Monthly Archives: June 2010

Jun 28 2010
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Client questions answered, W3C, Web Standards

W3C explained

One of the most common discussions when talking with a client about the delivery of a site or web application is whether or not ‘it’s to standard’ but what does this actually mean?

The W3C or World Wide Web Consortium (3 W’s and a ‘C’ for consortium) is the main international standards organisation for the World Wide Web. The organisation is headed up by none other than Sir Tim Berners-Lee and consists of a number of some 350 odd members who continuously develop the standards for the web.

So what does that mean? Well, by having a regulatory body for web standards it ensures that all developers around the world web use a compliant standard coding style and that means that you won’t get errors which in short (and this is the bit the client will like) that means it will save time and money.

Now if you want to sound extra clever you can explain to Mr Client that validated webpage’s are accessible, browser compatible, error free, fast loading, and properly indexed in the search engines. This is good because your target audience and Google will like you.

If you don’t tick the above boxes by not having validated webpage’s the opposite will happen and no-one will like your site. So that’s what it all means, simple really.

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Jun 21 2010
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General, new technology

Achieving digital balance

The online world evolves at such a breakneck speed it’s easy to get sidetracked by the latest shiny gadget or cutting edge technology.

Once we lived in a world where clients would phone up and say ‘We want a website’, now more often than not the call I take is ‘I saw this and I want one for our businesses’.

The key is to strive for digital balance. Remember the business requirement but add in enough innovation and excitement to keep your client and the audience enticed. By delivering a balanced media plan you will achieve a greater ROI by allocating accountability and measurement to each media chosen. By being media and technology neutral your results will be integrated and effective.

I’m not saying that you should ignore new technologies and only rely on the tried and tested, absolutely not, but don’t just adopt technology for technology’s sake.

Start with your staple ingredients of a tried and tested planning model, add in a dash of innovation, a spoonful of pioneering technology, a splash of something daring then check it against your ROI model.

If it all adds up you’re on way to achieving your digital balance.

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Jun 16 2010
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3D, A geek moment, Fun Stuff, Interesting stuff

The new X-Box ‘Kinect’

It’s ‘sleeker, smaller and quieter’ and according to the Vice president of Microsoft, the X-Box 360 ‘Kinect’ is the next revolution in gaming.

With 250GB HD and built-in wi-fi the console brings you technologies that allow you to use your voice as a control, plus movement and gestures.  The team at Microsoft have created new partnerships with the likes of ESPN in order to build more intelligent software that recognise you and your opponents to add in more interactive dimensions to the world of gaming.

You might worry that this will be detrimental to the quality you expect to receive as historically we’ve all experienced rich high-definition video but Microsoft promise they’re not moving away from delivering this quality and look to better their three massive blockbusters: Halo, Gears of War and Call of Duty.

One for your wish list to Santa, the ‘Kinect’ is due to hit stores by the end of this year.

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Jun 15 2010
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Client questions answered, Search

Know your audience, know your keywords.

Or ‘secret’ words as one particular client of mine likes to call them, but honestly, there’s no black magic or secret formula involved, if you know your audience you should know your keywords.

A Keyword is simply a word that users commonly use when searching on the internet for particular information. If you get into the mindset of your users and understand the keywords they use when searching, then you can increase your keyword density (number of times a keyword is used on your site) to boost your natural rankings within search engines.

This is part of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) process which is fundamental to the visibility of your site against competing sites online. By knowing your target audience and optimising for their journey and not yours you will be favoured by the search engines and therefore they will recommend your site above others.

Get the basics right first. Make sure you have correctly identified your target market, understand the language they are using and try where you can to include these keywords in your site. You will of course still have to use the language that you need to sell your product or services so make sure that you don’t lose the relevance to your site along the way. The key is balance.

Get the balance right though and you will generate a higher volume of quality visitors to your site which in turn will help your conversion rates and boost your business.

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Jun 09 2010
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Debates and Discussion points, Interesting things on the vine, Mobile, new technology

Blue lego bricks

Ironic that I’m typing this on my iPhone but numbered are the days that I shall do so. I’m getting pretty fed up with the battle between Apple and Adobe. Anyone else out there have a view on this?

Adobe took a big step towards reconciliation recently and announced their ‘Packager for iPhone’ tool. The Packager is a key aspect of Adobe’s CS5 update to its flagship creative suite, due for release to the market just days after Apple’s damning words iterated by the ‘legendary’ Steve Jobs.

At a recent Apple meeting he announced an amendment to their app development terms and conditions effectively banning the use of Flash.

So I’m looking into the HTC Evo 4G, it looks pretty good. Perhaps we can turn all the abandoned iPhones into a work of art, each one can resemble a blue Lego brick, we can call it ‘In the absence of flash’…

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Jun 09 2010
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Interesting stuff, Interesting things on the vine, Mobile, social media, social networking

Foursquare: The Facts

Foursquare was founded by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website and game.

Foursquare is built primarily for smart phones.

Foursquare has more than 600,000 people checking in at this moment in time.

Foursquare grew more than 10% during one conference (SXSW). That hasn’t been done since Twitter.

Foursquare employ 16 people. The square root of 4 is 16… See what they did there?

If you want to know more, check out their blog.

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Jun 03 2010
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General, musings

If you don’t make mistakes, you won’t make anything

Being wrong is ok, failures and false starts are a precondition of success.

Some of the most successful people and companies I know are so, because they allow themselves to fail. Edison made over 200 light bulbs before he made the one that worked but he learned something from every mistake before reaching the end result.

It is the wrong turns in work and life that define us, risks are a measure of who you are. Those of us that take risks will end up leading more fruitful lives. Knowledge is built upon things that happen but if you stop taking risks and only keep the same knowledge it will quickly become unoriginal, and lets face it, who wants that label.

So, go on, get it wrong! It’s the right thing to do.

‘Fail. Fail again. Fail better.’ Samuel Beckett

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Jun 03 2010
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Client questions answered, Debates and Discussion points

Arguing the toss

I want the logo bigger and in the middle!

There’s too much white space, let’s fill it with pictures!

I want to add more information in!

Can we have some flashy, moving stuff?

Been here before? I have. It’s easy to get pent-up when you’re dealing with a client who either thinks they know what’s best or won’t budge on something you believe to be a risk to the project but, the key is to remain calm, objective.

Define the requirement, assess the associated risk and implications then recommend a strategy that ticks as many boxes as possible thus keeping the client happy and not putting the expertise of the project in jeopardy:

  • Define the risk. Saying it will ‘mess the while design up’ or ‘effect the website usability performance’ is not defining the requirement. Clearly specify to your client, in their language (i.e. not technical jargon in the hope it will wash over) exactly what you mean. Why will the design be messy, can you mock something up to demonstrate your concerns? In what way will the website underperform, and why? At what point will the requirements asked for by the client start to interfere?
  • Assess the risk. Keep your cool and make sure you’re not reacting. Do you still think there’s a risk to the project if you implement the changes requested? How serious is it? How certain can you be that these performance problems will actually happen? What will the impact be on the users if they do? Most importantly, what is your rationale? Can you back your argument up with case studies or facts? You’re the expert here, the client has come to you for your opinion but make sure it’s a just and balanced one and solidify your point with back up, this will give the client little room to argue the toss with.
  • Recommend a solution strategy. Is there a mid-way solution? What’s the best way to implement it? And again, how can you back this up? Can you mock a prototype? Demonstrating rather than talking nearly always gets the client on board.
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Jun 02 2010
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Client questions answered

Some corkers

A colleague sent an interesting article around recently about ‘Funny and Frustrating client types’, it’s quite an interesting read (it’s here if you want to look at the full article).

It got me thinking about some of the clients I’ve worked with over the years and in every meeting it’s true, there’s always one. So I thought it only fair that I flick back through my notes and publish my own top ten ‘questions or comments’ that I’ve noted over the last few months… well, it would be rude not to:

1. So if digital radio catches on will the meaning of clockwise disappear? (this one actually got me thinking but I still think it’s a corker)

2. Google’s changed recently, it’s stopped giving me UK options as a separate! (turned out on looking at the results page he was in .co.uk)

3. We have a lot of USP’s that I think set us apart.

4. I love the idea of going online but it’s too expensive so we’re just going to do TV again.

5. The brief: I want to advertise like Apple. The budget: £8k. The response to the proposal: It’s too creative, can we tone it down please. aaaaargh! (thus proving the argument in the article above that this is a common aspiration for clients)

6. Our target market is everybody, obviously, everybody uses hairspray.

7. Don’t you guys just have a ‘create website’ button or something?

8. What’s that thing you do with Google, the secret word things? (That would be Pay Per Click Mr Client)

9. Anyone that surfs on the internet is just looking at porn so everyone that flicks to our website isn’t going to be concentrating.

10. I want to raise our brand profile but I don’t want to be on the internet because people will find out about us.

aah bless…

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Jun 01 2010
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Client questions answered

How does your company measure marketing effectiveness?

Whether it’s based entirely on a hard financial measure or softer metrics such as brand awareness or share of voice it’s key that you do have some measure in place to ascertain whether your marketing has been successful , or not.

You don’t necessarily have to go the hold hog and develop a complete ROI model, in some cases if this is the first time you’ve tried to allocate metrics against your activity that might prove a step too far ahead at the moment. However whether you’re looking to track an increase in traffic to your website , an increase in online sales or measure ‘buzz’ online, knowing how your activity performs is key to being able to accurately allocate future spend against media attribution.

An increasing trend with most of the companies I work with sees a larger split of marketing budgets moving towards online but that is not to say that traditional advertising has had its day and the whole future relies on the internet. This trend merely supports the consumer’s way of accessing and absorbing information in today’s world.

It’s true to say that it’s easier to track, optimise and report online activity but there are also accurate assumptions you can make between press circulations / reach and DM mail outs for example.

The bottom line is that reporting on effectiveness shouldn’t be an end consideration to your activity; it should be considered and planned in from the start. By identifying your key metrics for success at the beginning you can clearly and accurately report back on whether or not you deem your marketing activity successful or not.

So ask yourself, what are you trying to achieve and what in your eyes would you deem to be a success? What do you want the results to be?

That’s your starting point, remember it’s an ongoing process and by measuring the effectiveness of your marketing you can continue to optimise your spend. What is right now may not be right 12, or even 6 months down the line.

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