what you can provide to your client that will keep visitors engages. What can you present that will make your client standout in the marketplace? How can you help give your client the WOW factor? Consider social media, embedded videos, click to chat, rss feeds blogs… the list goes on and on.
• Your home or landing page is the first page a consumer sees and without engagement, site visitors will quickly abandoned the site. This is why creativity is so important. Being able to engage or interest the visitor immediately will go a long way. Think outside the box and have fun with the design. Yet, keep in mind that the website should still come across professional, clean and innovative.
• Communicate with your client. Make sure you understand what they want and how they want it done. Website development is a long process – not having a set communication method will only make the process longer. A timeline is crucial during the site launch preparation. Have weekly update meetings to ensure you and your clients are on the same page and creating a friendly repartee with clients can help plant the seeds for future working opportunities.
• Keep it search-friendly. Now-a-day’s an overwhelming number of consumers search through today’s major search engines. If you are building your site in an outdated language implementing other elements that impede search engine rankings, your site will be impossible to find, this means you are missing out on some major dollars! Come download our FREE SEO white paper to learn more about how you can garner visibility on search engine result pages.
• Provide ongoing customer service – it’s all about the experience, and working well together. Your job is not done after launch. A good web-development team will continue to be on hand to assist with any potential bugs, upgrades or staff difficulties.
• Double check all of your work! No website should ever be launched without making sure all your i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed! Use all the resources available to you to proofread site content. Provide internal links to appropriate pages and be sure that every page can be found every time.
If you understand the importance of communicating and connecting with your client, then you should have no problem designing and launching a website together successfully!
Katie Cannon is a Marketing Strategist ant Zer0 to 5ive