As a consultant with over a decade of expertise in the Fintech and IT fields, Bill Frietag’s product is his deep expertise in very complex subject matter. As an entrepreneur with multitudes of connections, Bill is also the face of his business. That means he’s also busy traveling, networking, and giving high-level elevator speeches to many diverse audiences. He needed a digital hub for his prospective clients to learn more about his broad skill sets and innovative services. He wanted it to be easy. He wanted to it be SEO friendly. And he wanted it quickly.

Enter the Red Clay Interactive Team.

A collaborative kick-off created a strategy to deliver Mr. Freitag maximum impact with both content and SEO without over-complicating UX or design. The final website is elegant, easy-to-use, and provides the digital presence to help Bill put WikiFri on the map.

See the live website here: https://www.wikifri.com

The post [LAUNCH] Wikifri appeared first on Web Design & Internet Marketing - Red Clay Interactive.

When one of the nation’s leading public universities was ready to revamp their admissions website they needed a partner that truly understood their point of view. As an agency with several UGA alumni and who built the Grady School of Communications website just a few years ago, Red Clay Interactive was the natural partner.

The UGA Admissions team definitely had a pulse on their pain points: an outdated proprietary CMS, as well as a non-optimal content organization and hierarchy. The user experience and brand voice needed work as well. However, they needed guidance and expertise on the best way to evolve with their diverse group of users. That’s where Red Clay got to work.

Before we could make recommendations, we had to lay a baseline for background and context. Working alongside the UGA team, we did a deep dive into analytics. That meant looking at site traffic, SEO rankings, and competitive analysis. That knowledge became the foundation for the new mobile-first design. This new experience put crucial content front and center while delivering an on-brand look and voice throughout. Functionally, we reduced clicks with intuitive navigation and strategic links.

The result: A fresh, modern site that alleviates every client challenge and is already motivating students to Commit to UGA.

Check out the live site for yourself, but don’t blame us if you end up applying: https://www.admissions.uga.edu/

The post [Launch] UGA Admissions appeared first on Web Design & Internet Marketing - Red Clay Interactive.

Three Map Services

One of the outcomes of the Maps overhaul by Google was reducing multiple mapping tools into 3 primary services: Maps, Routes, and Places. These three services aimed to simplify usage for customers as well as developers, while also enabling Google to make billing changes more transparent and offer less complex pricing.

How Google Rolled Out Maps Changes

As a result of these changes, and to force everyone uses the new billing and services, Google began invalidating old Google Maps keys. Any accounts using old and invalid Maps automatically went into a restricted mode. This mode forced developers and website owners to generate a new Maps key, and to also complete their customer profile with required payment information (which was previously optional). The new Maps key also includes varying thresholds for free usage – so what was once (for all intents and purposes) a mostly “free” service for most Google Maps users was updated to a paid service, depending on usage and utilization. The net effect was Google offering an easy-to-implement mapping solution for most of the Internet, realizing it was giving away too much for free, and finding a way to monetize it.

Google Maps is still a leading mapping solution and makes sense for a lot of users, but it’s not surprising that a lot of users were shocked with their usage bills and laid out plans to reduce their reliance on Google Maps to only what was necessary.

The post Google Maps changes in 2018 appeared first on Web Design & Internet Marketing - Red Clay Interactive.

1. Shifting Goals: The go-to for creating next year’s marketing budgets has been to look at what you spent last year. Reliance on historical data may seem reliable, but historical budgets can lead to stagnant results. Instead, shape your marketing budget around your 2019 business goals. Maybe you’re looking to grow revenue. Perhaps you’re shifting focus to a new target demographic. Whatever your goals, it’s best to shape your marketing budget around what it will take to achieve those goals.
2. Allocating for Innovation: When planning your 2019 budget, it’s important to keep an ear to the ground regarding industry trends, as well as new developments or innovations. For example, have you allocated a portion of your budget to acquire more 1st party data to fuel your marketing engine? If not, it’s time to start.
3. Partnerships: Technology is crucial in today’s marketing world. However, nothing can replace solid partnerships with people who understand your goals and are passionate about bringing them to life with you. Your organization is constantly using new and better technology to reach potential markets – do you have the right staff and outside partners to support this area of growth for your organization?

As you look towards 2019, keep these factors in mind and put them into action as you work with your staff, vendors, and other strategic partners. If you’d like to hear more about these topics in-depth, there’s a Red Clay Interactive Subject Matter Expert (SME) ready to give you an answer that’s tailored to your business.

Whether it’s creating full brand strategies for product launches, laser-focused SEO and micro-targeted social programming to support campaigns and activations, or implementing the latest MarTech products to drive deeper relationships with customers and prospects, we’re happy to talk about how to make your 2019 marketing budget successfully work for you the way it has for our clients in 2018.

The post 3 Factors that can change the way you think about your 2019 marketing budget appeared first on Web Design & Internet Marketing - Red Clay Interactive.

The Supreme Court recently ruled on a 20+ year old debate about online sales tax collection. The ruling permits states to move forward with tax collection for online sales. This means that each state can enact their own taxes. Retailers need to be aware and prepared for these upcoming changes.

What was the background for the ruling?

The heart of the issue were two Supreme Court rulings that sent mixed messages about the collection of sales tax. Before the new ruling, it was generally accepted that online sales tax would be collected if the business had a physical presence in that state. Many online shoppers benefitted by opting to make purchases online to save on sales tax, and often retailers would advertise that online sales could be made without sales tax. The argument was that this practice hurt local small businesses with a “judiciary-created tax shelter”. The new ruling by the Supreme Court gives states the power to collect sales tax regardless if a business is physically located in the state.

South Dakota (one of the states in the proceedings) relies solely on sales tax because it has no income tax. Therefore, it would make sense that states like South Dakota would have an interest in clarifying the tax collection issue which could be a boost of around $50 million for South Dakota alone. A coalition of 24 states has formed to create a streamlined tax initiative and has set forth guidelines that the Supreme Court blessed. The coalition is pushing two main points:

• If a business makes less than $100,000 in sales for that state or fewer than 200 transactions in that state, they do not have a significant presence and no taxes are due.
• The initiative also provides free software for the business to help collect and pay taxes properly, and using the software gives them audit immunity. The issue will ultimately be between Congress and the states to roll out, but the Supreme Court ruling favors a simple, single tax per state.

How will this change affect me as a shopper?

As a shopper, you are likely to notice that sites will begin to charge sales tax for purchases. Some online retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and others already do this. In the future, you’ll see new taxes implemented for all online purchases. There doesn’t seem to be a strict timetable, but it seems likely that states will begin enforcing this soon to collect on tax revenue.

How will this change affect me as a retailer that sells online?

As an online retailer, this means that a transformation plan to collect sales tax per state will be needed – eventually. However, since the issue is now in the hands of the individual states (and some states have no ruling laws yet), now is a great time to begin planning how tax collection changes for your business. Many popular e-commerce platforms can monitor and assist with tax collection and even integrate into third party tax services.

Which states have laws regarding tax collection and nexus?

Here’s a list of online tax collection by states at TaxJar. Many states have laws that begin on July 1, so it’s believed that the list can change soon.

Where can I learn more about these changes?

Two great resources are TaxJar’s blog post, and Nolo’s post. Of course, making sure to discuss this with your attorney and accountant is the way to get the best advice for your business.

The post Supreme Court Ruling On State Sales Tax appeared first on Web Design & Internet Marketing - Red Clay Interactive.

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation, and will be rolled out in May of 2018. Fortunately, if an organization’s marketing and IT follow good industry practices, the changes aren’t that severe or difficult.

Note – I am not a lawyer, so please discuss GDPR with the appropriate counsel and executive members at your organization, and how GDPR will affect or change your processes.

I’m Not In The EU, Does This Still Apply?

The situation is more complex than not having European clients or blocking Europe from a website. For example, if a EU citizen visits the US and signs up for a service, then the EU law still applies. The new law is specific in that it applies to any website that collects information about any EU citizen, no matter the location of the website or citizen. If a website could be visited by an EU citizen (or even a citizen with dual-citizenship), then the law applies.

If you have a website with very few or no official customers in the EU, then it’s likely that the GDPR enforcement team is probably only going to reach out if they get a complaint against you.

On the other hand, if you have a large website, or you have a large amount of customers in the EU, then you should take the GDPR law very seriously.

Regardless of whether you are likely to be affected or not, there are some measures you should take to ensure compliance and streamline privacy in case of any future complaints.

What Are The High Points Of GDPR?

Use Plain Language, Not Legalese

This is pretty clear cut, but having complex legal language is a no-no.

Consent Must Be Explicitly Given

If an organization collects personally identifiable information, there must be explicit consent. This means that a checkbox for “I accept” or “sign me up for the newsletter” must be UN-checked by default. Also, opt-in must be unbundled, meaning a user can’t be added to a mailing list by agreeing to a Terms & Conditions area.

Notification Of Data Breaches

This is pretty self explanatory, but if a data breach occurs, users must be notified within 72 hours of becoming aware.

Right To Access User Data

Upon request, and at no charge, users must be provided a copy of the personal data stored on the user. Also, a user must be provided what data was processed, and by whom, and for what purpose.

Right To Be Forgotten

Users have a right to have their information removed. For example, if a user creates an account and later decides to close said account, they have the right to ask the account to remove all collected data, both for the account purposes and also for marketing purposes. The only exemption is data necessary to maintain certain records like banking and tax records.

Data Protection Officer

If you maintain a lot of personal data, you may want to appoint a person to oversee this process. Ideally, this person has access and reports to the top tier company executives.

Steps To Take For GDPR – May 2018

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy must be updated to reflect the points above, and provide a way for users to request information about them, and request that their information be removed.

Remove Opt-Ins

Ensure that all forms have no automatic opt-in, and all checkboxes are left unchecked by default.

Determine 3rd Party Compliance

If you work with a third-party for things such as newsletters, payment processors, accounting software, CRM, marketing automation, and even web hosting and development, you should obtain information on their compliance or details to become compliant. The EU says that the ultimately party responsible is the organization, not developers, web hosting, or third party service.

Have A Plan For A Data Breach

Having a formal plan accelerates deployment during the critical 72 hour window.

Have A Plan For Someone Requesting Data Or Deletion

If someone contacts your organization about their information, or deletion of information, having an appointed Data Officer can speed this process up and become a single point of contact for both the user and any complaints.

More Information

https://www.eugdpr.org

The post GDPR appeared first on Web Design & Internet Marketing - Red Clay Interactive.