Am I telling you all this to say "oooohhhh... look how important I am!"? No... but...

My friends sometimes ask me how I get so much stuff done. Am I an obsessive workaholic? Well, yes. However, I also make use of a number of productivity hacks and tools in my life and business that help me accomplish more in less time.

Each hack on its own my not be much, but when you add up the time saved and the friction removed with each item, it quickly adds up. Here are my favorite productivity hacks and tools that help me get more done.

1. Use Dial2Do to capture ideas. Anyone who has read “Getting Things Done” by David Allen (affiliate link) is familiar with the idea of ubiquitous capture. This is the idea that if you are equipped to record ideas and action items at all times, then you keep your brain clear for creative focus while at the same time ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks. I love Dial2Do because it lets me simply call my Dial2Do number and speak a message which is then transcribed and emailed to me for later processing.

2. Use Tungle to schedule meetings. I cannot find the words to explain how much I heart Tungle. How much time is typically wasted playing phone tag or sending emails back and forth doing the “when are you free” dance? Tungle solves all that by allowing me to book meetings in 30 seconds by sending out a link that allows others to see my open times, suggest time slots, and automatically add meetings to my calendar. I think anyone who doesn’t use Tungle is stark raving mad.

3. Use TextExpander to save typing. How often do we type the same blocks of text over and over? Meeting details, locations, addresses, messages, etc. TextExpander allows me to save commonly used blocks of text into an archive and then magically pop them into data fields with a simple shortcut. For example, my email signature becomes “ssig”, my name becomes “nname”, and my Tungle link becomes “ccal”. It saves tons of time and helps me maintain my workflow without copying and pasting things. TextExpander is for Mac only. I’m sure there is some Windows alternative out there but I wouldn’t know about that.

4. Use the same GoToMeeting details for all my meetings. Not everyone knows this but you can set up a recurring meeting in GoToMeeting and simply re-use that meeting over and over. You just schedule a meeting, check the box that says “Recurring meeting” and poof! Use the same meeting details over and over. You never have to set up another meeting again. The bonus hack with this is that I have a TextExpander shortcut set up so that when I type “ggoto” it drops in the meeting URL and other details into emails or calendar invites so I can effortlessly schedule meetings and send GoToMeeting info in a matter of seconds.

5. Follow Inbox Zero. Merlin Mann made Inbox Zero popular during a talk he gave at Google. I have since adopted and tuned the system to help me process email faster and be more productive as I manage it. It takes discipline but when I follow the system, it helps me get more done.

6. Keep up with online articles using Instapaper. I subscribe to a lot of blogs and see lots of information go across my radar on a daily basis. I love this because it keeps me informed and helps me stay in a state of continuous learning. However, if I read everything in real time I would get nothing done because I would be reading blogs and articles all day. Instead, I save interesting articles to Instapaper and then catch up with them on my iPad when I have more focused reading time, such as when I’m on a plane or winding down at night. This helps me avoid missing useful educational material while not letting the input slow me down.

7. Migrate to a Kindle. I love to read but transporting a bunch books when traveling is cumbersome. Once I went Kindle, I never looked back. For those who use the common retort “but I like the feel of a real book” I say: give the Kindle a try. Trust me. It is awesome. I love being able to carry an entire book collection with me on a tiny device that gives me the ability to choose what I want to read any time and switch books with the click of a button. And it looks and reads like real paper. The Kindle is truly a revolutionary device. Oh, and don’t waste your time on the alternatives like the Nook, etc. Go Kindle. Trust me. Since moving to Kindle, I find myself finishing more books than I ever did before.

8. Use a hands-free cellphone device. Talking on the phone can take up a good portion of my day. This includes sales calls, client meeting, returning voice mails, etc. By keeping a hand-free device handy, I can turn driving time into productive meeting time. Yes, I realize that even with a hand-free device there is still an element of distraction while talking and driving so please don’t yell at me for suggesting this. Just be careful. It’s amazing how many phone calls I can get through as I drive from one destination to another with a bluetooth headset. It’s also helpful as I walk around the office or do other non-intensive tasks. I can also get a lot of laundry folded while returning phone calls! My favorite is the Plantronics Voyager Pro+. It looks dorky but has excellent sound quality.

9. Leave actionable voicemails. How often do we play phone tag with someone by leaving voice mails that say “call me” with no additional details? Sometimes you really do need to discuss something in real time, such as sensitive or emotionally-charged issues. However, much of the time we spend too much time playing phone tag unnecessarily when we could be moving action items along by leaving better voice mails. When I leave a voice mail, I usually leave very specific details that give the other person information on exactly what needs to be done. Sometimes I can leave a message that simply answers the question clearly and specifically. Other times I leave details on where the information can be found online. I will sometimes even briefly offer multiple options/answers for different scenarios. The point is, I leave details that are useful to the other person, rather than just saying “call me back.”

10. Convert “coffee meetings” to video conferences. If you do a lot of networking like I do, you probably get asked to “get together for coffee” quite a bit. While there is nothing wrong with having coffee (or in my case, a smoothie) with people, a lot of the time these are simply exploratory meetings that may or may not be a good use of your time. If I said yes to every request to get together for coffee, I would be spending all my time driving to Starbucks. So if someone asks me to have coffee as a “get to know you” meeting, I suggest that we do a short video conference (or phone call) instead. This helps keep the meeting short and more actionable. There is something about meeting at a coffee shop that seems to make meetings last longer and lack focus but a video conference or phone call tends to be a medium more conducive to a clear agenda and an actionable conversation. With so many options for video conferencing, like Skype, GoToMeeting, and Google+, there is really no excuse to avoid it. If both parties don’t have a webcam, do a phone call instead.

11. Use Highrise for a CRM. Just about all organization need a good CRM to keep track of contacts and opportunities. Highrise is the best CRM I’ve found for those needing something simple and easily accessible. The thing about Highrise that makes me productive is the fact that it removes friction from the process. I’ve used CRMs in the past that required me to log in, paste in notes, click a bunch of buttons, and generally jump though hoops to get things done. This either caused me to waste time in the application, or not use it all all, which is even worse. Highrise makes tracking communication almost effortless. I can Bcc my Highrise dropbox to record correspondance, I can set up opportunities in a couple of clicks, and I can set up tasks and reminders in seconds. Additionally, I can record voice notes using the iPhone app and append them to contacts while on the go. This saves me even more time.

12. Manage my social networks with HootSuite. I have profiles on all the major social networks and I also manage accounts for a few other organizations. HootSuite lets me manage them all in one place. It also lets me schedule certain posts using an editorial calendar which lets me focus my time and accomplish more by batching my distribution and block scheduling when I work on my social marketing.

13. Store receipts in the cloud with Shoeboxed. I used to hang on to business receipts and then toss them all into a big file cabinet periodically. Then, if I ever needed them again it would be a nightmare since I had no real filing system. It was also annoying to hang on to all that paper while traveling. Now, I simply scan business receipts using the Shoeboxed app on my iPhone, discard the paper, and all my receipts are now stored in a nice, organized, searchable database online. This saves time and effort, not to mention storage space. Shoeboxed saves me even more time when I want to create an expense report. I just select the receipts I want to include and it generates an accountant-friendly expense report in seconds.

14. Manage personal finances using Mint. I think Mint is the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s a personal finance app that lets you bring all your accounts into one dashboard, manage budgets, and track spending with a few clicks. It eliminates the need for budget spreadsheets, recording transactions, and doing math (gasp!) to get an analysis of your finances. Mint keeps it all in one place and even has a mobile app for when you’re on the go. Mint saves me incredible amounts of time on personal finances.

15. Use OpenTable to schedule dinner appointments. Ok, so this is not always a problem but I do sometimes spend more time than I want to when I’m trying to set up a dinner appointment (either for personal or business) and I go through the routine of choosing restaurant options, calling around to see who has reservations available, and getting it booked. Rather than go though that routine, I pull up the OpenTable app on my iPhone, let it locate me and suggest restaurants near me, and then choose from available reservation times to book my dinner appointment. It all gets done in a matter of seconds. OpenTable does save a little bit of time but for me it’s more about eliminating friction from the process.

16. Keep a single todo list in Backpack (or something like it). Like Highrise, Backpack is a 37 Signals product and it’s slick. It’s a super-simple todo list, note taking app, and simple project storage system. I organize my todo lists by context (calls, blogs, errands, etc.) and then use the iPhone app to track items throughout the day. Backpack gives me a one-stop repository for all my todo lists and ensures that nothing falls through the cracks. Recently I have started liking Apple's built-in todo app for iPhone/iPad so I will probably end up switching to that one. The app is not as important as keeping a single todo list that holds everything.

17. Streamline travel with TripIt. I travel quite a bit so anything that saves time while arranging travel is a good thing. TripIt makes my life 1,000% easier while traveling. All I have to do is simply forward my confirmation emails from airlines and hotels to my TripIt account, and within seconds it automagically creates my itinerary and fills in all the details. It also tracks flight delays and sends me text alerts for things like gate changes and schedule changes. Additionally, it tracks my miles and points in one place. All I have to take with me is my TripIt iPhone app and everything is taken care of and stored in one place.

These are some of the productivity hacks and tools that help me get more done in the limited time I have. Do you have any favorite techniques or tools that work well for you? Please share below.

Sometimes, people look for magical solutions or a "silver bullet" that will quickly solve their marketing problems or give them a huge return with little investment. They look for shiny tools and networks that can give them an advantage.

While experimenting with different tools and networks is important to your success, there is no one magical silver bullet. Most smart marketers and business leaders understand that marketing takes a sustained, systematic approach to be effective.

However, there is one marketing tip that I think everyone should be paying attention to. It is something that can support your marketing efforts in a huge way. It is a critical foundation of your lead generation strategy and is something that can add value to all of your marketing efforts, no matter what tools and tactics are used.

So what is the most important marketing tip, ever?

Hire the right people.

Yep... that's what I consider to be the critical foundation to your marketing efforts. The right people can influence whether your marketing strategy succeeds or fails. The right people can provide a strong foundation and a great deal of creativity to your marketing efforts. This is true at all levels of the organizations.

For example, the right people in your customer service department can consistently provide marketing support. Take Chris Antoine, for example. Chris has one outcome to focus on: to make our clients ridiculously happy. That's it. Chris is smart, considerate, and knows how to do that. He bends over backward to solve problems for our clients and make them happy. As a result, many of our clients choose to praise us and Chris publicly, which provides a great list of third-party testimonials for all to see. Pretty good marketing, huh?

Next, let's look at Josh and Katie who are project managers. These two great people are critical thinkers and problem solvers and they take the time to dig deep into project requirements and make the best recommendations for our clients. They have a healthy obsession for details and planning, which leads to smoother projects. Because of this, we have many clients who send us referrals specifically stating that they loved how tight and professional our planning process was and they want to recommend us to others.

Our design team consists of Tony, Patrick, and Arrick. These great designers create beautiful websites that consistently win awards and represent our agency well. People look at a SpinWeb project and tend to be very impressed with our design quality. This frequently leads them back to us where they ask us to help with an upcoming project.

Adam Weber is our Director of Business Development so his job is all about lead generation. He networks, speaks, socializes, and consistently educates himself through sales coaching and other sources so that he stays at the top of his game. Adam's work ethic and dedication to lifelong learning makes him a great sales professional.

Sam builds our websites and takes great pride in his work. Because he has decided to become the best, his websites are built quickly and with great attention to detail. His code is tight, well-structured, and polished and he is always looking for better ways to build websites. Our clients notice this when their website launches on time and when it works correctly so they have a great experience. This causes a lot of people to refer business to us.

Finally, our Digital Markting Specialist is Stephanie Fisher. Stephanie's job is marketing, so this one is pretty obvious. One thing that makes her so successful is her attention to detail, her thoughtful approach to her work, and her caring attitude toward our clients. Stephanie not only has creative ideas for SpinWeb's marketing, but is always looking for better ways to help our clients generate more leads. This, in turn, helps us get even better at our own marketing.

As you can see, hiring the right people in all areas of your organization has a significant impact on your marketing strategy. Every detail, from the way you answer the phone to the way you deliver your product and services, has an impact. Making sure these positions are owned by people who are smart, caring, energetic, creative, ethical, and considerate will add fuel to your marketing efforts.

The right people will contribute unsolicited ideas to help make the organization better. The right people will push your team forward. The right people will consistently want to raise your standards and improve your work. The right people will attract business.

The most important marketing tip, ever is: hire the right people. Your marketing strategy must be sound to succeed, but the right people throughout your organization will provide a strong foundation that can make all the difference.

In other words, back in the old days (ok the '90s wasn't that long ago— but it's ages when it comes to the web) many sites were built with the idea that all important content (or all content) should be seen without a user having to scroll down the page.

I'm always delighted when I can share with them that this particular concern is no longer a focus of great web design. In fact, it can make for a pretty terrible homepage.

The idea comes from newspaper layouts where the most eye-catching story was displayed at the top of the paper so when it was folded on display, it would catch a buyer's attention. When web design and internet was new, web designers adopted this same mentality and it seemed to be the way users browsed, as well. In fact, there was actually a time when AOL wouldn't allow scrolling at all within their interface and designers were forced to use a specific pixel range. (Check out Milissa Tarquini's research for more on that.)

Well, clearly much has changed since the early days of web design and along with this is the fact that the "fold" no longer matters. Actually, it no longer exists.

Today, with mobile devices, tablets and a wide range of screen sizes there is no standard "fold" on a homepage. It all depends on how you are viewing the site. And with the ever-expanding world of social networking sites, today's web users have learned to scroll. In fact they expect to scroll. This is why you see many sites today with important information in the footer and some that are even built entirely on one page.

So what does this mean when it comes to designing a homepage? Well, it's easier to start with what it doesn't mean.

It certainly doesn't mean to plan for endless scrolling. Your visitors still want to quickly find a compelling reason to become more engaged with your website and ultimately your company or organization.

What it does mean is there's a lot more that goes into planning a well-built homepage. It's more important now to provide your visitors with the right information throughout the entire experience rather than in one spot on one page. It's also important to use each element to guide them to the next place you want them to go.

First impressions do still matter. That hasn't changed. What has changed is how users arrive at their first impression. Essentially, it's quite a bit more complicated. But, that's why companies like SpinWeb exist.

So, if you have an outdated site that has an enormous amount of content "above the fold", please (I'm begging) let SpinWeb help you. If you bombard your website visitors with too much information too soon, you'll lose them immediately. And doesn't that completely defeat the purpose of the entire "above the fold" concept?

One question I get a lot is "how often should I blog?"

It's a great question, and like a lot of things the short answer is "it depends."

At SpinWeb, we blog once a week. This is a deliberate choice that takes into account lots of other factors. I know some companies that blog every couple of weeks, or simply whenever they feel like they have something to say. On the flip side, I also know organizations that blog every day (or more), like my buddy Doug Karr who runs the award-winning Marketing Tech Blog. While I think Doug is insane, I also know (based on his reports) that he gets a lot of SEO benefit from this schedule along with many other benefits.

So how do you decide on a content schedule for your blog? I look at the following factors:

Goals

First, decide why you are maintaining a blog and what the goal is. Are you mostly interested in strengthening SEO? If so, a daily schedule could be a good move for your organization. Additionally, if you have the time, staff, or budget (for outsourcing) to maintain a daily posting schedule, then this may make sense for you.

However, what if your goal is more focused on thought leadership and SEO is not as important to you? In this case, you can probably get away with a weekly publishing schedule or maybe 2-3 times per week. You can still get great SEO benefits (especially using Scribe), but you don't need to be as aggressive. Additionally, a less-frequent publishing schedule can be appropriate if you have other components in your marketing system. For example, do you maintain a video presence, strong social media interaction, a Learning Center, PPC campaigns, and a regular webinar series? If so, a weekly blog can be integrated nicely into this system because you have other types of content that provides support.

Staff

Let's be realistic... a lot of organizations simply don't have the in-house staff to maintain a daily posting schedule. Maintaining a high-quality corporate or non-profit blog is not easy. In fact, it's just plain difficult and time-consuming. Because of this, many organizations give up after trying a few half-hearted posts because they get distracted and discouraged. If you have a team of great writers in your organization, by all means go for a daily posting schedule. However, if you're like most organizations that we encounter, a weekly schedule might be more realistic. I would rather see you maintain a steady weekly blog schedule and stick with it rather than try to post every day and then fizzle out.

Budget

So what if you don't have the internal resources to blog every day or even every week but you do have a marketing budget? In this case, you can revisit your goals and decide what makes sense within your budget. If you want to spend a good deal on SEO, a daily blog can provide great support for this. If your budget is more limited, scale it back and complement it with other components and platforms.

Audience

Who is your audience? If your audience is a community of knowledge-hungry marketing/tech professionals who read 25 new articles every day, then posting every day will make your readers very happy (see Marketing Tech Blog or Copyblogger). However, if you're targeting small business owners, professionals, HR people, or another specific group, be mindful of what their worlds look like. Do they have time to read a daily post? Will they get overwhelmed if you try to talk to them every day? If so, scale it back a bit so that you don't bombard them with too much content.

Industry

What is the culture of your industry? Are you in a fast-moving industry like technology or politics? If so, daily posting can make sense. However, if you're in a slower-paced, more conservative industry (such as a non-profit or an association), you might do just fine with a less-frequent posting schedule. This goes back to knowing your audience, as well.

Conclusion

As you can tell, there is no right or wrong answer to the question how often should I blog. It depends on a number of factors and I would encourage you to experiment.

I don't like to see any organization post less frequently than once a week. My reason for this is that we tend to divide our lives up into segments of time called the "week" and so most people have a logical work cycle that restarts every seven days. By aligning your content with this cycle, you have the opportunity to insert your content into the routines of your audience. Any less frequently and I think you lose some momentum.

Hopefully this has been helpful but I would love to hear your comments below. A strong corporate or non-profit blog can strengthen your lead-generation, retention, and growth efforts so if you're not doing it yet, consider giving it a try. You might be surprised at some of the long-term benefits.

This usually helps boost awareness and registration. However, we are often asked how to connect print newsletters to online media more effectively. We love integration between multiple mediums and one great way to do this is with QR codes that lead to mobile videos.

If you're unfamiliar with how QR codes work, head on over to our recent post on QR codes 101 and then return here for the rest.

QR codes allow you to bring print media to life by extending the content onto a mobile device. Think of QR codes as "links" for the physical world.

So how do you liven up your print newsletters and connect the content to online media?

Try creating short video interviews with the presenters who will be teaching at your upcoming event. It's fairly easy to do this with a video conferencing session and recording software. I use GoToMeeting and ScreenFlow to host the video conference and then record it on my Mac. You might also consider Skype. I just like GoToMeeting because it's very reliable and high-quality.

Set up the video conference and ask three or four open-ended questions so the presenter has a chance to give some good information about his or her upcoming presentation. I like to target a video that last around five minutes. If it runs longer or shorter, don't stress about it as long as the presenter is interesting. Check out this example of an interview with Kelly Lott, who is a massage therapy instructor from Ohio.

Then, upload the video to your YouTube channel so it's available online. Now, you have some great content to link to so people can learn more about the upcoming presentation before making a decision about attending.

Next, create a QR code that links to the video. If you don't know how to do this, check out this tutorial on making a QR code from our Learning Center.

Now, all you need to do is place the QR code in your print newsletter with some instructions that invite the user to scan it to get to the interview. The nice thing about hosting the video on YouTube is that is will already be mobile-optimized so it will work great on iPhones, Droids, and other smart phones.

Now, instead of a plain old printed newsletter, you have a portal into additional rich video content that can help your readers get excited about upcoming presentations and help them make a better decision.

Let me know if you give this a try and how it is working for you. We would love to see your comments below.

We get asked this question a lot, usually by associations or other membership-based organizations. The goal is typically to tie in the organization's membership database with the website in such a way that allows member to log in and access certain private information and/or update their profiles.

The answer to this questions varies from "no" to "yes, but it's expensive and messy."

It seems like a lot of organizations are interested in this elusive utopia in which all systems work together in perfect harmony. While it is possible to make this happen, it comes at a cost. Most of the time, we've found that the more complex and robust a membership database gets, the more difficult it is to fully "integrate" into a website. This also means it ends up being more expensive.

Luckily, there is another way: seamless branding.

Rather that trying to spend lots of time and money creating custom code to integrate systems together, we frequently recommend simply linking over to the third-party system and branding it well enough that the user experience is smooth.

Most modern database systems have a web component that allows for some basic branding. This means we can place the organization's logo, colors, and other branding elements on it to make it clear to the user that it is an official portal.

The standard battle cry of years ago used to be "keep the user on your website!" However, this is less of a concern to today's more sophisticated user. We've reached a point in today's world where that average user is comfortable with frequent redirects between systems and applications.

It's much more common today to host separate systems on their own platforms and create logical paths between them. As long as you keep each platform branded consistently, the user experience will be comfortable.

The advantage of cross-linked but well-branded platforms is that it is very inexpensive to implement. Additionally, it reduces the number of possible points of failure for your online systems.

So next time you reach for that false utopia of custom integration, consider simply branding your third-party applications and creating logical cross-links. I promise it will save you time, money, and headaches in the long run.

Or maybe the boss suddenly wants to "get this announcement out" by tomorrow to promote the upcoming open house. All of a sudden, it's time to send out an e-blast! After all, it's quick, cheap, and easy, right?

Next, some poor, overworked volunteer or employee is assigned the task of getting the email out and it usually consists of:

• Badgering people for information
• Getting a bunch of piecemeal, hastily-written, unpolished content
• Adding a bunch of unnecessary fonts and images to the email because the board, committee, or boss wants it to "pop" (this is sometimes where Comic Sans rears its ugly head)
• Cramming as much stuff in the email as possible because everyone else wants to "get their stuff in"
• Sending it out with no specific schedule or editorial calendar
• Rinse and repeat willy-nilly at the whim of the board, committee, or boss whenever something new needs to get sent out

Wait! Please, wait!

So many organizations fall into this trap. Often times we see mass email as this magical, low-cost conduit that we can use to easily shove as much information at our constituents as possible. After all, the more we shout at them, the more they'll listen, right?

Think about how many emails you get every day. How much of it is spam, newsletters, special offers, and "announcements" that you may or may not care about? Now think about what you're competing with when you send out a mass email.

The more haphazard, busy, and chaotic your email communications are, the higher the likelihood is that your message will end up ignored along with all the other emails that do the same thing.

So how do you break through the noise?

While the "e-blast" syndrome is easy to fall into, there are some things you can do to fight it. Here are some ways to move from e-blasting to true email marketing.

Set a schedule

This is tough. It's not easy to decide that you're going to send a consistent communication at the same time every week (or whatever your schedule is). However, consistency helps your constituents develop a sense of routine with your messages. If they know that your message comes out every Wednesday morning at 9am, they will learn to expect it and may start to mentally "allow" it into their routines. Yes, this does involve planning ahead.

Keep content short and focused

Most of the "e-blasts" that I see are so filled with stuff that it's overwhelming to even look at, much less read. Long emails full of lots of competing calls to action are great ways to encourage your constituents to glaze over and reach for the delete key. Try keeping each message down to one key topic to improve reading comprehension.

Link to your website for more information

Instead of cramming every bit of content possible into one email, give your readers a short blurb and then link them to your website for the full article. This not only improves reading comprehension, but makes your content easier to share via social media channels - which we would like to see, right? Hint: ditch the "newsletter" idea and publish a really great blog. This then becomes your newsletter.

Keep design simple

Many people think that the only way to get someone's attention in an email is to fill it with images, crazy fonts, and lots of colors. This ends up making your emails look ugly and spammy and can also affect deliverability. Keep it polished and simple. Less is more. We're all tired of the shouting.

Place calls to action in prominent but tasteful places

If you're trying to get people to sign up for your next event or take some other type of action, try placing the call to action in the sidebar of the email or in the sidebar of the blog (or both). Make it a simple, well-designed, tasteful graphic that you can show consistently with each communication. This helps reinforce the call to action without all the shouting.

Bonus: make the content useful

Instead of just announcing things and spewing marketing at people, try crafting educational articles that people will find interesting and relevant. This is a good component of content marketing.

While it's not easy to stick to a disciplined, well-executed, polished email communication plan, it will reward your organization with better results. If you can get your team to avoid the "e-blast" syndrome and use email more strategically, you will start to enjoy less chaos and stress and more engagement and results.

If you need some more pointers on getting this started, we're always here to help.

SEO is powerful, practical, and effective. When executed well, it can bring high-quality traffic to your website and can lead to qualified prospects and customers.

However, when people think of SEO, a lot of times they seem to have the impression that it's a switch that can be "turned on" for a website, or that it involves sprinkling the right keywords all over certain pages.

There are some misconceptions about SEO and especially about how it functions today that I would like to address.

The Google factor

Google (and other search engines, but who uses other search engines?) changes its algorithm just about every day, as explained in this video from Matt Cutts (head of the webspam team at Google). This may seem like a lot, but often these changes are minor so don't fret.

However, sometimes Google makes significant changes. You may have heard of the recent "Panda" update released on February of 2011 which aimed to increase the quality of search results by putting more weight on quality content over link-building techniques. Then, at the end of 2011, Google released its "freshness" update (described in this article from Entrepreneur Magazine) which placed more weight on fresh content.

Then, as if that weren't enough, Google made another significant change in early 2012 called "Search Plus Your World" which more heavily integrates signals from social media into search results, most notably focusing on Google+ as explained in this video from SEOmoz.

Is your head spinning yet? So what does all this mean to you as a business owner, marketing director, or communications manager?

Greater focus on content

It means that the game has changed. Many of the old techniques and practices use to boost search rankings are no longer as relevant. So what do we need to focus on to get noticed? Content. High quality, socially-distributed, frequently updated content.

Google is paying close attention to content and, while it's always been important, is now even more significant to your promotional efforts. Bloggers, content creators, and copywriters rejoice! It also means that SEO has more closely converged with content marketing - in a big way. For a primer on content marketing, check out this video: Strategic Content Marketing, in our Learning Center.

Bottom line: SEO is not just about building a well-structured website and getting lots of inbound links. Google has clearly warned us that well-optimized websites will contain lots of great relevant content that is fresh and frequently updated, and will also have a social media presence with a heavy emphasis on Google properties like Google+ and YouTube.

Social signals play a big part

Other social properties are also important since SEO is not the entire package. Content marketing tells us that multiple channels of content are important when creating a system for lead generation. Some prospects may find your organization through Google, but others may connect with you through other channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. And how does your message get shared and seen by more people? By being interesting, useful, or relevant enough to get shared.

As you can see, the game has dramatically changed even in the last year. SEO, while once thought of as "king" by many, is still significant but looks different than it used to. It's not just about the old methods of link-building and structure. It's a more interconnected world of social networks, content, and behavioral signals from the people who use these networks.

It also means stepping out from behind your brand and showing your face (and the face of your CEO, your customer service people, your sales team, etc.) online. More weight is being placed on personal social profiles and it's easier to get engagement from your prospects as a person as opposed to a brand. Brand properties are important and are a great way to plant seed of information and content. However, CEOs and marketing people that hide behind logos and brand pages will have a harder time achieving their goals than those who engage as people.

How to market in the new digital world

So what can you do to ensure a prominent place in this new game? One of the best ways to stay ahead is to create and execute a content marketing plan (also known as a digital marketing plan at SpinWeb). This plan will likely include tactics such as blogging, ongoing videos, press releases, active social media engagement, and relevant onsite content (case studies, knowledge bases, etc.) And as you can see, it's time to stop ignoring Google+. Not sure where to get started? Sign up, circle me, and I'll help you out.

Business and non-profits alike will benefit from a strong content marketing plan that includes multiple channels and a relevant story. It's not just about "sprinkling some SEO" on your site. It's about creating and connecting. Organizations that embrace this mindset will be very successful at marketing their organizations.

How about you? Are you ready?

Our non-profit clients typically need to produce an annual report. This annual report is designed to communicate to stakeholders and present the organization's activities and operations over the previous year.

An annual report is usually published as a document. It sometimes has photos and images, perhaps even graphs. However, it's still a document full of facts and figures and therefore not always the most exciting thing to read, despite the important information it contains.

I recently saw something that I think is a game-changer for the old-fashioned annual report. Check out this video annual report from Seattle Goodwill.

Wow!

What a creative twist on the traditional annual report. This video report tells a story with real people and an engaging presentation. Is it different? Yes. Does it feel a little edgy? Probably. Would you feel a little uncomfortable presenting this to your board of directors instead of a document? Maybe. But I think it's the right way to go.

So many non-profits are struggling to fight for relevance and attention for their causes and this is a great way to bring new life to an otherwise dry publication. I can't think of too many people who get excited by the announcement of an annual report but an engaging video story is likely to get much more attention.

Why does it work? It appeals to today's busy constituents on the following levels:

• It helps them connect to real people and humanizes the numbers and stories
• It appeals to ever-decreasing attention spans and presents the information in an easily-digestable format
• It reaches a broader audience, including those with difficulty reading or visual impairments, or even those who just don't like to read

I think we can all agree that most people are getting overwhelmed by an ever-increasing onslaught of media, communication, and demands. By producing your annual report as a video, your non-profit has a better chance of standing out and telling a story. Non-profits need to market themselves, just like businesses do.

Well done, Seattle Goodwill! I hope to see more of this from other non-profits.

The domain name system is not terribly complex, but it's just complex enough that not everyone understands how it all works. For this reason, many organizations turn over all control of their domain name to an agency or web firm to manage. This has some pros and cons and I'd like to offer a brief overview of how domain names work and then offer some perspective on who should control your domain.

A domain name (like "spinweb.net") is an address that defines a "realm of authority" on the Internet. It can be thought of like a physical address for your office. Your address is where mail is sent and where people drive if they want to visit your office. A domain is similar. If someone wants to visit your website, that person will use your domain name to access it. Your domain name "points" to your website just as your physical address "points" to your office.

Yes, very basic stuff. Just setting the stage.

DNS basics

So how do domain names work? Well, a domain must be registered with an entity called a "registrar". A registrar is a company that issues and manages domain names. Examples include Network Solutions, GoDaddy, and Register.com.

Now, your website lives on a web server and has a specific address assigned to it, called an "IP address", which stands for "Internet protocol address" and is made up of four segments separated by a period, like 123.456.789.123. This IP address points to your website.

Now, the final step is to get your domain to point to this IP address, which in turn points to your website. This is done by delegating your domain name to a set of name servers.

Name servers are machines that are set up specifically for the purpose of routing domain names to the proper IP address. When a domain name is delegated to a set of name servers, that gives authority to those name servers to point the domain name anywhere. So the whole sequence of events looks like this: registrar points the domain name to name servers, name servers point the domain name to an IP address, and IP address points the domain name to a website.

Name servers are usually set up by the company that hosts your website. For example, SpinWeb's name servers are identified with the names "ns1.spinweb.net" and ns2.spinweb.net". This means that if a domain name is delegated to our name servers, we can point the domain anywhere we need to. So who should control your domain name registration?

Domain control

Many organizations turn over control of their domain names over an agency simply because they don't understand how it all works. Or if they need a new domain registered, they will ask an agency to do it for them. In most cases, I am heavily in favor of outsourcing many things to a digital agency. However, when it comes to domain names, my preference is always for our clients to retain control over their own domains.

Why? Your domain is the most critical component of your online presence. It controls who can get to your website, your email, your blog, and any other online properties that you own. Aside from that, it's not difficult to control. Most registrars have a pretty easy-to-use control panel that will allow you to make updates to your domain name, specify who in your company is in control of it, and what name servers it points to.

Once it is pointed to the right name servers, your agency can do everything it needs to handle your account. However, something as sensitive and significant as your domain should be under your control - not an agency's.

I would encourage you to become familiar with registering and managing domain names so that you are comfortable retaining control. If you have questions about this, please feel free to comment below or consider asking questions in our Learning Center.

So what do you think... should you retain control of your domain name or should it be controlled by an agency?

We decided to use movers to help us get everything moved over since we have some pretty heavy desks and conference tables. When I decided to choose a moving company, "Two Men and a Truck" immediately popped into my head and this is who we ended up hiring. Aside from a little bit of barely noticable damage to one of our desks, they did a good job and got us moved in pretty quickly.

During the process of hiring them, I found it interesting how good Two Men and a Truck is at marketing. You're probably saying "huh?" right about now. It's true... I wouldn't normally use a moving company like this one as a typical example of good marketing but I was actually pretty impressed as I thought about it a little more.

So how is Two Men and a Truck good at marketing and what we can, as a digital agency, learn from it? Here is what I learned.

1. Brand awareness actually works.

I occasionally hear controversy around the concept of "brand awareness". It seems like some marketers scoff at this concept and rally around the battle cry of "metrics, metrics, and more metrics!" and dismiss tactics that rely on good old fashioned visibility. Metrics are great, but sometimes doing something as simple as slapping your name and logo on every truck you own gets the message out in a huge, hard-to-measure, but super-effective way.

How can you apply brand awareness to your marketing? I don't remember seeing any other moving trucks in my head but I remember the ones from Two Men and a Truck. Which leads me to my next point...

2. Embrace simplicity.

Does Two Men and a Truck have a great logo and really flashy graphics? Nope. The company's logo is this ugly, amatuerish hand-sketched picture of a truck with two guys in it. It's sketched in black and applied to solid white trucks. The typeface is almost comical and silly. The result is this big, ugly, black and white sign that you can't possibly miss when passing one of the trucks.

But guess what? It cuts right through to the heart of the message. When you need stuff moved from one place to another, you want two men and a truck. Nothing else is really all that important so why complicate it? Are there ways you can simplify your message down the heart of the solution?

3. Follow up on web inquiries quickly.

When I started looking for movers, I went to Two Men and a Truck's website and filled out the quote request form. I fully intended to check out a couple of other movers, but within 20 minutes I had received a voicemail from a Two Men and a Truck rep with a clear, detailed, friendly message confirming my interest and asking for a call back to finalize some information.

I called back, confirmed a few details, and before I knew it, I was set. I didn't even get a chance to contact other movers. Had they waited hours or even a day to get back to me, I may have already gotten other quotes a maybe even a lower price but since they followed up promptly and professionally, it became unimportant to look for anyone else. After all, I was busy and just wanted a good moving company.

I take pride in the fact that Adam Weber, our Director of Business Development, takes the same approach to following up on leads. If at all possible, he makes every effort to call web leads within minutes after they are submitted. This has impressed more than one prospect and led to many successful sales.

Obervations

In general, Two Men and a Truck has an ugly brand, mediocre website, and anemic social media presence (the company's corporate blog is hosted on Blogspot for crying our loud!). However, they have focused on a few core elements that are very effective: brand awareness, simple messaging, and rapid followup.

Could they do more using digital tools? Sure... I would like to see them create a program that makes it easier for their customers to refer them and share success stories using social media and video. I would also love to see them set up a proper blog that is used more effectively. But overall, I think a lot can be learned from this "simple" moving company and if anyone asked for my recommendation on movers, my first suggestion will be "Google Two Men and a Truck."

This holiday season, we are highlighting our charitable non-profit clients who are filled with smart, caring, selfless people doing great work. These people are often overworked and under-appreciated and we are grateful for their efforts.

At SpinWeb, we are encouraging our employees to consider making a donation to one or more of our charitable non-profit clients. If they do so, SpinWeb is matching that amount.

I would also like to encourage our subscribers to read more about these wonderful organizations and the work they do and consider making a donation, or perhaps even volunteering. We at SpinWeb would appreciate your support and I know our clients would, as well.

Alpha Center: www.alphacenterdayservices.org.

Established in 1978, the Alpha Center is an Adult Day Service program for the frail elderly age 60 and over in Delaware County. Activities are focused on the needs of the this age group with emphasis on education, entertainment, and mental stimulation with socialization and exercise promoted in a five hour structured daily program. Learn more about volunteering at Alpha Center.

Alternatives, Inc.: www.alternativesdv.org.

Alternatives Incorporated of Madison County strives to eradicate family violence in all its facets through education, prevention, and intervention in Central Indiana. Alternatives' philosophy is that all persons have the right to live in a loving, caring, safe and secure environment. Alternatives supports victims through the initial crisis with the ultimate strategy of helping them achieve abuse-free and financially independent lives. Help Alternatives end violence against women by donating online.

Animal Rescue Fund (ARF): www.munciearf.com

The mission of the Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) is to provide shelter, medical care, and love to abused, abandoned, neglected, and unwanted animals until permanent homes can be found. Through educational efforts, public awareness, and community involvement, ARF seeks to relieve animal suffering; to prevent cruelty, abuse, neglect and overpopulation; to eliminate euthanasia as a way of animal control, thereby creating a "no-kill" community in which both animals and humans benefit from the goodness of each other. I have a special place in my heart for this wonderul organization because my cat, Zoe, was rescued by ARF before I adopted her. If you love animals, learn how you can make a difference by helping ARF.

Henry County Community Foundation: www.henrycountycf.org

The Henry County Community Foundation, Inc. is a public trust which secures permanent funds for philanthropic purposes. Henry County Community Foundation has distributed over $11,000,000 back into the community, helped over 2400 students, sponsors several annual events, and has granted multi-year grants for the construction of buildings throughout Henry County since 1985. Consider giving back to the community in Henry County with an online donation.

Hillcroft Services: www.hillcroft.org

Hillcroft Services, Inc. provides residential, employment, and community support services to individuals with disabilities in a ten (10) county area in East Central Indiana. The mission of Hillcroft is: "To provide innovative services and supports for People with disabilities and their families; resulting in extraordinary differences in People's lives.” Hillcroft is focused on creating a culture of strong values, understanding the importance of ethical behavior, and maintaining high quality  services to the people served. I have toured Hillcroft's amazing facilities more than once and I am always moved by the great work they are doing and the real difference it makes to the individuals with disabilities that they work with. Take a look at this powerful video that helps offer some insight into what Hillcroft does. Then, consider making a donation.

Johnson Memorial Hospital Foundation: www.johnsonmemorialfoundation.org

There are the approximately 44 million uninsured Americans who need health care whether they can pay or not. According to the American Hospital Association, nearly one-third of U.S. hospitals lose money every year. These strains have made foundations and fund raising more important than ever to hospitals’ survival. The Johnson Memorial Hospital Foundation supports such diverse initiatives as providing scholarships for emerging health-care leaders, assisting the building of state-of-the-art Cancer Care Center, helping the endowment of a medical clinic for the uninsured, and assisting in the establishment of a successful healthy community coalition. Do your part to ensure that the community of Johnson County has access to life-saving, quality health care with an online gift.

Massage Therapy Foundation: blog.massagetherapyfoundation.org

The Massage Therapy Foundation advances the knowledge and practice of massage therapy by supporting scientific research, education, and community service. In addition to funding research that move the massage therapy profession forward, the MTF also funds a variety of powerful community service programs. If you support the massage therapy profession and like the work you see from the MTF, consider donating online to help these efforts continue.

Muncie Mission Ministries: www.munciemission.org

Muncie Mission Ministries is a faith-based, not-for-profit agency that has brought hope to the poor, needy and homeless in East Central Indiana for over 80 years. Muncie Mission's primary services are provided in a Christ-centered environment designed to provide basic needs and teach life skills, while guiding residents through various problems that have brought them to the organization's doorstep. This program is centered on spiritual healing and enrichment. Specific efforts include: a shelter and home for homeless men, noon meals for the needy of the community, recovery/counseling programs, educational programs (GED, computer, tutoring), industrial program teaching job skills for men, family ministry, baby cupboard ministry for needy mothers and newborns, and attic window stores providing clothing, furniture and household items. Help the homeless and needy citizen of East Central Indiana with an online donation to Muncie Mission Ministries.

The Community Foundation of Muncie & Delaware County: www.cfmdin.org

The mission of The Community Foundation of Muncie & Delaware County, Inc. is to encourage philanthropy, assist donors in building an enduring source of charitable assets, and exercise leadership in directing resources to enhance the quality of life of the residents of Muncie and Delaware County, Indiana. The Foundation makes grants to nonprofit organizations working in areas of economic development, education, community betterment, the arts and culture, and human services. Help making Muncie and Delaware County a better place to live with your online gift.

United Way of Madison County: www.unitedwaymadisonco.org

Everyone deserves opportunities to have a good life: a quality education that leads to a stable job, enough income to support a family through retirement, and good health. That’s why United Way’s work is focused on the building blocks for a good life: education, income, and health. United Way's goal is to create long-lasting changes that prevent problems from happening in the first place. Consider a donation to the United Way of Madison County or perhaps even volunteer.

Youth Opportunity Center: www.yocinc.org

More than a beautiful 75 acre campus, and beyond an accredited program or diplomas on office walls, the YOC is about people helping people. Not just in small ways, but in life changing ways. Since the early 90s, the YOC has provided a safe place for troubled children and families. Now, almost two decades later, hundreds of individuals have been helped by the over 380 YOC staff members who dedicate themselves each day to making a difference in a child's life. YOC relies on support from donors to continue this mission, so consider making an online donation if the work they do inspires you.

As you read more about these amazing organizations, I hope you find a program, a story, or a cause that inspires you this holiday season. If so, please consider making a donation to the organization that would you like to support. You may also want to volunteer or even simply tell others about the work they are doing by sharing this post.

There are many people (including four-legged furry people) in this world who are less fortunate than you and I are. It's through the wonderful work of non-profit organizations like these that we can begin to make a difference.

Thank you to our charitable non-profit clients who work tirelessly to truly make the world a better place. You are our heroes and we celebrate you.

For a long time, sponsorship meant contributing funds and then getting your logo displayed on some of the marketing material tied to a particular event. Or sometimes it means paying for a web banner to run on the organization's website. In general, most sponsorship packages consist of placing the sponsor's logo or banner in sort sort of visible spot and leaving it at that.

It's important for organizations to take care of their sponsors and treat them well. While the traditional packages used by most organizations do have value, there are some other ways to get creative and offer even more value. Since the traditional banner ad model lacks personality and a human connection, it's sometimes a good idea to include other options that introduce a more personal connection to your sponsors.

Why would an organization want to add more value in sponsorship packages? Sponsors are looking for a return on their investments. If they see value in their sponsorships that lead to more business, they are more likely to purchase additional packages in the future. They might even spend more money next time, which is a revenue opportunity for your organization.

Much of today's communication is done in the digital realm. This has created all sorts of opportunities to design creative sponsorship packages using newer digital tools.

So how do you leverage today's digital landscape to add more value for your sponsors?

To start with, you need to have a strong content marketing plan in place. This will open up a lot more options while giving your sponsors a more receptive audience to talk to. While traditional marketing is more about shouting and fighting for attention, content marketing is a more thoughtful approach which can often lead to a more loyal audience.

Here are some things that your organization can tie into a strong content marketing plan to create unique sponsorship packages:

1. Video interviews. Consider offering sponsors a video interview (or even a series) as part of their packages. If your sponsors are local, have them drop into your office and record a short interview in which you ask them about their products and services in a thoughtful conversation using a flipcam or smart phone. If they are not local use Skype or GoToMeeting. Have the guys at Candidio (affiliate link) do some touch-up for you. Then, publish the video on your website and social media accounts to get it in front of your members. Perhaps even include it in your blog or email communications. You are blogging, right?

2. Guest blog. Speaking of blogging, offer your sponsors a guest blog opportunity so they can demonstrate thought leadership to your audience. Of course, this becomes more valuable as your blog gets more traffic, which means it's a good idea to maintain a great blog that is well-distributed.

3. Sponsored QR scavenger hunt. QR codes are becoming more ubiqutous and there are fun things you can do with them, such as a QR code scavenger hunt. By allowing your sponsor to put together this fun event at your convention, you create the opportunity to get your sponsor's brand and messaging in front of people via video, as well as give away a great prize. It's a complex game, but has potential to really create broad awareness of your sponsor's brand and messaging. Or, on the flip side, of you are creating your own QR scavenger hunt, offer sponsors the option of hosting a QR code at their exhibit booths in order to increase traffic.

4. Use social media. If your organization is active on social media and provides value on a regular basis, you will likely have a strong following on networks like Twitter, Facebook, and in your LinkedIn groups. Consider designing sponsorship packages that include thoughtful promotion of their companies via your social media profiles. For example, if your sponsor reserves a week on social media, you could tweet things like "This week's sponsor is Acme, Inc - we love how they take care of our members. Be sure to read this case study (link)."

5. Run your own groupon-style email campaigns. This is especially relevant for associations. Groupon is a "daily deal" service that sends deeply-discounted special offers out to a database of subscribers. Associations can run their own mini-Groupon service simply by leveraging their existing databases of members. It needn't be as elaborate as the mainstream services. All the association needs to do is start setting an expection for members that every week (for example) members will get a special offer via email from a sponsor. Any sponsor wanting to purchase a spot pays a sponsorship fee to the association. The sponsor then creates a special offer with some sort of discount and the association sends it out in the weekly email. It's a win-win-win. The association gets revenue, the sponsor gets exposure, and members get a discount on relevant products or services.

They key to these ideas is relevance and clarity. You will want to make sure that you only accept sponsors which align with your organization's values. Additionally, you will want to make sure to keep communications clean and un-cluttered. This is espcially important in email communications.

You can also consider mixing and matching ideas to come of with other variations. If you stay focused on taking care of your sponsors, providing value for your constituents, and maintaining a strong content marketing plan, you will have an excellent opportunity to create more revenu for your organization though creative sponsorship packages.

If you need help designing and executing packages like these, don't hesitate to contact us. I would also love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

However, a lot of misinformation and confusion exists around the practice of search engine optimization. At SpinWeb, we often talk with clients who have a goal of being ranked very well in Google but are not familiar with exactly what it takes to get there.

Many organizations come to us asking about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). They often have preconceived ideas about what that means. Sometimes they think that scattering a few keywords across their websites will do the job. Other times they understand (correctly) that SEO can be expensive time-consuming process involving external factors as well as on-site factors.

However when we dig deeper and get to the root of the question, what most organizations really want is simply qualified website traffic.

There are two ways to bring traffic to your website from Google. One method is to optimize your website for organic search. The other is to use AdWords.

Organic SEO refers to the listings in the main area of Google's search results. These listings show up in the center of your screen and are displayed based on Google's natural algorithm. These listings cannot be paid for but can be targeted through content and external factors.

AdWords is Google's advertising program. AdWords listings show up at the top and on the side of Google search results and will typically appear in yellow at the top and in small boxes on the right-hand side. These are listings that can be paid for directly through Google's advertising program. The nice thing about Google's AdWords program is that you only pay for direct leads to your website. The only time money is deducted from your account is when someone actually clicks on the ad and visits your website.

So which method is better for your organization?

It depends on a number of factors. One factor to consider is the actual product or service that you sell. Organic SEO is typically an expensive and time-consuming process. Though it can lead to a significant payoff and excellent ROI, organic SEO will typically require a monthly investment of at least $2,000 if paid to an SEO company. If organic SEO is done in-house, it often requires many hours of careful planning, analysis, and labor. Either way it's a significant investment. If the product or service sold has a high-dollar individual sale price, organic SEO might be worth it. For example if you sell jewelry, legal services, laser eye surgery, or vacuum dehydrators, then you don't need very many additional web leads to see a positive ROI from your campaign. However, if you sell five dollar widgets, then the volume needed to see a positive return may not be worth it when compared to the efforts invested in organic SEO.

Additionally, organic SEO takes time to bear fruit. It's not uncommon for an organic campaign to start delivering results only after six months (or more) of hard work. An organic campaign is a marathon, not a sprint.

The AdWords program, on the other hand, has some distinct advantages of its own. An AdWords campaign can be up and running in 24 hours. Additionally it can be started with a much lower budget. For this reason, AdWord can be an excellent program for smaller organizations or companies with a lower-ticket sale. AdWords is also a very nimble program. It allows advertisers to quickly tweak, experiment with, and optimize campaigns on-the-fly.

This can also make it a valuable program for short-term campaigns or for companies with a lower advertising budget.

So what next?

If your company has an advertising budget of at least $2,000 a month, sells a product or service with a high price tag, and is comfortable with a delayed long-term investment, then organic SEO might be an excellent fit.

If your company is on the smaller side, has a more limited starting budget, and would like to see results very quickly, Google's AdWords program can work very well.

Either way it's important to make sure that someone is managing your search engine marketing program very carefully. If your company has someone in-house with the time and the expertise, that person can often be a great fit for managing your organic SEO campaigns or your AdWords campaigns. If not, it can make a lot of sense to outsource this task to a digital agency (like SpinWeb). Proper management and monitoring of your search engine marketing campaigns ensures that money is not wasted and that your campaigns are producing optimal results.

Non-profits have customers, just like a business. They are typically called donors, members, sponsors, or volunteers. These people sometimes needs to be persuaded to work with your non-profit, just like a business customer. They need to understand the benefit of becoming a donor, member, sponsor, or volunteer. They need motivation.

Too often, non-profits operate under the cloud of "no budget", "on the cheap", or "all volunteer". While a frugal mindset is not necessarily a bad thing, it can sometimes keep great non-profits from reaching their potential due to lack of marketing.

So how does a non-profit utilize marketing?

1. Tell stories. Non-profits typically have a mission that involves creating change. Maybe it's providing aid to a specific group of people, or providing value to a community. This work comes with stories that are emotional and relevant. Get on video and tell these stories. Get your board members, volunteers, and staff members on camera to speak from the heart and explain why they come to work every day. Post these videos on your website and on social networks. Get stories out there.

2. Have a plan. Too many non-profits are just "winging it" when it comes to marketing. They give the task to an inexperienced intern, an overworked staff members, or a volunteer who will get around to it one of these days in his or her spare time. This usually leads to disorganized execution. Create a marketing plan that defines who your customers are, how you are going to reach them, and what your system is for motivating them. A roadmap gets everyone on the same page.

3. Don't be afraid to spend money. I've seen a lot of non-profits that are terrified to spend money on marketing. They feel that it's irresponsible to spend money on marketing. Quite the opposite. It can often be irresponsible to avoid spending money on marketing. How else will you reach the people who can support your cause?

Volunteers help run operations. Donors, members, and sponsors bring in revenue. Revenue and operations keeps an organization running. Not so different from a business, right?

Non-profits are doing great work and changing the world. For this reason, they need to devote attention and resources to reaching those people who can support them and help them continue the work. There is a balance to be found between creative use of limited resources, and proper budgeting for marketing. Embracing marketing principles that serve the business world can ensure that your non-profit grows, flourishes, and continues to make the world a better place.

However, marketing is sometimes a misunderstood and often neglected department. For one thing, it looks easy. Just run some ads, print some brochures, send some emails, and call it marketing, right? This is not quite the case. Marketing is hard work, and includes careful planning, measuring, content creation, and optimization.

Some organizations assign the task of lead generation to one staff member who may or may not be qualified and who may or may not have a strategy. Marketing is easy, right? Anyone can do it.

Not so fast. Modern marketing takes skill, effort, and perseverance. Some of the most effective forms of marketing use digital tools, like websites, social media, email, video, and other tools. For this reason, the majority of organizations who want to compete effectively need to embrace the technology that drives today's marketing.

If lead generation is so important, why do so many organizations neglect it by making it a side project or giving it to an overworked employee who also has many other responsibilities? Often times, these organizations would be better off outsourcing their marketing departments in order to ensure that it gets the attention it deserves.

Why should you outsource your marketing? There are a number of advantages and here are just a few:

Stay current: By outsourcing to an agency with expertise in this area, your organization can stay on top of current trends and best practices. The digital landscape changes quickly and a marketing agency's job is to live and breathe this stuff.

Cost effective: It can often be more cost effective to outsource this part of your business when compared to the cost of of a full-time employee.

Better strategy: Your marketing strategy can often be more effective because you are buying an entire team that can pool resources together to execute a plan better than a single person could.

So, how do you know if you're a good candidate to outsource your marketing?

If your organization is a non-profit that employs a busy, overworked staff. A non-profit? Marketing? Yep... non-profits needs to market, too. Non-profits and associations need to attract members and donors and this requires marketing. Many non-profits aren't comfortable thinking about lead generation and marketing because it feels selfish and overly commercial. However, non-profits need money to survive, and this money comes from members and donors. Non-profits often lack internal marketing expertise or resources and therefore can benefit a great deal from outsourcing these activities.

If you are a small business with no marketing director. Many small businesses lack a formal marketing director. They might have sales people but this is not always enough. By subscribing to outsourced marketing, these small businesses can benefit from a lead generation system that helps support the sales team. This leaves the owners and other employees free to do what they do best.

If your marketing director is trained in traditional strategies. Many organizations are seeing great benefit from outsourcing the digital components of their marketing plans. Often times, a traditional marketing director will do a great job of overseeing the big picture, but may lack training in how to use specific technologies or how those technologies relate to the overall plan. This is a great opportunity to supplement your marketing activities with service from a digital agency.

If you don't have a clearly defined marketing plan. As mentioned before, printing some brochures, handing out promotional products, and posting status updates on Facebook is not a marketing plan. These are individual activities which may or not be producing results. Without a plan, they don't mean much. If you're not sure why you are doing these things and how they fit into the big picture, then you don't have a plan. This is a great opportunity to get some help from a digital agency that can create a plan for your organization and help you execute and optimize it.

Many organizations are seeing great value in outsourced marketing, especially since technology changes so quickly that it can be difficult to keep up. As you might expect, SpinWeb creates and executes digital marketing plans for organizations of all kinds, so please send us a note to learn more.

If you are not sure how effective your marketing plan is, lack internal time or resources, or don't have the time to keep up with the latest trends in technology, outsourcing may be a great choice for your organization. Please feel free to continue the conversation in the comments below.

Facebook can be a powerful tool for content marketing. There are a number of ways that an association's Facebook page can be used to attract prospective members and engage existing members. Here are a few ideas.

1. Use a "Like gate" to earn permission. A Like gate is a tactic in which someone who is not yet subscribed to your page can get something of value in exchange for Liking the page. For example, you could write an educational e-book or report that is relevant to your members and allow a download once they have clicked the Like button. Or you could provide a 10% discount code for the next upcoming educational event that is only revealed after a Like. Check out this short tutorial for more info.

2. Set a theme for the page that promote value. By stating a specific purpose for your page, you are assigning a theme to it that may have value for your members. For example, what if you stated that your association's Facebook page was set up specifically for employment networking? You could promote it as the place within your profession to network and find a job in your profession. Or maybe it is designed to be a place for your office staff to answer questions and give advice. If your Facebook page became known as a strong professional resource for members (and prospective members!) to get professional advice, how great would be it at attracting new followers?

3. Use it as a distribution system for you blog. A professional blog is a great content marketing tool. If you use your Facebook page to post your weekly educational blog, your members will soon learn that following your Facebook page has value and will share it with others, too. This gives you opportunities to nudge your subscribers further up the content marketing ladder to an educational event or a webinar.

4. Ask questions and poll your members. A Facebook page can be a great way to hear directly from your members and gather feedback. It can lead to some interesting discussions that can provide a lot of value. Try asking a new question every day and see what happens.

5. Use video to educate. Capturing video is easier than ever. iPhones and Droids have built-in video camera and offer excellent quality. Consider interviewing your members on a regular basis (like AMTA-Indiana does here) and posting these videos on your Facebook page. Also interview presenters and other industry experts in a "TV show" format. Ask questions that are relevant to those in your profession and get useful advice from your subjects. Your members and prospective members will appreciate getting exclusive information from being a follower of your association on Facebook.

If you think of your association's Facebook page as a resource for your members, it has the potential to become more heavily used and can also become a great recruiting tool for attracting prospective members. Have some ideas of your own? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!

There are many ways to promote your event. Having a great permission-based email database will give you an audience to invite, and social media can also be a great channel for promotion. But there is one piece of the puzzle that I often see forgotten, even by large organizations.

Do you have a well-optimized event landing page?

A landing page is a key component in marketing your event. I see lots of organizations that miss this part of the equation. They send out emails with a PDF attached, or announce the event at meetings, but they don't give their audiences a call to action that drives them to the next step. When someone gets an email with a PDF attached announcing the event, they have a few options: add it to a calendar, delete the email, file it away for later processing, ignore it, RSVP by calling or emailing, and/or forwarding it to someone else. None of these things are very difficult, but when placed in the context of a busy inbox full of other competing email, delete often becomes the path of least resistance.

Even worse is the verbal announcement. I can't remember the last time I actually attended an event that was only verbally announced to me. It's just not worth the effort of researching the event information and adding it to my calendar based on bits and pieces that I hear at a meeting.

However, there is one action that people can take that is easier than all of the other options: a click.

Every call to action within an announcement should be a click that leads to an event landing page on your website. An event landing page gives your constituents all the necessary information to make a fast decision about attending, and also gives them the option to quickly register online on the spot. This removes friction. Most of us are faced with decision fatigue every day and anything that removed friction from a decision will help your constituents make a commitment.

If you are using a good Content Management System (CMS), building an event landing page should be very easy. Your CMS should allow you to set up all the necessary elements for your landing page.

Some elements of a well-optimized landing page include:

Location information with map link. This should be obvious but I often see event pages that just give a generic venue name like "The City Center Building" or something. Don't make people look up addresses or guess. Include the venue name, complete address, and a link to a Google Map to make it easy to get directions on the spot.

Online registration. Assuming you are requesting an RSVP or a registration (which most professional events do), capturing online registration is a must. Your landing page needs to make registration quick, easy, and painless. If payment is required for the event, your constituents should be able to pay online with a credit card.

Social sharing widgets. One advantage of an event landing page is the fact that it serves as a centralized "hub" on the web that others can share and drive traffic to. By placing re-tweet buttons, Facebook Like buttons, and other share buttons on the landing page, you make it easy for others to share the event with their networks. This is a good thing, as it can increase exposure and registrations.

Well-written event description. A good landing page includes clear, articulate information about the event. Clear start times and end times, speaker bios and details, and narrative about the content will all help your constituents make a more rapid decision about attending the event.

Short event URL. Every email or post you send out should drive people to your landing page with a single click. If you plan to announce the event verbally or place the URL on print material, the URL should be short, such as "www.domain.com/summit" or something similar. A short, easy to remember event URL will make it easier to market verbally and in print because it makes it easier for people to type it in to get more information.

Once you have a strong event landing page built, you can use that as your centralized location that all of your promotional efforts point to. To see some examples of SpinWeb's landing pages, feel free to visit our events section and click on the title of any event.

Hopefully this helps offer some insight into how to create an optimized event landing page. If you have any comments or tips of your own, please feel free to post them below.

The AMTA holds a great convention every year with a large exhibit hall. Exhibitors from all over the country set up at the convention and fill the hall with all sorts of interesting products and services for the massage community.

The Massage Therapy Foundation also exhibits at the AMTA National Convention. This year, we worked with the Massage Therapy Foundation to set up a QR code scavenger hunt. 

If you're not familiar with QR codes, head on over to our QR codes 101 post for some background information.

The goals for our QR code scavenger hunt were: 

• To increase understanding of what the MTF does
• To increase foot traffic for MTF donors at the exhibit hall
• To introduce QR technology to AMTA members
• To encourage traffic and donations at the MTF booth
• To create a fun experience for MTF donors and AMTA members

 We set up the scavenger hunt with the following rules:

• The MTF created six questions that asked for a specific fact about an aspect of one of the Foundation's projects
• Convention attendees could stop by the MTF booth to pick up a sheet of questions
• Each exhibitor who was a donor to the MTF would get a special QR code sign at their booth
• When each QR code was scanned with a smart phone, it would pull up a YouTube video with a Foundation volunteer stating a short fact about the MTF - this statement contained the answer to one of the questions
• Attendees who answered all six questions correctly could turn in their answer sheets at the MTF booth
• A drawing was held for all the participants who turned in a completed answer sheet and the winner was awarded an Amazon Kindle (donated by SpinWeb)

 In order to get the campaign and QR codes ready we used the following process:

• Create insightful, powerful short stories using facts from the MTF annual report
• Create questions from those stories
• Recruit six volunteers, assign them each a story, and ask them to record it on video
• Upload each video to YouTube and mark it as "unlisted" so it can't be found without the URL (this keeps the answers from getting out before the convention)
• Create a QR code for each video using the Google URL shortener
• Create labels with the QR codes on them and place them on branded MTF signs
• Place the signs at each exhibitor who made a donation to the Foundation (check out these photos of the signs as well as this video featuring an exhibitor)
• Write a post on the MTF Blog explaining the rules and proving links to QR scanners to help attendees get ready for the campaign 

So how did it turn out? It was a big hit! Convention attendees had a great time hunting for QR codes, scanning them, and answering the questions. Congratulations to Katie Stewart on winning the Kindle!

So what were some of the benefits to this QR code scavenger hunt?

For starters, the Massage Therapy Foundation booth was hopping with traffic! There were very few times when the booth was not packed with people either making a donation or getting information about the scavenger hunt.

Another benefit to the MTF was that each person who scanned a QR code and watched a video was exposed to a brief statement explaining a significant Foundation project and how it impacted the massage profession, as well as those in need. This created greater awareness of what the MTF does and brought the specifics of its work into sharper relief. Take a look at a few of the videos:

• Whitney Lowe talks about bringing massage to rural workers in Mexico
• Allisa Haines on massage for special needs children
• Ann Blair Kennedy discussed massage for orhpans in Uzbekistan

Next, the campaign brought value to the exhibitors who participated. The QR code campaign brought people to the exhibitors who had donated to the MTF and increased their foot traffic at the convention. It was also a great way for the Massage Therapy Foundation to show appreciation to those exhibitors who were donors.

Another nice side benefit to the American Massage Therapy Association was that we were able to introduce QR code technology to AMTA members who might otherwise not understand it. Following this campaign, many more AMTA members now have QR scanners on their phones which will allow AMTA to utilize this technology for future campaigns more successfully.

Finally, it was fun! We got great feedback that a lot of people were having fun hunting for codes, striking up conversations with exhibitors, and participating in the contest.

So while it was a bit of work to set up, we found that the QR code scavenger hunt was a big success and fun way to use new technology. If you are looking for some interesting ways to generate excitement and traffic at your next conference, a QR code scavenger hunt might be worth a look. Some guidelines:

• Keep the videos short (30 - 45 seconds)
• Give people instructions in advance (perhaps through a blog post)
• Make sure you have people on hand at the event who can help people install QR apps for people
• Give away something awesome (Kindle, iPad, etc.)

Questions? Comments? Please post below.

Social media is also good for businesses (and non-profits). However, a lot of organizations are jumping into social media with blinders on. They seem to have decided that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are the silver bullets that will cause their organizations to become overnight successes, and that they will automatically get more customers by asking for more "Likes" on Facebook.

I typically encourage my clients to think bigger.

Social tools can be a key component in a successful digital marketing system. However, it's only one component. A successful strategy also includes other key components - things like email, your website, QR codes, presentations, print (yes - sometimes print!), podcasts, and especially content.

More importantly is how you tie it all together. You can set up Facebook pages, ask for likes, tweet links, and generally "show up" on social media all day but unless you have a clear vision of how it fits together and how your content marketing system is structured, your marketing will not reach it's full potential.

Try thinking of social media as one piece of the pie. Explore some ideas for how you can tie social media to email, video, articles, and other types of content. Where do you want to guide your constituents? What specifically do you want your Twitter followers or Facebook fans to do next? What would motivate them to follow you?

By creating a plan for how it all fits together, you will begin to see the big picture and can optimize each segment more efficiently. This will help your organization go from "jumping into" social media to executing a strategic digital marketing plan.

P.S. This Friday's webinar would be a great place to start.

What are QR codes?

First things first. QR stands for "Quick Response" and QR code literally means Quick Response Code. As the name implies, it speeds up a specific transaction by allowing the user to scan a code rather than type in a website address or some other string. QR codes are square barcodes that can be placed on pretty much anything from event tickets to buildings and are very similar to the bar codes that are placed on products in stores.

QR codes are typically scanned using smart phones, such as an iPhone or Android device. Scanning the code sends the user to a specific location on the web. QR codes can also be used to transfer information, such as contact information to be added to the user's address book.

How do I scan a QR code?

There are a number of apps that will allow you to scan QR codes. Here are some of the most popular:

• RedLaser (iPhone/Android)
• Barcode Scanner (Android)
• AT&T Code Scanner (iPhone/Android)
• Quick Reader (Windows)

These apps are free and, once installed, make it very easy to scan QR codes from your smart phone.

How do I create QR codes?

If you would like to create QR codes, it is actually very easy. There are a number of free services that allow you to create them in minutes, including:

• Go QR
• Qurify
• Quickqr
• Hipscan (allows you to change the destination later - very useful!)

Google also includes a QR code generation option in its URL shortening service. After you create a short URL, all you need to do it add ".qr" to the end of it to generate a QR code for that link. We put together a short video that explains how to create a QR code using Google's URL shortener if you want to check it out.

Once you've created your QR code, you can place it on any object or surface you want. You'll want to make sure it's flat, clean, and does not bleed into any other image on that surface. This will ensure that it will get scanned correctly. For more info on testing your QR codes to make sure they work, check out Kevin Mullett's post: Tips for Testing QR Codes for Scannability in Print.

What are some useful ways to use QR codes?

Great question! There are a lot of ways that QR codes can make transactions more efficient. QR codes can also have some marketing value when used creatively. Here are some extremely creative examples:

• Korea’s Tesco reinvents grocery shopping with QR-code “stores”
• The Washington Post makes it easy to share printed articles using QR codes
• No Projector? Use QR Code & SlideShare to Share a Presentation on Smartphones

In general, a QR code is very useful when your audience is away from a computer. For instance, the above example of Korea's Tesco grocery store chain is a great example of how QR codes became very valuable because they allowed Tesco customers to shop while in the subway system. Tesco took note that their customers were likely bored while waiting in the subway, also noted that they were away from their computers and therefore not able to easily shop online, and created a brilliant system that took the real-world experience of picking groceries off a shelf and combined it with QR technology.

If you plan to drive people to your website using a QR code, it's also pretty important make sure your website is optimized for mobile. This ensures that your constituents will have a good experience when they arrive. Also see our previous blog: When to use a QR code.

Some good examples of how QR codes can make transactions more efficient include:

• Placing QR codes on event tickets for easy attendee check-in
• Retail stores can place QR codes in store windows to allow passers-by to get product information after hours
• Non-profits can create QR code "scavenger hunts" that drive home the organization's mission during contests
• Restaurants can use QR codes on menus to allow customers to get nutritional information
• The City of Indianapolis places QR codes on parking meters to make to easy for people to install the parking app on their phones and pay for parking

As you can see, QR codes are very useful when people are on the go. I've seen some poor uses, as well, including placing QR codes on postcards. In general, if your audience is already sitting at a computer, it doesn't make much sense to use a QR code.

Hopefully this helps give you a general overview of what QR codes are, how to use them, and when to use them. As you can see, QR codes can be very useful and can make certain transactions more efficient. Of course we have experience creating effective campaigns using QR and other technologies so if you would like some help, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Enjoy experimenting with this interesting technology. Have some comments, questions, or creative examples of QR codes? Please post them below!

Many of the social media touch points you maintain are excellent ways to create awareness of your organization and draw in traffic, but ultimately the goal should be to invite them to end up on your website, where you can deepen the relationship and publish more information.

Many times, organizations will spend a lot of time on certain elements of their websites, including design (very important), functionality (also very important), and technology (extremely important). However, there is one thing that frequently gets lost in the shuffle. It's something that is (in my opinion) the most important thing on your website. It's something that gets talked about in a few cursory conversations and then usually gets glossed over. It's something that has the power to affect traffic, conversions, and sales, and yet it frequently gets pushed to the back burner.

So what is it?

It's content. For some reason, website content is the black sheep of the website creation process. It usually takes a back seat to design, planning, features, etc. but content is the "meat" of your online presence. It's what can persuade your website visitors to take action. It's what Google indexes so other people can find you. It's what shapes the design.

Content is not just text. Content also comes in the form of photography and video. High quality photography can make a good web presence great. Video can also tell a story in a way that text sometimes cannot.

Ask any designer and he or she will tell you that having good content in advance will lead to a better design. Content gives designers the framework around which to build a great web presence.

Content should not be ignored or left until the end to "fill in." Whether it's created internally or outsourced, content should be planned, written, and polished before a website project begins. In my opinion, it's the most important part of your website.

Both businesses and non-profits should make growing a database a high priority. Businesses convert prospects to customers while non-profits convert prospects to donors or members. Sometimes organizations build multiple databases depending on context and channel, and can include email lists, online communities, CRMs, social media profiles, and customer profiles.

The bigger the database, the more people you can talk therefore increasing the number of potential leads you may be able to acquire. Obviously, building and growing a database is a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of organizations resort to tired techniques like shouting "please please please like us on Facebook!" or dumping every business card they get from networking events into their email newsletter (spammy) or worse yet, dumping their local chamber spreadsheets into an email marketing system (really spammy). While these techniques can provide some value, they are not sustainable and can sometimes backfire (getting blacklisted as a result of spamming people can be a pain).

So how do you effectively and aggressively build a database of leads? Better yet, how do you build a database of people who actually want to hear from you?

1. Maintain an e-learning portal. Set up an online community of video content and boldly give away lots and lots of free information. You heard me: give it away. Set it up so that people need to register in order to view the content and then fill it with useful, full-length webinars and videos that teach your constituents things of value that will help them. Give them a 30-second preview first so they get a sense of what their getting. A lot of people get freaked out by the concept of giving away so much information but in order to attract subscribers, you need to provide a lot of value. Take a look at SpinWeb's Learning Center as an example. We post recordings all of our live webinars there and a lot of people find value in this content. Yes, it takes work. Jump in.

2. Consistently publish a great blog. Create articles that teach, educate, and inform and then publish them on your blog for free. Yes, you guessed it: boldly give away free information. Then make sure your readers have an easy way to subscribe to your blog via email. If the content is good enough, your readers will join your mailing list and now you have permission to talk to them. Yes, this also takes work. Jump in.

3. Give away services with live webinars. Running a webinar series is a great way to find new prospects. Create high-value presentations that teach and inform and give away all your secrets. Yes, you are still hearing me correctly: give your knowledge away for free. Then, at the end of each webinar, make an offer to give away even more stuff. Set up a form and invite people to fill it out to get a free consultation, audit, or report. Offer it to the first five people who fill it out. Make sure the consultation is a true consultation, not a sales pitch. These people will end up in your CRM and will develop the most loyalty to your organization. Yes, this takes even more work. Jump in.

So why am I advocating that you give away so much stuff for free? Because this is how you earn your audience's trust. This is how you encourage more and more people to subscribe to your content. The people who are do-it-yourselfers will not hire you anyway. The ones who see value in hiring an expert will seek you out. If this make you uncomfortable, go read Permission Marketing and then come back and read this again.

This is how you can grow your database. Now, you can (gently) promote other things in tandem with these methods. When you publish your blog, you can place an announcement for your next webinar in the sidebar. When you publish a new video, you can generate a preview and share it on social media to invite people to register. Now you can cross-promote channels and encourage others to share your content, which builds your database even more.

The nice thing is, you are building a database of quaified prospects who already like you and enjoy your content. How nice is that? Does it take work? Yes it does. Once you develop a system, however, it will run much more smoothly (or you could outsource it).

Be bold. Make your content great. Give away so much free stuff that it makes you uncomfortable. Then watch your database grow.

A content marketing strategy can include blogs, podcasts, ebooks, white papers, videos, and infographics. Additionally, one of the most powerful component of a strategy can be webinars.

Webinar is short for "web-based seminar" and is a presentation delivered over the web. A webinar allows you to give a presentation to tens, hundreds, even thousands of people at once at an extremely low cost. It allows you to educate, teach, and provide value to your audience which in turn can motivate them to take action and seek more information about what you do.

I've attended great webinars and bad ones. I've also presented quite a few (hopefully great) webinars. So how do you create a great webinar?

1. Use a good platform. I am a longtime customer of GoToWebinar. It's reliable, inexpensive, and user-friendly. I've attended all sorts of webinars that use frustrating applications and offer a poor experience. Sometimes the user interface is hard to use. Other times, it won't run on my Mac. GoToWebinar has consistently proven to be the best webinar platform I have ever used.

2. Create an interesting slide deck. Avoid death by PowerPoint. No one wants to see another hour-long presentation full of bullet points and text. Instead, use beautiful, high-quality photos and stick to one concept per slide. Use creative screen shots to illustrate your point and keep text to a minimum.

3. Present with passion. I'm sure we've all attended webinars in which the presenter drones on and on with no inflection and basically sounds like a robot. Just because you're talking to a screen and cannot see your audience does not give you license to be boring. Speak as if you're explaining the concepts to your best friend over dinner. Be natural and authentic. Have fun.

4. Take questions throughout. I know that some presenters like to save all questions until the end but I find that it's much more interesting to take them throughout and presentation. Answering questions as they come in helps the audience feel engaged and give you feedback on what they are finding most important. It also adds a sense of realism to the presentation since other people listening can see the interest level of other attendees, which may motivate them to jump in with their own questions.

5. Keep it short. Unless you're Chris Brogan, you should probably not try to get away with exceeding an hour. Our attention span simply cannot handle it while staring at a screen. I like to end at about 45 minutes and then take wrap-up questions. This ensures that you don't exceed your audience's attention span.

6. Don't sell. Repeat: don't sell. Your audience did not agree to give you an hour of their lives to hear a sales pitch. They expect to be educated, to learn something, and to receive value. If you provide value, they will seek you out.

7. Listen to the market. Choose topics that your customers ask you about over and over. Find ways to dig deep into issues that your constituents are struggling with. Find topics that resonate with people.

I love webinars that follow the rules above. I find them interesting, useful, and entertaining. I also frequently end up buying things from companies that present great webinars because they have provided value to me.

If you are interested in adding more strength and value to your content marketing strategy, consider a webinar series. It can be a scalable, effective, and satisfying way to meet new customers.

That's why I love it when organizations make an effort to buck this trend and create ways to humanize the interactions I have with them. While there are many ways to create personal connections with your constituents, there are a few inexpensive things you can add to your website that will help humanize your online presence.

1. Video testimonials. Video is a powerful way to tell stories online. Whether you represent a business or a non-profit, gathering video testimonials from your customers, members, or donors can help your prospects develop an emotional attachment to your mission and your brand by hearing about it from real people. Video testimonials also create social proof, which can strengthen your credibility during the sales process.

2. Professional photography. A lot of websites launch with stock photography as the backdrop. While this can be effective, it's even better to create your own images with professional photography. Not only can you capture product and service imagery with great photos, but you can show the faces of your team and help your website visitors develop a stronger connection with them. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. It's easier to do all three if you can see someone's face and learn a little more about that person.

3. Blog. One great way to have a conversation with your constituents is to maintain a blog. This medium allows you to educate, assist, and speak to your audience on a regular basis. Additionally, allowing comments on your blog allows your audience to have a two-way conversation about the topic which is a great way to gather feedback and develop relationships. Make sure your blog is written in a conversational style and clearly identify the author. Blogging can also be good for SEO (hint hint).

None of these enhancements are very expensive and can add a great deal of warmth and personality to your website. Don't be afraid to humanize your website and make personal connections with your constituents. Have some other ways you can humanize your online presence? Please share them in the comments below.

Some of the work we do involves helping these organizations adapt legacy processes to an increasingly more digital world. For example, most associations and non-profits publish some sort of newsletter. Sometimes it's a big, colorful publication published multiple times per year. Other times, it's a simpler publication published less frequently. This print publication is sometimes well-received by many constituents despite the growing emphasis on digital formats. For this reason it makes sense to continue publishing a print version.

However, many people don't read things on paper anymore and prefer digital versions of information. Unfortunately, what I see most organizations doing is simply exporting the print newsletter as a PDF and then posting it online. It gets even worse when they use a flip-book service that simulates the flipping of pages online, like a magazine. A lot of organizations do this and then wonder why no one is reading their newsletters.

They key here is context.

In a print context, the reader is more focused on spending time with the publication. It's being read offline in an environment where attention spans are a bit longer than they are online. By contrast, attention spans online are much shorter. For this reason, it doesn't make much sense to force a print publication into an online context with no adaptation.

Instead of simply posting a PDF online, try extracting individual pieces of content and publishing them online in different formats. Create smaller units of content and schedule them in different ways. For example, articles can become blogs posts. Blogs can also be sent via email. Interviews can become podcasts or videos posted to your website. Photos can be published on your website and on social networks. Short quotes can become tweets. Try taking the content from your newsletter and dripping it out slowly and in smaller chunks online. This allows you to get the content out to your constituents while adapting it to an online context.

A nice side effect of this is that you now have ready-made content for your content marketing plan.

So remember, attention spans online are short. By adapting your print newsletter to an online context, you may increase the likelihood of it being noticed and read by your constituents.

If you're not familiar with QR codes, Wikipedia has some info. The term "QR code" is short for "Quick Response code" and refers to a square matrix barcode that holds information. When that code is scanned, it delivers information to the person scanning it. It can lead to websites, videos, or can transmit information to the user's phone.

So how do you decide when to use QR codes? 

1. When you have a mobile website. If your website is not mobile optimized, please don't send people to it with QR codes as it can be an awkward experience. However, if your website is optimized for mobile devices, this can be a good opportunity to use strategically-placed QR codes on real-world signage or objects. These QR codes can lead the user to additional information or calls to action on your mobile website.

2. When it improves usability. I see a lot of QR codes being used in situations in which it's clear that the publisher or business is simply doing it to look progressive or just to try it out. If a QR code makes a task more difficult, it should not be used. However, if a QR code actually saves time and enhances a transaction, it's a good use of the technology. Korea's Tesco supermarkets offered us a brilliant example of how QR codes made life easier for customers.

3. When you can offer a compelling reason to ask for the information. Your constituents probably don't want to scan a QR code just to receive more marketing. Instead, motivate them to scan codes by offering them something of value. This is good content marketing. It can be a special offer, an educational publication, or some sort of entertainment. If your constituents have a compelling and specific reason to scan the code, you'll see a much better conversion rate.

4. In the "on the go" context. If your QR code is going to be received when someone is sitting at a desk, it's probably not a great use of the technology. I've seen QR codes on postcards before that waste an opportunity to send the recipient to a full, information-rich website but instead use a QR code as the call to action. This moves to call to action to a more restricted mobile device. Why do this when your recipient most likely has a desktop or laptop computer sitting right there on the desk? Instead, think of ways to capture attention when people are away from the office. QR codes are most powerul when they integrate seamlessly into a person's context and make it possible to acquire information that would otherwise be more difficult to get.

QR codes can be used in a lot of creative ways. Just make sure you are thinking carefully about the context, usability, and content of your situation.

However, one of the most difficult things about maintaining a good blog is consistently finding topics. Let's say you are publishing a new blog post once a week. In my opinion, this is the minimum. That means you need to come up with 52 topics throughout the year to write about. And remember that these blog posts need to be educational, useful, well-written, and tuned for SEO. This takes time and effort. So how do you come up with topics? Here are a few ways.

1. Use questions from your customers. I'm sure most of us receive all sorts of questions from customers (or members/constituents) related to products, services, and problems. Rather than just answering the same question hundreds of times, why not write a detailed blog post with lots of useful information about that issue? Not only does this give you a ready-made article to send to people next time the question is asked, but it also demonstrates your expertise to prospects.

2. Create a list of resources. Most organizations are in a position to make recommendations to their constituents and give them resources that can be helpful to them. Be a content curator and publish "top 10" lists of external websites or resources that your customers will find useful.

3. Write about services you provide. Sometimes your customers are not aware of all the services you provide or perhaps don't understand the importance of taking advantage of them. Use this opportunity to take one of your less well-known products or services and write a blog post explaining its value. I recently wrote about mobile website design and how to approach it and immediately got a number of inquiries from existing clients wanting to learn more about our mobile website design service.

4. Write about things you wish your customers knew. Is there a recurring situation that makes you say "I wish our customers would do [...]" or "I wish they knew [...]"? If so, write about it! Explain the issue to your customers in a detailed and helpful manner. They will appreciate the time you took to provide insight and education. This can be especially useful for non-profits since a lot of their work involves educating the community on the specifics of what they do and why their constituents might want to show support.

5. Tell stories. Do you ever have great stories about your customers? Write about it! Focus the attention on your customers and tell stories about challenges they overcame or great things they are doing. When appropriate, include information about how you helped them.

6. Ask questions. Would it be useful to gather feedback from your constituents on a certain topic? If so, present some background information and ask a specific question. This encourages discussion via comments. If you have a socially optimized blog then this means more inbound traffic via social networks.

7. Get the whole team involved. Chances are your organization has one person designated to write content (perhaps you) but that doesn't mean you can't recruit some help. Poll your team to find out what issues and questions they receive from customers. You might discover a whole list of topics just by getting new perspectives from others in your organization. Pay special attention to those in customer service.

Remember that an effective blog is useful, educational, consistent, well-optimized, and is not an overt sales pitch. With the right theme and a constant flow of good topics, your blog can become a powerful sales, marketing, and customer service tool.

Those who know me know that I am very "plugged in" and communicate a lot online. So what did I do this morning before heading to the health fair? I went online and planned to spend 30 seconds sharing info about the event on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ to encourage others to attend. So I Googled the name of the health fair. What did I find? Well, the only listing that came up was an event posted on my client's website with the title of the event because they were exhibiting. While this is a good endorsement for our work at SpinWeb and the fact that we create SEO-friendly websites, unfortunately they had not placed any information about the event online other than the title so I couldn't use that.

So I then just Googled the name of the church thinking that I would find the event listed there. I did find the church's website but when I got there I was pretty disappointed. There was no events section and the health fair was not listed anywhere on the website. At this point I'm thinking "oh well, I tried to promote it" and I gave up.

Now, let's do some math. I have (at the time of writing this blog) 1,034 Facebook friends, 3,158 Twitter followers, 1,200 LinkedIn connections, and I'm in 328 circles on Google+. That's up to 5,719 people that I can talk to online with a single click. A lot of the people I am connected to are based in Indianapolis. If we assume that over 50% of my connections are in Indianapolis (a very conservative assumption) that's a lot of people who might be able to attend this event. Let's add to that the number of people who could have liked, shared, tweeted, and endorsed the event in their networks after I shared it.

Had the church hosting the event structured their website well with event information and socially optimized content, I would have easily clicked, shared, and endorsed the health fair to thousands of people in about 30 seconds. Those people could have then clicked on my link, visited the event landing page, and gotten all the information they need about it. Instead, there was nothing listed online therefore nothing got shared.

Now you're probably wondering why I didn't just post a quick note with info about about the health fair on my own. Yes, I will probably still do that. However, I don't have all the information. All I know is the location, time, and a couple of exhibitors. I don't know the schedule of events, I don't know who will be exhibiting, and I don't have any compelling details to share. The most I can do is say "hey, go to the health fair... here's the location!" which is much weaker than a true event landing page.

I am one person. How many other people would have shared the event had they been given the opportunity and good, informational, online content? I know hundreds of people in Indianapolis who are just as plugged in (if not more so) who could have also been inluencers and shared the event with even more people than I could.

Are you giving your constituents every possible opportunity to help you spread the word about your organization? Are you providing clear, detailed, shareable information online? Do you have a good Content Management System so it's easy to maintain content? Are you making it easy for influencers to share your content?

Online marketing is not "point and shoot" anymore. It's a partnership with an organic system of digital outposts, influencers, and networks. If you think you might be missing opportunities like the one described here, it might be time to evaluate your online presence.

With more and more people using smartphones to access the web, it's a good idea to design a version of your website specifically for mobile devices. This is easily done and a well-designed website will automatically detect the device used to view it and serve up the proper version accordingly.

So what goes into a mobile website? Here are some guidelines to follow.

1. Only show the basics. When people are viewing your website on a mobile device, they are probably not going to spend a lot of time digging through it on their tiny screens. They are most likely looking for a key piece of information, such as your phone number. Strip out all but the essential information that is most useful to viewers in a mobile context.

2. Auto-detect the device. I've seen some websites that host the mobile version on a separate URL such as "m.domain.com" or www.domain.mobi." This is annoying because it requires the user to take an extra step to switch between sites. Your website should detect the device and serve up the most appropriate version automatically to make it as easy as possible for the viewer.

3. Reduce content to single columns. Mobile devices have limited screen space so it's important to make good use of that space by displaying all content in a single column with no sidebars. This keeps your content readable and usable.

4. Make sure phone numbers are rendered with text, not images. Phone numbers should usually be rendered as text on any website but it's especially important on mobile websites. If the phone number is part of an image, then it won't be clickable on a smart phone which makes it very inconvenient for the user to try to call you. Make sure phone numbers are rendered as text so it's easy for users to "click to call."

5. Avoid drop-down menus. This menu style is not good for usability on any website but on a mobile device drop-down menus are even more cumbersome. Stick to simple navigation that can be accessed with a simple click to make it easier for mobile users to navigate your website.

It's not difficult to create a mobile version of your website but it's important to consider the context in which your viewers are accessing your website. By keeping it simple and well-prioritized, you will ensure a great experience on a variety of mobile devices.

The difficult part of maintaining a steady system of information is not the mechanics of publishing the content, but rather creating a process for making it happen. It's easy for busy marketing directors to have the best of intentions when it comes to maintaining a strong content marketing strategy but when other things get in the way, it can be difficult to keep up.

This is when an editorial calendar may come in handy. Rather than try to create and publish content when you find the time, it can be useful to block out time each week to consistently execute a system that sets the proper process in motion for your content publishing.

The key is to set up a process that you can follow each week and refer to in order to provide a framework and level of accountability. This helps you execute your content marketing plan consistently. Since gaps and interruptions in execution can dilute the effectiveness of your plan, it's important to stay on schedule.

Any good CMS will let you future-date content. This means that you can create and post all the blogs, event, press, and other content for the week in one sitting and then let your website auto-update on the schedule that you have determined in advance. Armed with this power, your next step is to set up a schedule, called an editorial calendar, which determines when you will publish.

For example, your content marketing plan may call for publishing a blog once a week, a press release once a month, a podcast every other week, and a webinar once a month. It also calls for various social media posts throughout each week tied to all of this content. You would want to look at your calendar and pinpoint exactly when each of these items will be published, and then create a checklist for yourself so that you can quickly create the content you need without worrying about it.

Since most work weeks start on Monday (unless you are a ROWE, like SpinWeb) it usually makes sense to block out some time each Friday to create content and then schedule everything for the following week. Then, when you get busy, you can rest assured that the basic level of content distribution is occurring occurring without your intervention. For social media posting, I like to use HootSuite (affiliate link) for everything since it offers a great publisher feature that makes this very easy.

Sound simple and obvious? In theory, yes. However, it's very easy to get too busy to publish information on a consistent basis which means your online presence can end up looking stale. Try creating an editorial calendar and see if that helps you stay on track. The combination of a strong plan plus tools for scheduling content can help you maintain a more effective content marketing strategy.

This week's blog is a special guest post by Megan Brown, social media networker at Slingshot SEO. Contact her: megan@slingshotseo.com or follow her on Twitter: @thatgirlmegan.

You can have the world's most aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly web site full of useful and engaging content. But if no one who is searching for terms relevant to your organization and what you have to offer can find it, does it really exist?

In reality, yes, your site does exist. Potentially those who search for your unique company name may even find your site within the top few results. However, those who may be searching for your exact services or terms relevant to your company may never even know you exist, and thus opportunities for engagement and conversion are lost when they visit competitor sites.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can and will build online reputation and digital relevancy so that you do show up in those top search results. Put simply, SEO is a continuous, ever-changing process, organically built on deliberate implementation of search-friendly practices both on and off your site that in turn raises your site's placement on a search engine results page for relevant terms.

Although there are constant updates of Google's secret search algorithm - sometimes as a precaution to combat those who are attempting to 'game' the system in order to raise page rank unfairly, there are ways to increase page rank while remaining within the bounds of Google's guidelines. Slingshot SEO helps deserving brands build this relevancy, starting with the strong foundation of the CLASS methodology.

When beginning an SEO campaign, it’s important to remember that search engine optimization is more than just keywords and links – an old myth that is slowly getting dispelled. It is imperative that if an SEO campaign will be successful, it must focus on all aspects of CLASS – Content, Link Graph Optimization, Architecture, Social Signals and Strategy. If one piece of CLASS is ignored or viewed as less important to others, an SEO campaign won’t see lasting, impactful results.

Enterprise SEO requires dedication, patience and investment. Results do not appear overnight, and changes must constantly be made to an SEO campaign to narrow in on certain focuses as well as adapt to social and algorithmic changes in search. Implementing and updating the components of CLASS is important when creating and updating your site.

Just as you continually define your brand and refocus marketing efforts to meet consumer’s needs, you also must update and acclimatize your SEO campaign. Using the foundation of the CLASS method will better enable you to build relevancy to and engage with current and potential online clients. 

If you’re interested in learning more about enterprise SEO and what to look for when engaging with an SEO provider, read our SEO Buyer’s Guide.

Written by: Megan Brown, social media networker at Slingshot SEO. Contact her: megan@slingshotseo.com or follow her on Twitter: @thatgirlmegan.

Whether you represent a business or a non-profit, chances are at some point you have fallen prey to the old-fashioned marketing tactics that have been the norm for ages. The formula goes something like this:

1. Create a campaign
2. Launch a campaign
3. Wait for people to buy from you (or donate, etc.)

Look familiar? It certainly does to me. Step 2 can take many forms, such as TV commercials, magazine ads, email campaigns, social media campaigns, billboards, etc.

While this can certainly work for some organizations, it doesn't always work for everyone. Additionally, your prospects are getting more and more resistant to these old-style marketing techniques and they also have more ways to opt-out of them.

So what's the alternative?

There is another school of thought that suggests that if you first give something of value to your prospects, they will give you a small commitment and a minimal level of trust. This then gives you permission to ask for a little more commitment and trust by offering something of higher value. This continues all the way up the ladder until that prospect becomes a customer. This is called content marketing.

So how do you produce this content? It will depend on your organization but some great examples of high-value content include blogs, webinars, e-books, white papers, videos, etc. The key is to find out what your prospects find valuable, and then start giving it away.

If you represent a corporation, it could be industry information that your prospects can use to make money. If you represent a non-profit, it could be content that is relevant and useful to your donors. If you represent an association, it will be content that helps your members grow their businesses.

It's important that you avoid "announcement-style" content. We've seen it all before. Instead, focus on content that is full of meat, education, and value.

Once you've figured out what kind of content you can produce, you then place it in a chain of permission steps that leads people up the ladder until they eventually get to the top.

Sound difficult? It's certainly not easy and it takes time. Content marketing is a slow and steady strategy so you won't see results overnight. However, once your permission funnel gets bigger, you will start to enjoy a more consistent stream of customers who know, like, and trust you and that can be a much more sustainable marketing strategy.

Bad usability is also expensive. Many developers don't always connect the dots between usability and revenue but if they did, they could save their organizations time and money, as well as avoid negative branding.

Here's a recent example. I received an email a few days ago from The Hartford. It looked like this:

When I received the email, I thought "great!" since I hate paper and would welcome the chance to switch to electronic documents. Not that I understand anything The Hartford sends me, but that's another issue. So I clicked "go to Plan Access" and was presented with this login screen:

First of all, calling my username an "Operator ID" is a bit clumsy. Am I an "Operator?" I thought I was a person? Or at least a user? By straying from conventional naming schemes, The Hartford is already causing me to question whether I am even in the right place. "Operator" sounds pretty official. Maybe this is actually a place for my financial advisor to log in?

In any case, I gave it a try. Since I rarely log in to this site, of course I don't remember my username or password. So after a failed attempt, here is what I got:

I am now at a dead end. Since I'm working on this on a Saturday, I'm not even going to try calling the 800 number because I'm not expecting anyone at a financial company to answer the phone. And even if it were a weekday I wouldn't call because it's simply not worth it for me to wait on hold for someone to reset my password. I simply don't care that much. So now I completely give up and move on. I have lots of other email to get to and it's not worth it to me to spend the time logging in.

If I were not planning to write this blog, then it would be end of story and The Hartford would continue spending money printing and mailing me things. However, since I am writing this blog I explored a bit further. I clicked the "Back" button (which many people would not bother doing) and scanned the login page. I then noticed that there was indeed a "Forgot Your Password?" link tucked away in the corner in very tiny text. So I clicked on it and got this:

Well, this is not very helpful to me because I don't know what my "Operator ID" is. I am pretty sure I knew my password but I vaguely recall that The Hartford's website made me choose some non-standard "Operator ID" back in the day so I don't remember what it is. Another brick wall! So despite my extra effort to figure things out, I still hit a snag and I'm actually giving up for real now.

Could I have spent a little time figuring it out? Sure. I could have saved the email and called The Hartford on Monday. Or I could have spent a few minutes trying different usernames to see if one would work. However, the point here is that it's simply not worth it to me. I'm not going to win some fabulous prize if I figure it out. I'm just trying to get my 401k provider to send me documents electronically rather than on paper. The incentive for me to spend time on this is not very strong. Apparently I would rather write this blog than continue to try to log in!

Here is what The Hartford is doing wrong:

• Using non-standard labels on login fields, causing the user to question the validity of the system
• Giving the user no automated password reset option when displaying the error message
• Defaulting to "call this number" as the suggested password recovery option
• Hiding the password reset option on the previous page and far away from the login fields
• Making the user remember more than just the email address in order to even reset the password

Here is what The Hartford should be doing instead:

• Using standard form field labels, like "username" or better yet, use email as the username and explicitly say so
• Instead of a "call us" dead end, offer a self-serve password reset option when displaying the error message
• Only ask for email address for the password reset option
• Make sure the "forgot password" link is clearly posted under the login fields so it's not missed
• Improve the language on the login and error screens so it's not so robotic

A few simple usability improvements could have gotten me to switch to paperless document delivery. However, I am giving up and will be resigned to getting things printed and mailed. Now multiply that by all the customers who received this same message and who got stuck like I did.

Let's do some math. I don't know how many customers The Harford has but according to its website, it's in the millions, so let's say one million. Now, let's come up with a reasonable cost to mail a document to me. If we factor in the cost of printing, mailing, and general processing, let's just say it costs one dollar to mail me each packet. Now, if The Hartford were using good usability practices on it's website, let's say 50% of the people that received the email decided to go paperless and were able to do so. Now, The Hartford is saving $500,000 each time a packet is distributed. Not bad! However, since usability is lacking on the website, let's say that in reality, only 25% of customers are able to log in and go paperless. Remember that this is a financial services site, not your Gmail or your Facebook account. Most people don't visit this site very often and so there is a high probability that many will not remember their usernames and/or passwords. Now, The Hartford is only saving $250,000.

As you can see, because of some simple usability problems (which would take very little time to fix), The Hartford is potentially losing a quarter of a million dollars with every mailing because of unnecessary printing, mailing, and processing costs.

My numbers are made up, but I'm sure you can create your own scenarios based on best guesses. I chose to be conservative and I would bet they they are losing a lot more than this.

By connecting the dots, we can now see how usability attaches to dollars in a very real sense. While some may think investing in good usability is expensive, ignoring it seems a lot more costly to me.

We advertised by placing (wait for it) paper fliers, of all things, around campus! Apparently it worked, though, because we got an email from our first client within a couple of weeks. Our first client was DeVon Yoho, Director of Center for Economic Education at Ball State. He asked us to put one of his classes online and that was our first project. We even used JavaScript - we were so cutting edge for 1996! I will always be grateful to DeVon for his trust in use and for giving us a chance.

A couple of years later, we had enough business to lease an office in the Village area of Muncie and started hiring. I graduated from Ball State with a degree in both music and business. Can you guess which one ended up being more useful? I do still play the cello from time to time, though.

We continued to grow and eventually Dannie and Duane decided to go get "real" jobs (probably a smart idea) while I was apparently crazy enough to stick around and see where I could take the business. Around this time I moved myself and the business to Indianapolis and made it a goal to hire the best of the best. I'm happy to say that I believe I have done that. You can see them all here.

We have expanded to work with clients all over the U.S. However, I am also happy to say that much of our business continues to be with great organizations right here in Indiana. This is where our roots are and this is my community.

A lot has changed since then, most of all technology. However, one thing has not. I have continued to make it my top priority to be the best at what we do, hire the best people to do it, and do everything I can to take care of my team and my clients. Through economic downturns, tech bubbles, and many other challenges, SpinWeb has enjoyed steady growth and improvement for 15 years.

I am deeply grateful for my talented team, our clients who decided to take a chance on us, and all of our supporters and partners. Thank you for being there for us over the past 15 years. Really - thank you.

One thing I've seen more than once on older websites is the tendency to play video or audio on the home page. Usually, this takes the form of a promotional video on the website that auto-plays as soon as the website is loaded. Though this may seem like a good idea to some, it will actually do a great deal of damage to your brand and your ability to utilize your website for leads.

When website visitors load your home page, the last thing they are expecting is sound. Many visitors will be viewing your website from work, possibly in a cubicle setting that is not completely private. So what happens when they load your website and a video with sound starts playing? You guessed it... they immediately close the site or even shut down their browser in desperation. This effectively places a huge brick wall between your visitors and your website. Most of them will never even see the rest of it because they will be so traumatized by the unexpected sound.

Internet users expect the web to be silent unless they deliberately activate media. If you use video on the web (which is a great idea!) be sure that it doesn't auto-play. Offer the viewer a clear "play" button that gives that person control over what happens. If people are given the choice to play a video, they will often watch it. However, if they are surprised by the very same video because it starts playing without permission, they will often leave and never come back as a result of the jarring experience.

Multimedia on the web is great... just be sure the choice is up to the viewer.

Unfortunately, many blogs still hang on to a mindset of paranioa by moderating comments.

What is moderation? If you post a comment on a blog and it doesn't immediately appear, it's probably waiting in moderation. This means that all comments are reviewed by someone before they go live on the site. I dislike moderation and I think it's bad for your brand.

Moderation sets a tone of censorship on your website. We live in an age of open communication, rapid exchange of information, and short attention spans. Most people are craving personal interaction with actual people and want to be listened to. Moderating comments is a great way to frustrate your constituents because it places a barrier between their voices and your organization and implies lack of trust.

When I talk to clients about running a blog and allowing commenting, the number one objection I always get it "what if we get negative comments! Can we look at them before they appear?" Sigh... yes you can, but you really shouldn't. First off, the idea that your blog will be filled with negative comments that wil ruin your brand is pretty unlikely. Most people don't post negative comments. Second, you should be welcoming all forms of feedback so that you have a chance to respond publicly and tell your side of the story. I'm not advocating getting into an inflammatory argument but an intelligent, thoughtful debate can be a good thing for your organization. 

Even if someone does post something negative, I would encourage you not to censor it. Let it remain and then post your response. Always remain professional and articulate and it will only strengthen your brand. The exception would be if someone posts something vulgar, blatantly inappropriate, or spammy. These comments should be removed.

By inviting open, unfiltered conversation on your blog, you are demonstrating that your organization welcomes feedback and conversation and this will go a long way toward strengthening trust with your constituents.

What do you think about moderation? Feel free to post your comments below... they will appear immediately :)

For a business, the key is to explain why your services are worth the fees you charge. For an association, it sometimes comes in the form of convincing your members that the fees they pay are well worth it when compared to the benefits they get.

SpinWeb is no exception. We sometimes get well-meaning requests that ask this very question. After we launch a new website, we charge monthly service fees that cover a number of services. Here is a more detailed explanation of what those things are.

1. CMS software licensing. Part of the monthly fees we charge go toward the ongoing licensing costs of the Content Management System (CMS) that we use. A good CMS should be easy-to-use, reliable, and support a wide range of website functions. It's not easy to find this combination of features in a CMS, which is why we use Accrisoft Freedom. It is supported by a full-time team of software developers who are dedicated to improving it every day. These developers must be (and deserve to be) paid and it's a worthy investment for an organization that requires reliable website management tools and professional support.

2. Support and training. If you ask 100 people what their primary complaint is with their technology partners, I would bet that 99 of them would say "lack of support." Not only is support important, but training is critical to helping our clients use their websites effectively. Part of the fees we charge go toward hiring great people and implementing great systems that ensure that our clients get fast, competent, and reliable support and training.

3. Website hosting. A common misconception about our services is that we are just "hosting" our clients' websites. As you can see from points #1 and #2 above, this is not the case. However, hosting is a small part of the fees. We run our websites on fast, reliable, secure servers from Verio, which ensures maximum uptime and security for our websites.

Hopefully this helps illustrate what our monthly fees cover and what the benefits are. Typically, both our corporate and non-profit clients find that the right combination of CMS, support, and hosting is critical to managing a website and running the organization smoothly, as well.

How do you communicate the value of your services to your constituents? Comments are welcome below!

Redesigning your website is a big deal. It's not only big to your organization, but it's potentially-big to your army of friends, followers and clients. I say "potentially-big" because your new site doesn't exist to these folks. They have no idea what is coming...unless you tell them. It is potential-energy just waiting to be set into motion.

So how do we take advantage of this opportunity? Here are 5 ideas on how anyone can produce pre-launch hype around their new web project.

1. Pre-Planning Survey: Let's get them engaged from the beginning. A simple little survey can provide you a wealth of information as you plan your new site. Asking clients, members and friends to contribute will get them interested early—plus, they might just see one of their suggestions come to life a few months later. We all like to say, "Hey, I thought of that." With affordable, easy tools available such as Survey Monkey, there's no reason not to do this.
2. The Splash Page: Take down that old, ugly site and replace it with a single-page splash page. If you let everyone know what's cooking, and when to expect it, you may surprised that it will spark new conversations. In many instances, outdated websites will actually make a negative impression and turn away potential prospects. If this is the case, you have nothing to lose by throwing out the old to make room for the new. If you can't take down your old site, consider a popup or other homepage announcement.
3. Plan a Party: It can be difficult to advertise the launch of a new site without something more tangible to go along with it. Several of my clients have coordinated the launch of their new site at a trade conference, open-house or launch party. By planning an event, you can offer tours, networking, refreshments and giveaway free stuff. Planning an event will give you something to promote weeks or even months in advance of your launch. The statement, "Free iPad" is more likely to get noticed than, "New Website".
4. Social Teasing: You have connections that are waiting to hear from you. Tell them that you are working on a new site and why. Share (very select) tidbits of new features. One of my clients is actually creatively cropping their new web design and sharing the photos on Facebook and Twitter. Just be careful that you don't spill all of the beans. Remember that the goal is anticipation. Keep a few secrets. 
5. Send a Press Release: Press releases can be an extremely powerful tool in the promotion of a new website. Make sure to include details of the project. The media will want to know what is new, why you changed and why this is important. It needs to be newsworthy so it doesn't get flagged as blatant self-promotion. Why wait until launch? Notify the press when you've chosen a developer and write a press release announcing who won the contract. Sending announcements at every opportunity will get you more distribution and will give you great things to share within your social networks.

Most websites are planned, designed, built and launched without considering momentum. It's an easy trap to fall into. These projects are quite complex and the details can often get in the way of a strategic launch promotion. With a little bit of discipline and forethought, you can create a simple plan to grab the attention of your audience. This is a big moment. Make a splash and have fun doing it!

Have you ever promoted the launch of a website in a creative way? We'd love to hear your stories.

So when should you redesign your website?

1. When your organization re-brands. If you are changing anything about your organization's branding such as logo, colors, tagline, name, or target market, it's important to make sure your website stays in sync with these changes.

2. When design trends have changed significantly. Design styles and trends generally follow user experience and how people interact with online contact. For example, many years ago many websites were designed using Flash because the web was still new enough that eye candy and cool effects got people excited. Since then, Flash is becoming much less relevant in favor of more information-driven design techniques. Even within short spans of time, design trends can evolve enough that it may make sense to redesign.

3. When your content outgrows your current structure. If you have added enough content over time that you are having trouble "fitting in" new content, it may be time to redesign your website to create a better framework for new content.

4. When new functionality is added. If you are adding new functionality to your website, such as a blog, e-commerce, or other interactive tools, it may be time for a redesign. It depends on the situation, but it's sometimes more effective to refresh the entire website to support this new functionality rather than try to retrofit these modules in the current design.

5. When technology changes. If the landscape of technology and communication tools changes, it's important to keep your online presence in sync with the expectations of your constituents. For example, five years ago, no one really utilized social media that much and websites were fairly isolated. Today, constituents expect tight integration between websites and various social networks and any website that ignores this point tends to appear antiquated, which can reflect poorly on your organization.

Though the standard answer of "every 2-3 years" can sometimes line up appropriately with these guidelines, it's important to understand why you are redesigning your website so that you can make intelligent decisions during the process.

When do you think it's time to redesign your website? Comments are welcome.

I've seen numerous examples of these online tools being used effectively to drive sales, build relationships, and generate referrals. Many of our clients and referral partners have seen great benefit from providing value and helping others via these tools.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of businesses and organizations (more specifically the people in those organizations) jumping in and getting stuck in what I call broadcast mode.

What is broadcast mode? Simply put, it is applying old-fashioned advertising tactics to new media. Broadcast mode is when organizations and the people within them simply spit out announcements, sales pitches, and links while spending little to no effort on actually talking to other people. We are exposed to thousands of advertising messages every day. Because of this, it is becoming much more difficult to cut through the noise and be heard.

People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. This makes it especially important to approach online communication from the perspective of personal communication, rather than broadcasting. Some announcements are fine but the organizations who get the most attention online are the ones who encourage their employees (and leadership) to do things like:

• Ask questions
• Answer questions
• Talk about their hobbies
• Talk to other people about common interests
• Be funny, entertaining, or a little bit edgy

This is the type of interaction that generates awareness and a following. Take a look at your online activity. Are you spitting out nothing but announcements, links, and advertising? If so, try thinking of social media as a communication medium, rather than a marketing medium. Start actually talking to other people and you may be pleasantly surprised at how much more interesting you will become!

Since approximately 69% of email recipients report email as Spam based solely on the subject line and 35% of recipients open email based on the subject line alone, hopefully it's easy to see how significant the subject line is to your email marketing strategy. It's possibly the most important factor in determining the open rate of your compaigns. Yet even with this data, so many organizations still fall into the trap of lame, uncreative subject lines.

What are some examples of subject lines that suck? Let's take a look:

• "Chamber E-News"
• "May Newsletter"
• "News from XYZ, Inc."

Boring!

So what's wrong with these subject lines? Let's break it down.

1. These subject lines are vague and bland. When you receive an email newsletter with a subject line like "May Newsletter", do you rush to open it because you can't wait to see what's inside? Me, neither. A bland subject line tells the recipient nothing about the content and therefore gives that person no reason to open it.

2. These subject lines are like everyone else's. Since so many organizations send newsletters with the same style of subject line, your newsletter will just blend in with all the other lifeless subject lines competing for attention in the recipient's inbox. This means there is very little chance it will get any attention.

3. These subject lines are selfish. No one wants to hear more news about the Chamber, your non-profit, or the latest news at company XYZ. They are subconciously asking the question "what's in it for me?" They want to know how your email will help them, entertain them, or teach them something. Boring "latest news" subject lines do nothing to appeal to the need for value that your consituents are measuring your content against.

So how to you fix it? It's very simple: be specific. Take the main point of your newsletter and use that as your subject line. Use your value proposition as the subject line. Tell your constituents exactly what they are getting and what to expect. If your email newsletter is properly built around content marketing, this should be easy because you will simply use the title of your main article. Now let's look at what is happening.

1. Your constituents know what to expect. They no longer have to worry about whether your message is spam. Instead, they know what type of content it contains and are more likely to open it.

2. Your email newsletter now stands out. Amidst a sea of emails that say "May Newsletter" and "Chamber E-News", your email looks unique and is more noticable.

3. Your email is now constituent-focused. While all the other organizations blather on about their "news", you are sending a newsletter that clearly states the value of the content. Your subject line tells your constituents that you will be helping them, entertaining them, or teaching them something. This dramatically increases the likelihood that it will get opened and read.

As a bonus, also try branding your subject line by placing your organization's name in brackets at the beginning, like this: "[Acme Widgets] Title of newsletter article". This helps reinforce your brand and develop a recognizable format for your constituents.

Do your subject lines suck? If so, the great news is that it's very easy to fix! Analyze your content, figure out the value proposition, and try getting specific. Track your open and response rates over time and I think you will be happy with the results.

Comments and feedback are welcome below!

A lot of associations are still trying to figure out how to leverage social media for marketing, communications, and support. Some are very successful and some are struggling.

However, instead of looking at social media as a marketing tool, what if associations used it as a member resource? Let's look at Twitter, for example. Most associations simply spit out event information, press releases, and remain in broadcast mode. This is not necessarily "bad" but it does lack value. It's mainly a firehose of announcements.

What if the association's Twitter account were designed to be a resource, however. What if association members could ask direct questions via Twitter and get direct answers that would help them in their businesses or professions?

Twitter is the perfect tool for this because it encourages quick, direct messages that can be answered with links to blogs and other information online. It also shares the information with others who are following the association which benefits the larger community.

What if the association's Twitter account were used to make connections between members or between members and prospects? What if the association's Twitter account became one of the most useful resources in the profession because of the value provided?

I think a lot of associations are scared of showing too much personality or giving out too much information. I think it's time we moved past that and started looking for ways to become a resource.

Some of you reading this are association professionals and most of you probably belong to a professional association. You might consider starting this conversation with your association and see how you can start using Twitter and other social tools as a resource, rather than a marketing tool.

Do you have any examples of associations doing a great job with their Twitter accounts? Please highlight them in the comments!