"The cobbler's children have no shoes."

We’re entering 2010 with a new website, but also a fresh perspective and a new appreciation for the position our clients are in when embarking upon web development projects.

As an agency that offers web development as a core service, we’ve been painfully conscious of the need to update our website for a few years now. It took us a good long while to devote enough attention to getting our own work done, for the obvious reason of being extremely busy with client work. As Robert once put it, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.”

Of course finding the time was only part of it. It’s often said “you are your own worst critic,” but we never thought we’d also be our own worst client. Turns out we are.

The Curse of Knowledge

We’ve built websites from research to release, from the ground up, and been very successful at it. Dozens of times. Yet for some inexplicable reason, all of our knowledge about marketing and web strategy, design and usability became completely useless when we started on our own website project. We may as well have been school children trying to reach Mars.

I’ve pondered this at length: how and why does this happen? It didn’t take long to realized we’re not unique in this – it happens with many of our clients as well. But it was rather surprising to experience it first-hand after being on the outside for all other projects.

What we experienced was the overwhelming scope of a web project that involves something so personal you can’t separate the emotional from the pragmatic; the technical from the preferential. This subject matter was so internalized – we take so much of it for granted – that it was immensely difficult to pull it out and put it down on “paper” in a way that made any sense to others. If you’ve ever read Made to Stick, you’ll recognize this as the “Curse of Knowledge,” as the Heath brothers coined it.

But this experience also underscores the value we offer our clients, not only in expertise or great service, but also through caring enough about your business to understand the emotional element, yet remaining objective enough to weigh the practical and external concerns. It’s much easier for an outside agency to keep a project on focus without the “curse” of detailed and ultimately distracting knowledge of the subject matter we found in ourselves during the project.

In other words, if not for the fact we are an advertising and marketing agency, I would love to have hired such an agency to help us with our website. After all, the surgeon doesn’t operate on himself.

Need a Hand?

So here we are in 2010, with a fresh look and a fresh outlook. What about you? Thinking of building your first website or upgrading the one you have? Feeling overwhelmed or apprehensive? We’ve been there, and we can help.

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Photo courtesy of alanlpriest

Meet Our Worst Client is a post from: RSA Blog

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In an economic drought, good customer service is digging for water. You have to work at it and be smart about it, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are a few things you can do right now to improve your customer service.

1. Listen to your customers
Listen to their complaints. Listen to their problems and their solutions. Listen to their successes and failures, their goals and plans, hopes and dreams; their boring and crazy stories. But don’t just be passive. Ask your customers to talk!

These are the people you need, and who need you. They are the lifeblood of your business, and they are your community. Get to know them, build relationships. Build trust. It starts with listening. Share their excitement, but be quick to root out and squash the causes of their frustrations.

2. Listen to your colleagues
The employee is every bit as important as the customer. An employee can make or break a sale; can gain the trust and loyalty of a customer, or lose it forever.

Listening does not just mean hearing sounds; it’s not passive. It means comprehending, it means dialogue. It means suppressing the ego, looking for the causes of problems, and solving them.

If you are a business owner, your staff represents YOU to your customers, but they also represent your customers to you. Better pay attention. If you work for someone, listen to your co-workers in the same way. This builds trust and shapes a cohesive unit, leading to better customer service.

3. Be open to change
Listening is good, because it allows excitement to be shared and also the burden of frustrations. But understanding the things you hear is one thing – acting on them is another. What created the excitement? Can we try to create more of this? What caused the frustration? How can we avoid more of this?

Change is hard. But it happens with or without you. Your customers and employees, both, will expect poor situations to be fixed. If it doesn’t happen they will no longer be yours.

4. Follow through
Do what you say you’re going to do. I absolutely hate it when people don’t follow through, all the more so because I’ve failed in this area so many times. But it’s as critical as it is fundamental; if you say you will provide a service, then do so. If you say “we provide quality customer service,” or “service you can depend on,” well dammit you’d better deliver.

The corollary to this, of course, is don’t tell me you’re going to do something if you don’t know for sure if you can. A little open communication goes a long way.

5. Strive for consistency
Say you go to a restaurant where you absolutely love the food, but are disappointed by poor quality. How likely are you to return? How likely are you to say to others, “yeah, this place is going downhill”?

Maintaining consistent quality of product or service is difficult. There are many variables, but remember you’re not in this alone. Your customers will tell you if you’re slipping, and so will your employees. Take care of points 1 and 2, and you’ll stand a much better chance of staying on top of this one. But also remember consistency has to apply to all the above points.

Good customer service takes unceasing effort. Maybe that’s why so many businesses don’t have it, or don’t have it consistently. But does any of this stuff work? Is it worth the effort? Am I full of crap?

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Photo courtesy of Tonamel

5 Ways To Improve Your Customer Service is a post from: RSA Blog

Blogging is a waste of time?

Seriously, why bother? Isn’t this kind of a waste of time? It’s not like blogs really matter – it’s just throwaway content, after all. What really matters is the website.

False.

Look, the web is about two things: content and search. Content because that’s what you’ve come for, and search because that’s how you find the content. Nothing else matters.

In light of this, a blog can be the most important tool you employ for two reasons:

1. A blog is all about content. But you have to make that content matter. It needs to be quality content; relevant content. Guess who loves quality content? That’s right: your customers and the search engine they used to find you. This content is useful to them; it helps them make decisions, helps solve their problem. It gives them a reason and a method to engage you.

2. Blogs are inherently search-engine optimized. They make you much more findable, which can drive a lot of traffic to your website. But SEO needs to be strategic. You have to pay attention to your audience and the keywords they use to make this work well (no, using random keywords based on intuition is not optimization – that’s called blind guesswork; fumbling in the dark).

Your website is important, to be sure. It is the hub around which all your online activity orbits (and often the blog *is* the website). But a blog can be an “orbital” with one hell of a gravity well, attracting searchers to your content and your website,  so don’t write it off too quickly.

Alright, you’ve got my opinion on it. What do you think? Are blogs just a place to toss extra content that doesn’t matter? Why bother?

Why Blog? is a post from: RSA Blog

Whenever I sit down to go through ideas for blog posts, I inevitably think of a few that sound great, only to realize hey, we already wrote that one. A lot of the things we wrote about last year are still relevant even now – maybe more so.

Looking back through our logs, it’s no surprise to find some content was more popular than others. After all, we’re still experimenting to find the sort of thing you, our readers, find most useful.

To make sure you didn’t miss any of the good ones from last year, here’s a short list of our most viewed posts from 2009.

Why Good Customer Service Is So Important

5 Reasons Not to Cut Your Marketing Budget in a Recession

Elements of Internet Marketing

Going Nuts? Don’t Cut your Marketing

Should You Put Video On Your Website?

Understanding Web Design

14 Practical Uses For Social Media

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Photo courtesy of kevinzim

Stuff You Liked From 2009 is a post from: RSA Blog

Wishing you a year of joy & good marketing

With the dawn of a new year, there is a lot of buzz about marketing in 2010. The “blogsphere ” is flooded with questions like, “What will be the most effective marketing media in 2010,” “Will traditional media b ecome obsolete,” and “Where are advertisers going to spend in 2010.”

Among these marketing predictions are:

1. The rise of mobile marketing and mobile websites:

This will be a pretty big one and some are even saying that the impact of mobile marketing will surpass that of social media. Be sure to pay attention to how this develops in the coming months and years.

2. Relationship marketing and customer service:

This necessity continues to grow as social media gives EVERY customer a louder voice and influence. Remember that your customers are people too, and not just any people, but the kings and queens of your business.

3. Experimentation:

When it comes to new technologies, sometimes experimentation is the best way to see if they work for your marketing. This doesn’t mean (of course) to blindly pursue new media with no clear goal, intent, strategy and system of measurement. But, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try something new. If you don’t begin experimenting, you will be left behind.

4. Social media and SEO:

We can’t forget about the meat and potatoes of online marketing. Social media and SEO have advanced past the point of being mere buzz words. Don’t expect these two to disappear.

5. Promotions in both new AND traditional media:

Whether businesses are offering incentives to gain friends and followers in social networks, customer loyalty programs, coupons, sales or charitable contributions – promotions are sure to be another 2010 trend.

Despite all the growth and trends in execution, I am here to tell you: in this new year and decade, marketing has not changed (at least in concept).  Regardless of what media you resolve to use this year, or where you allocate that budget, the fundamental principles of good marketing remain the same.

Still, the rise of the Internet, online social technologies, and the mobile web has changed how marketers need to look at communication and the people they are communicating with. It has also added elements of complexity with more marketing media, niches and approaches that need to be understood.

As always, regardless of the platform:

• Define your market and the people you are trying to reach.
• Remember what need, want or interest your product fills.
• Address the people (as people, not mere consumers existing to give you their money) who have that want, need or interest and let them know you have the solution.
• Be useful to people, helping them to find what they’re looking for, whether they know that’s you yet or not.

Simple, right?

Okay, so maybe not that simple as we still cannot forget about research, strategy, creative, experience, message, placement, etc. And we cannot forget how all of these things are essential components to any effective marketing effort.

The point here is that whether online of offline, you’re still using the same marketing principles. No need to fear – 2010 is full of opportunities for businesses and marketers using any media.

It is important to remember what and why you are marketing in the first place (and what you ultimately want to accomplish). And don’t forget who you’re talking to.

What do you see in store for marketing this year? What are you most excited about?

Image Credit: Avatar/ΣΙΓΜΑ

2010 Marketing Predictions is a post from: RSA Blog

Within the search results you not only get a link to Google maps for directions, but a link to the coffee shop’s site. Upon entering their website you are automatically eligible for a mobile discount: a free latte, which is redeemable at the register by simply showing the mobile coupon code you will receive in a text message.

Does your website work for mobile?

Does this scenario seem a little crazy or far-fetched to you? Well, it is more realistic than you might think. In fact, it’s already happening.

Mobile Marketing Today

Mobile websites are not only used as a quick way to find information, but they have become yet another avenue for marketing campaigns.

Capturing the attention of multiple generations and target demographics, mobile marketing is an intricate and interesting venture that effectively ties into other marketing efforts.

Mobile marketing can be used to help establish brand awareness through many different outlets like mobile search banner ads and SMS advertising. Before you get too excited though, remember that mobile marketing is largely useless without a properly functioning mobile website.

Your Website, Mobile

Contrary to popular belief, websites built for standard web browsers do not display very well (if at all) on mobile devices. While standard websites can have multiple features, the main purpose behind a mobile site is a simple call-to-action.

Call-to-action features allow for users to accomplish something useful, such as finding the location of a restaurant, making a hotel reservation, or subscribing to text alerts or an e-newsletter. Whatever the action is, it should be easily accessible to users as soon they land on the site.

Whether the goal is getting more customers in the door, increasing online sales or reservations, a good mobile website will help make it happen. With a growing demand from mobile web users to have accessible and customizable mobile sites, business owners and marketers around the world are working to keep their customers happy both at their desk and on the go.

How does your website look on mobile devices?

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Photo courtesy of edans

Mobile Marketing and Your Website is a post from: RSA Blog

Don't get robbed.

I don’t know anything about rockets or surgery. If I wanted to find a good rocket surgeon, I wouldn’t have the faintest idea where to start. I’m not at all confident I could find the right person for the job; someone who won’t rip me off or do a half-baked job (hey, no disrespect to rocket surgeons, but some of you are kind of shady).

If you feel that way about finding a good web designer*, I may be able to help (yeah, some of you are shady, too).

There are key values, practices or qualifications in any profession that can help you judge its practitioners. So you might proceed in your search with greater confidence, I’ve outlined below some key things to look for in a good web designer (Surprisingly, little of it has to do with actual ‘design’ skill).

1. A good web designer listens.
It’s incredibly difficult to solve a design problem without knowing what that problem is. A designer who listens when you explain your business and web needs is going to be much better equipped to provide an effective solution.

If the designer seems to be doing all the talking, consider moving on. They might be the best designer in the world, but if they haven’t listened and understood your problems, it’s unlikely they’ll give you an effective solution.

2. A good web designer asks questions.
In my experience, clients are not always able to articulate their needs, wants, or problems the first time. Sometimes it’s the questions they’re asked that will bring issues to the surface, or reveal directions or solutions right away that may have been overlooked.

If a designer isn’t asking any questions, he’s either telepathic or he doesn’t care much about solving your problem.

3. A good web designer solves business problems.
It’s not about making things pretty. Many designers – and clients – get caught up in the aesthetic aspect of the work, or the latest design trends and tricks. If you want a product that will address your specific needs, however, you want a designer with a more ‘objective’ perspective, who focuses on *your* business problem, not someone who churns out another carbon copy of their latest design obsession.

Look at their portfolio with a critical eye. If they show work in diverse industries, the graphical elements and overall styles should be very different.

4. A good web designer helps you understand what he does and why.
Some people don’t like having to explain themselves or educate clients on design or usability fundamentals. Their language will be intentionally vague and full of buzzwords in an effort to bedazzle or confuse, or they’ll simply talk to you like you’re a third-grader.

Look for someone who cares enough to help you understand everything that’s going on. Their language will be accessible, and they won’t talk down to you.

5. A good web designer has a wide range of in-depth industry knowledge.
Unless you’re on a three-figure budget, you probably don’t want to hire the kid next door who took one HTML class and has a Geocities (RIP) site. To ensure a successful outcome, you’ll want to make sure your designer or agency is proficient in basic tools such as Photoshop or Fireworks, XHTML and CSS, and also has skills in things like search engine optimization, programming, web writing, marketing, the web-hosting process, and maybe even some print graphic design.

Ask the designer about her process. What steps will she take to solve your problem? What tools does she use? Does she adhere to web standards?

6. A good web designer thinks of the end-user.
He knows it’s his job to be the advocate for the people who will be using your website, and for the content those people will be viewing.

While your opinion on design, content, interface and usability decisions is important, it’s only important to the degree that it’s informed by business sense and knowledge of your customers and industry. If your opinion is merely based on personal preference or assumptions about your audience or web users, a good web designer will argue the point – and he’d do well to argue vigorously (but respectfully, right designers?).

If a designer isn’t concerned about how the people visiting your website will use it, but only about his own preferences – or even yours – it’s time to move on.

7. A good web designer is a professional.
Design isn’t all about skill in creating dazzling graphics. It’s also about knowing enough about business and marketing to create an effective solution to whatever problem you face. It’s about being consistent in communication, professionalism, and work. It’s about delivering as promised.

A designer who doesn’t care to dress reasonably well, speak well, or solve your problem effectively in a timely manner probably doesn’t care much about you as a client. Or eating anytime soon.

8. A good web designer is honest.
Hell, any good professional is honest. Right? RIGHT? If business is all about making money at the expense of quality work and lasting relationships, then we’re all doomed. (Notice anything about our economy lately?)

A good web pro will tell it like it is. They won’t make guarantees about your search engine rankings. They won’t claim to be a social media “guru”, or expert, or rock star, maven, ninja, wizard, or god. They won’t inflate the price of their work to unreasonable proportions but neither will they deep-discount their work just to make the sale.

If the designer you’re talking to does any of this, run away. Better yet, call me.

And more…

There are plenty more I could list, but you get the idea.

The most important thing you can do when looking for a good web designer is to ask questions. Asking more questions will help you understand the process of web development much better if you’re talking to a good web pro, or it will bring up a lot of red flags if you’re face-to-face with a poor one.

Have you ever had a bad experience with a designer? Tell us about it here, and offer your own advice for finding a good web designer.

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* This implies ‘one person working independently,’ but for the purposes of this article I mean to include all web professionals: agencies and other web organizations; anyone you might hire for your web project.

How to Find a Good Web Designer is a post from: RSA Blog

Tools without strategy: poorly built house; dilapidated, isolated. More of a shack, really. A bad marketing shack.

I’ve had the opportunity to speak at a few events about social media. I’ve also spoken to clients, prospects, colleagues, friends, family, and a few pets about social media. One of the most common questions asked of me, and that I see asked of others, is “how do you use social media for business?”

For these presentations, I usually begin by explaining what social media is conceptually, then move into how it can be integrated into the marketing effort – beginning with objectives and strategy. Almost unfailingly, however, I receive feedback to the effect of “I still don’t know how to *USE* this stuff.” I think I know what the problem is (clearly I need to fix my presentation, but that’s beside the point).

Tools without a plan

Imagine I walked up to you and asked, “How do I use a hammer?” How would you respond? You might grab a hammer, nail, and a piece of wood and show me the proper way to hold the tool and the nail, place the wood, and proper form for pounding the nail in. I’d say “thanks,” you’d say “jolly good, ol’ boy,” and we’d part company.

Now what? I can hammer nails with the best of them, but what does that mean? I can nail two pieces of wood together. Or three, or fifty. Can’t cut the wood – need to learn another tool. Oh, the wood needs to be measured? Another tool. Whoops, forgot to lay the foundation – that’s a whole other set of tools.

You get the idea. I know how to use a hammer, but I still can’t build a house – not one that deserves the name, anyway.

Technology without strategy

It’s the same with social media – Twitter, Facebook, Google, blogs, forums, etc. – these are just tools. I can show you how to use any of them, but they’re not going to do anything for your business unless you understand how they fit into the marketing mix, the PR effort, sales, customer service, production, and all other facets of your organization.

Because unlike a specialized tool like the hammer, “social media” as a concept can be utilized to further the efforts of almost any department in your business. But you won’t understand this simply by learning specific tools.

That’s why I always try to begin with the fundamentals – or the high-level perspective, depending on how you look at it: business objectives; the strategic plan. But this seems to make people zone out – they don’t want to hear it. They just want to dive into the tools. That enthusiasm is great, but it’s no use without a plan.

Stop.

It is definitely NOT hammer time. Put it down, back away, and no one gets hurt! Start at the beginning. Form your plan based on objectives. Then when you do get to the tools, you’ll be able to use them effectively, with purpose. Even better, when new tools and technologies come along, you’ll be much better prepared to jump in and use them effectively as well.

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Photo courtesy of foto3116

Social Media Tools Are Useless is a post from: RSA Blog

Twitter overload...

I was reluctant – VERY reluctant – to write this post. Do we really need another post about Twitter? I’ve run across some Twitter users (for biz) lately that tells me perhaps we do. After all, some people are just now signing up, and may not have read any of the twizillion “Twitter 101″ posts available.

So… here we are. How to set up and use Twitter for business.

1. Use your real name.
When you sign up your account, include your real name. It can be your username or not, but include it in the “name” field at the least.

If you don’t want people to know who you are, social media probably isn’t for you.

2. Fill out your bio.
In general, I don’t follow people who don’t have a bio, and I’m not the only one. Why? Because the only reason I would want to follow you is because of who you are. If I don’t know who you are, I’m far less likely to follow.

Beyond just telling other people who you are, the bio can also help explain why you’re on Twitter in the first place. Many people use Twitter for business, so they naturally include their occupation and position in the bio, along with interests pertaining to their field of work.

If you don’t want people to know what you do, go ahead and skip Twitter.

3. Fill in your location.
Some people are leery of this because of privacy issues. But consider: 1) if you’re using the internet, your location is already compromised, and 2) no one really cares where you are except that it somehow relates to themselves.

In other words, the fact that I am in Rapid City, South Dakota only matters to other people in this area, and can already be found out through other means (see: Google).

The advantage of posting your location is it will be much easier to network with locals, and associates you with your region in searches. So use your city and state (not GPS coordinates, you geeks – no one knows what those mean!)

If you don’t want people to know where you are, avoid the internet. And mobile devices. And electricity.

4. Don’t protect your tweets.
This is bad enough for personal use, but for a business? You might as well not bother with Twitter.

So many people will say “no one gives a crap what you think,” and maybe there’s some truth in that, if all you are posting is a useless stream of narcissistic minutiae. But I think people are more interested in each other than we’re willing to admit, provided what you have to say is relevant to others.

Tweets I can’t see are not relevant. Part of how I decide whether or not to follow someone is by looking at what they’ve been talking about. If I can’t see that, I’m just not going to bother.

If you hop on Twitter and protect your updates, it’s like walking into a mixer and standing in a corner whispering. Are you here to network, or what?

If you don’t want people to hear what you have to say, don’t bother with the internet at all.

5. The only thing that matters about your avatar is consistency.
People will tell you to post your real picture with a smiling face, and they’re not wrong. But if you can’t bring yourself to do that (I’m working on it), then at least make sure whatever you post as your profile picture is something you want to keep there for a while.

Your profile photo should reflect your company somehow, to keep things consistent. A variation of your logo is a good choice. Just try not to change it often.

When I scan my Twitter feed (at a certain point you will have to do this), I find myself stopping at specific tweets because of the person’s avatar. Either the picture stands out, or I’ve grown accustomed to paying attention to that person’s tweets. Either way, the avatar is what keeps me from overlooking that person.

The problem is these people may change their profile photo frequently. Now I don’t recognize them, and am more likely to overlook them when scanning the feed.

If you don’t want people to know what you look like… uh… you’re probably like me.

6. Use a custom background.
The default backgrounds make me sleepy. Change it to a solid color, if you have to, but PLEASE use something custom. You can Google search for pre-made backgrounds, too, but keep in mind the background should also fit your company or brand.

Change your background under Settings, in the Design tab.

If you use the default backgrounds, you’re boring. Or lazy.

7. Engage!
Now you’re set up so people know who you are, what you do, and where you are coming from. These are all good things when you’re networking, especially for business.

Twitter isn’t a role-playing game. Be real or begone, ye foul beast!

Use Twitter search to find others like you or people having conversations about topics of interest to you. Find people to learn from. Find people to teach. Find people to laugh with, argue with, or people you can help or who can help you. Use TweetDeck, Seesmic or Hootsuite to streamline your efforts.

And have fun.

Seriously? Another “Twitter For Business” Post? is a post from: RSA Blog

Have you ever thought to yourself, ‘whoa, that has got to be one of the worst jobs’.  Maybe you were walking down the street and had a little pity on the poor ‘jo’ that had to spend his day analyzing smells emanating from the local locker room.  This summer (it’s over – boo, hiss) we started working on a series of commercials for Western Dakota Tech based on the creative notion – what kind of jobs would you just hate to be stuck in? Steve B. from WDT and the RSA team had a great time coming up with outlandish jobs. We landed on a few that really seemed desperate and began production. Our goal was to encourage anyone who might want to improve their life to consider taking online courses through WDT for business management and marketing. Ever had one of these jobs?

1)  Human Pinata – How fun is it to go to parties, hang from a tree, and meet the power of 5-year-olds with BATS?

2) Professional Kiss-up – Yes sir, you’re a genius! Ever notice someone following an executive around and wonder…’what do they do all day?’ Well, maybe they have to kiss-up all day long… oh joy!

3) The Shredder Guy – Initially inspired by “The Office” – we wanted to show an over-worked, under-paid person working in a small office doing his overwhelmingly mundane work. Naturally, an ‘office accident’ is likely to occur.

4) Assistant on a Leash – Don’t ya hate it when the boss never gets your name right but always expects you to know everything and be at their beckoning call?  Not the greatest gig, admit it.

Production went on and we had a blast yanking, smacking, shredding and blowing hot air all over the place.  Turns out that all of our fun paid off and the commercials received Platinum & Gold MarCom Awards.

• A Platinum Award for the television campaign promoting the online degree program. The ads tell stories about people in terrible jobs – just as a human piñata – who choose WDT to improve their lives.
• A Gold Award for the radio campaign promoting the online degree program. The radio ads tell stories similar to the TV ads.

The MarCom Awards competition received over 5,000 entries from all over the world. The winners ranged from Advertising agency to Fortune 500 companies.

WDT is showing a 20% improvement in their enrollment this year, and they’re bursting at the seams. We continued into the fall producing more emotional based commercials that show specific values WDT has to offer a range of students – hands-on training, affordability, and one-on-one attention from professors.

It’s been great working with WDT over that past several years and it gets better as we go.  Congratulations guys!

The Worst Job Gets National Awards is a post from: RSA Blog