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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Internet marketing project management: How we do it


Yesterday I wrote about how agencies can't use typical project management methods. Those methods fight interruptions. We have to build interruptions into our work style.


Here's the real meat-and-potatoes stuff. This is the set of rules and guidelines I wrote for the Portent team, nearly un-edited, plus examples. I talk tools, rules and exactly how you should set up and follow project milestones and tasks.


Note that I use BaseCamp throughout, but these principles should work no matter what you use.

I'm going to use the BaseCamp milestones page as the example, but I feel any document that tracks a project must have the following:


anatomy of a web project


That's it. There are lots of other features, but at its heart, this is what a project is: Milestones. Tasks. Communication.


Tools I use to try to make projects easier are:

Explanations of milestones. The explanation is supplemental text describing any details or additional information about that milestone. In BaseCamp, use Milestone comments as the explanation area.Messages record all communication within a project. Worst case, all e-mails and phone conversations should be cut-and-paste into a text file as a project record. In BaseCamp, you can use the Messages tool. Any e-mail involving the project should be sent via or stored in the BaseCamp Message tool. If you have a phone call, record the notes from the call as a message. If you send a file to everyone, again, use the Message tool.Collaborative writing is part of almost any marketing project. If you are writing something that will require review and revision by multiple people, use something that facilitates that. If nothing's available I use Google Docs. BaseCamp has the Writeboard tool. Use either one.Sometimes you want to have an asynchronous discussion about a design, a recommendation or similar. E-mail may work but it can be clutzy if you're sending 1-2 sentence messages between team members. A discussion forum can be better, since you don't have to remember to 'cc' everyone. Or, use Campfire - it's the Chat tab in BaseCamp. I prefer Campfire because, again, it records everything, and it's super-easy to use.Finally, file management can make-or-break the project. Make sure essential files get stored somewhere besides your laptop hard drive. An online service like DropBox can work. BaseCamp has the Files tab - if you attach a file to a message it's automatically stored. If not, you can upload the file from the Files tab.

The ground rules:

A milestone is anything deliverable from the agency to the client or vice-versa. 'home page first design' is a milestone. So is 'site SEO recommendations report'. However, 'site crawl' is not.Every milestone has a responsible individual. Don't assign milestones to groups or teams. Assign them to one person. That person is on the hook to get the work done. It's possible a team will do the work, but that one person is accountable, no excuses allowed.The responsible individual must control the result. I used to see projects where the account manager was responsible for every deliverable. That's a terrible precedent. The account manager is responsible for directing traffic between the client and the team, and facilitating communication. They have little control over on-time delivery of a home page design. That's the designer's job. The AM can pester and beg, but in the end the designer has to get the work done.Every milestone has a deliverable. "February SEO recommendations" isn't good. "February recommendations report complete" is.Every milestone has a status. In iterative projects (ie all projects), saying "February recommendations report" isn't helpful. "February recommendations report 1st draft" is.Every deliverable has an individual recipient - a single person, somewhere, who will receive the final product. You can call out the recipient in a supplemental note/message for the milestone. It doesn't have to be in the milestone title.Every recipient has a follow-up milestone, like "Approve February recommendations report".Tasks are the things you do on the way to a milestone.No task takes more than 2 hours. This is kind of arbitrary, but I insist that my team create tasks that are atomic - that are definable, achievable things. So 'code administration site' is an awful task. 'Set up authentication for administration site' is a lot better. Doing it this way has three benefits: It lets everyone track progress day to day, and prevents the deadline ambush.You're less likely to get interrupted mid-task if tasks are shorter.You have far more between-task times to handle all the other stuff that inevitably comes up.Each person controls their task list. It is not the account manager's job to create task lists. We had to do this in Celoxis simply because not everyone could create a task list. BaseCamp allows anyone to create a 'todo' list (a task list, really) and record time associated with to-dos.Every task has a verb. "Keyword research" is a lousy, overbroad task. "Write initial keyword list" is good.Only the project/account manager can mark a milestone as complete.Only a project/account manager can reschedule a milestone.

If you get interrupted:

Find out if the interruption is an emergency.If it is not, check to see when you'll be done with your current task. It should be less than 2 hours, remember.Let the person who's asking for help know when you'll be able to help them.Mark down their request as a separate 'to do'.Complete the current task.Complete their request.

Oh, god. Some agency named Portent has hired us to rebuild their site, and to conduct ongoing SEO afterwards. You just know they're going to be second-guessing us every step of the way. And have you ever met their CEO?!!!


Ahem.


Regardless, they threw a lot of money our way. The scope of work is split into two major projects: Site build and SEO. Here's the necessary bits for this example:


scope of work part 1


scope of work part 2


Note that deliverables and timelines are utter fiction, by the way. Use these and you could end up in a world of hurt.

The site build lists milestones, but some need to be broken up into smaller chunks. for example, the Design milestone needs to become 8 individual milestones:


design-milestones.gif


Note how each milestone follows the rules outlined above: They have a defined deliverable that's passing from agency to client or vice-versa; include a handoff, etc..


For the mockup, the account manager needs to explain what 'sent to Portent' means. You can't really send a bunch of HTML pages, stylesheets and graphics to a client. So, she adds a comment:


A comment on a project milestone


That comment further explains the milestone. It'll sit there for anyone who needs it.


Portent's SEO work is trickier. It's cyclical, so it's tempting to enter broad milestones like "April SEO" and leave it at that. The better way to handle it is like this:

Figure out which of the bolded items involve deliverables to the client in some form. In this case, everything except 'site crawl' is a deliverable. Directory submission counts, even if we don't literally send directories to the client, because we're delivering something for the client.Make each item into a milestone, scheduling out recurring items on a regular basis for the duration of the contract.Create a corresponding to-do list.

Here's how the biggest recurring milestone - site review - might look:


Portent SEO milestones


Note that I associated a task list with the first milestone. I used a to-do list template, so I can associate the same thing next time if I want, or modify it, or do something different. What I did not do: Apply the same basic to-do list for six months of milestones. That will cause us to get mechanical and never adjust our tasks according to changes in the client's SEO profile and goals. So I'll create the remaining task lists when I need them.


Always put together your to-do/task list for a given month at the start of that month. That way, you can focus on current tasks and better address client needs.


Here's the task list:


A task list


That's the high-level look at how we handle projects. Is it perfect? Of course not. It's only as good as the people involved, and it only works if everyone's comfortable with this style.


But in ongoing, campaign-based work, where interruptions are the rule, it's kept us on track.



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E-Book



Conversation Marketing, The E-book: Now on sale


Back in 2001, I sat down at my blazing fast Pentium computer and started writing a book about internet marketing. Brainstorming it with John Cass, we realized "Hey, the internet is kind of two-way, like a conversation..." and that led to the title Conversation Marketing. Little things like babies slowed me down a bit, but in 2003 I self-published the book, titled, surprisingly, Conversation Marketing.


It's been for sale in print format for years, but a lot of folks have asked for an electronic version, so here it is: Conversation Marketing in PDF. You can buy it for $7:


Buy Now


If you want to read the whole advertising pitch for the book, you can look over here. But really, for $7, the PDF is a steal.



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7 ways to keep the conversation going


Dear brands: Why are you so freaking anti-social?


Companies and organizations put a ton of time, money and hard work into attracting potential customers to their web site. But then those big brands abandon you: They seem to say "buy now, or we'll ignore you forever". That's not very friendly.


The average Fortune 500 CEO will growl that Friendliness doesn't count, Lurie, and until you've been in my shoes you should shut your mouth.


OK, let's talk dollars and cents, then.


Getting a previous, non-purchasing visitor to return to your site and buy costs 90% less than getting a new visitor to buy.


In other words, if you spend $1 to get 1 me to visit your site, and then I leave without buying, you've got two choices:

You can go find another person, for $1.You can get me to come back and buy something, for $.10Hmmm. Let's see.

Assuming your job is to improve corporate earnings, Ms./Mr. CEO, you'll want to keep me around a tad longer. Here are a bunch of ways to do it, in no particular order:


I mean, really ask. Don't bury the e-mail signup in the footer, or make it a teeny tiny link. This really doesn't make me feel wanted:


toys r us e-mail signup


Pottery Barn isn't great either, but at least I can find it:


Pottery Barn e-mail signup


Just ask me, nicely. Don't mumble. Don't grunt. And don't yell. Ask.


Hee hee. Get it? A Tweet. It's like a treat, but on Twitter...


If you're a typical, consumer-focused business, then Twitter is not your best selling platform. Most of your customers don't use it. But it can't hurt to have a Twitter account and invite folks to follow you.


Just a few quality Twitter followers can do a lot for your brand and your sales.


Again, make it easy. Put a nice, obvious Twitter button on your page. And, as Dan Zarrella pointed out, you should tell people to follow you. Don't ask (sorry, Dan, I couldn't find the link to your test).


There are more consumers on Facebook than Chihuahuas on Rodeo Drive. So yeah, you want to be on Facebook. But more important, you need to make it easy for me to subscribe to updates from you. On Facebook, that means I have to 'like' you. A nice, simple Like box on your site can do the trick:


Ironically, I haven't had time to build my own Facebook page yet. So the one above is, uh, rudimentary.

You can create a button with a few clicks, then a quick cut-and-paste to your site. Visit the Facebook developer site to see how.


Once I click that like button, updates you make to your Facebook page will show up in my News stream. Nifty, huh?


If you don't know what RSS is, don't worry about it. Just tell your developer you want an RSS feed that contains the same stuff as your e-mails.


For those of us nerdy enough to use (and love) RSS feed readers, you'll be a hero.


Once you have 1-3 in place, offer me something. Nothing that requires shipping or hard dollar costs for you. Try something digital. For momAgenda we started a printables program: Simple PDFs that folks can download, print and use for tracking their week.


The printables drive e-mail signups, Twitter follows and Facebook likes. momAgenda doesn't even require visitors to register or subscribe. They just say "If you liked this, give us your e-mail address and we'll let you know when we've got more".


People hate spam, or anything they think is spam, or anything that slightly resembles what they once heard could potentially be spam. So don't do anything remotely like spam. Be predictable:

Tell people how often they'll receive e-mails, Tweets or Facebook updates.Tell them what they'll receive in those updates.Don't do anything else.

Avoid being defined as a spammer. Don't play the rules lawyer, either: If 100 of your subscribers report you as a spammer to Twitter, it won't matter if you technically weren't spamming them. So think about what your customers might think is tacky, and don't do it.


Every now and then, reward me for being a subscriber. Give me a little discount, just for being one of the Inner Circle. Even better, just send me a note with a tip, a hint, or a special downloadable something that no one else will get.


You don't have to spend money. Just make me feel a little special. My ego resembles a small, damp piece of lint.



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Internet marketing insanity, and it's only Tuesday

Can the last sane person on earth please turn out the lights?

Oh. God.


It's been one of those weeks that shakes my faith in marketing.


And it's Tuesday.


So, second day of the week, and second ranty post.


First off, if Google is so damned smart, how is this butthead exploiting negative feedback for fun and profit? This is a guy who's calling people 'bitch', threatening them, getting panned by dozens of furious customers and then using that to pillage the rankings. I've decided to call every person I've ever pissed off and have them write negative reviews about me. I'll start with pre-school and work my way up. #1 ranking baybeee!!!


Twitter will temporarily shut you down if you break wind from the same IP address more than three times in succession. But they catapult Ashley Kerekes to internet fame when tens of thousands of people follow her by accident, thinking she's a cricket match.


Google's SERPs now resemble the subject of a Clients From Hell design story:


google serps - what the hell?!


Did Microsoft secretly take over? Come on. Can anyone out there tell me where I can go to buy a bike? Especially since I'm not IN SYRACUSE NY?!!!


Then I find some fascist dirtbag whose web site tries to tell me I'm part of a vast Zionist conspiracy that secretly runs the world. Luckily, you all responded fantastically to that, restoring my faith and getting me past Tuesday. For which you have my thanks.


frank weltner - LOL Cat in disguise?


Where's John Stewart when you need him?


Pant pant pant. OK, I'm done.


PS: I wrote this while flying. Anyone who knows my love/hate relationship with travel will know where these posts come from. Tomorrow I'll be back to more useful, less ranty, stuff.



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Internet marketing requirements for clients


So, you've decided to hire an internet marketing company. Congratulations! Before you kick back your heels and say "go do it" to your newly hired partners, though, here are a few things you'll need to know:

You'll have to change your web site. A lot. Search engine optimization will require changes to content, code and maybe your entire server infrastructure. Conversion optimization and testing will require tweaks to your site design. Make sure you've got access and resources to handle that.You will end up on Facebook, and Twitter, and who knows where else. Get used to it.Your branding people will freak out. Lose their minds. Swallow their own tongues. Because your internet marketing firm is going to push things. In social media, nut cases do best.Your assumptions will be challenged. A good internet marketing agency will want to test everything. They'll add a big red 'buy now' button to the home page, or move navigation around, or tweak your e-mail marketing creative.Turnaround times will shrink. Rapid iteration is the best way to win at internet marketing.Someone's gonna have to write. No content, no marketing. Period.The short version: Everyone on your team, from the web developers to the designers to the CEO, are going to be uncomfortable. A good internet marketing firm will work just as hard to fit things to your own culture, to a point. but a good firm will also be brutally honest if they feel you're hurting yourself.

I'm writing this using in-flight wifi, so I'm done. Have a great Thanksgiving!



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