Checklist for a Smooth Website Integration Project

Launch with senior buy-in
Who are the sponsors and stakeholders in the project and what is the budget allocation?

It always helps to know the final budget figure, but more importantly senior management must be on board and prepared to give full support.

Detailed project plan
Project-planning can be complex and frustrating.
Formal project plans force everyone involved, to consider all essential phases, steps, and the order in which to proceed. "Work a plan, and plan to work." "Failure to plan is planning to fail."

Team members must be available for meetings, milestone reviews, content provisioning, development support, testing, sign offs.

End user involvement is essential with representatives from every dept providing input from the get-go.

Hardware & hosting specifications should exceed expectations for performance, & integrating with internal systems.

Test, test, test
Testing is essential to project success. Whether it is unit testing (which tests one facet of the system) or integrated testing (which tests all components, including existing interfacing systems), testing should be done by current employees along with a testing script. Detail, ahead of time, what all outputs should look like. Testing data and processes should vet all scenarios, including good and bad data. System and network testing should include load tests with results reports.

Recovery plan in the event of failure
Managers know what go-live success looks like -- and when it's time to pull the plug. Every project should have a go-live backup plan in case failure becomes the only option.

Expert recommendations 
Don't countermand without testing outcomes. Don't hope. Test. Listen to your experts most of the time.

Project plan
Any project with an estimated timeline longer than a few weeks should have a realistic, detailed project plan. Besides forcing stakeholders to consider all tasks and tactics, doing so will force development of realistic timetables. A detailed project plan will win every time versus "best guess" or a gut feeling.

Set expectations
How is the new system going to act?
How are transactions and transaction times different?
Who do end-users call if they have problems?
How long is the go-live troubleshooting team going to be on site?
Set accelerated support options to minimize customer frustrations.

Training
It's not just users who need training, but project leaders, troubleshooters, and help-desk staff, too.
Delay the project if appropriate training is not given.

Paraphrased from InfoWorld Daily article "11 signs your IT project is doomed" by Roger A. Grimes

Call it Content or PR, it's customer engagement

Editorial is a marketer's most cost-effective tool for enhancing sales without burdening sales resources. 

Whether you do them, or hire an agency like ours, use articles, press releases, blog posts, industry newsletters to 

• Boost customer engagement frequency. 
• Enhance customer loyalty. 
• Penetrate key accounts to target new buying influences. 
• Prime both new & add-on sales.

Few organizations can afford to be in direct contact with all customers, all of the time - much less keep track of the ever-changing customer landscape of buying influences on a timely basis. Yet, without a regular public relations program that might include advertising, social, or content marketing, a company gambles on who has what information during a purchasing cycle.

EJW marketing PR services augment essential sales support obligations, helping clients multiply the efforts of a sales team.  Content with the right value proposition can penetrate old accounts, in addition to identifying new prospects and decision makers. Content can engage customers in between sales calls with your story the way it should be told.

A schedule for release of your company and product news, industry overviews, application information can be planned in advance, with content created as needed.

Press releases, articles, social media, white papers, videos, broadcast spots, websites and website blogs are major outlets for marketing PR. Some PR content can be quickly created and distributed to coincide with marketing pushes. In depth, article-weight content requires an appropriate measure of research and production. Our B to B pros can create it all for you, working with you to define content goals, media mix and final form.

On a project or contract arrangement, the public relations services we perform result in EJW clients establishing an ongoing dialog with their customers - raising awareness, adding to their knowledge, enabling informed buying decisions, and creating sales leads when your sales channel is not on duty 24/7/365.

Adapted from http://www.ejwassoc.com/press-releases.php

Sure, "Ready, Fire, Aim" marketing might work...

...but let's not kid ourselves - it's still a gamble. 

Who are we to judge? We've all been at the crossroads of Time, Money, & Results.  At some point, every marketer has shot from the hip, and shot themselves in the foot, too! In "just doing it" to make a campaign happen - without knowing everything there is to know about a product, its market, and expectations - a marketer is rolling the dice. You can win, but odds are you could have won bigger. And, with Las Vegas odds always with the house, more often than not you'll not meet campaign goals doing READY. FIRE. AIM. marketing.

Some rationals for shooting first and asking questions later include:

• I need results yesterday.
• Don't have the time or money for market research.
• I feel real good about this. Success is in the bag!
• My boss respects the "act now, apologize later" methodology.
• Cost of failure may be judged another day.
• Potential for success is simply too great to delay.

Experienced marketers I've known have almost always regretted not doing a campaign right the first time. Others simply write-off bad results by blaming everything and everyone but their own choices. In "Ready. FIRE. Aim." mode a marketer completely by-passes the vetting we all know should be done.

Yet, I have to say I've seen marketing shortcuts work. Better than doing nothing, or when perfection becomes the enemy of good, a niche, industrial or technology marketer may have just enough insight and experience to take a marketing risk and achieve some ROI.

But here the kidding stops. Marketing is as marketing does. Hero one day, loose cannon the next. There's a reason process, buy-in, creativity, and accountability win out in the end. Ready, AIM, Fire not only reduces risks, but improves the probability of long-term success while gaining the marketing practitioner respect within an organization and (most importantly) among customers!

And if you think you can't afford it, think again. Learn about Marketing Consulting for B to B marketers here. Than look for another link to a "Unique Outside Looking In Trial Marketing Consulting Offer" at the end.

Clients using Facebook

Thomson, the GA Manufacturer of elite (good adjective for their dedication to quality, and actual model name for one of their bike seatpost lines) is pro-actively using its Facebook page on a 12 Days of Thomson (Christmas) campaign - getting all of us devotees to jump thru various hoops on a daily basis for points to win some new components.

With about 238 folks in various stages of following the Facebook campaign on a daily basis, at least we can say the company's reinforcing its brand among its fan base. It will be interesting to learn how effective the campaign was in meeting Thomson marketing objectives. Count this post for a couple more links to add to their SEO effort!

Marketing, shmarketing. Who needs it?

Everything starts with a sale. Marketing does not equal sales, or vice versa. Yet, smaller organizations frequently get along fine without a formal marketing function - for a time. Many companies view the sometimes complex functions of marketing as a cost-of-sales, rather than a driver of sales. They wait too long before seriously considering an investment in marketing. Marketing is best implemented before the first dark clouds appear on the sales and profit horizon. With marketing in place, businesses can even circumvent sales and profit-zapping issues as they crop up, and new challenges arise.

Every sales professional knows instinctively what it takes to prospect for leads, right?
Yes, and no. The vigilant sales person:

1) sows the seeds for sales throughout a network that extends to industry groups, peers and acquaintances;
2) is in personal touch with customers to short circuit any customer service issues while probing for new ways to add customer value.
3) provides market intelligence for future product or service development.
4) cannot consistently deliver the same message to every customer all of the time.

Sales is king, but even a king needs support
The need for improved sales and profitability - the multiplication of sales - manifests itself when existing sales processes need a marketing kick, i.e. help that goes beyond one-on-one selling, especially as sales goals change.

Marketing is the multiplication of sales efforts, and comes into play before, during and after a sale. More than simple one-shot-wonder promotions and advertising, marketing orchestrates many tools to help develop and maintain customer dialog - and profitability.

Marketing:

1) softens the field for sales.
2) gets prospects to raise their hands for a sales contact.
3) Perhaps most importantly, marketing helps convey a company's brand to knock down barriers to a sale, lift customer expectations for doing business with a company, creating a preference in the market for a company's goods or services.

Send in the clowns
Prospecting, networking, customer support, and all aspects of customer development that lead to long term customer value is a continuum to be broken at great risk to sales and profits.

Marketing, the anecdote
Marketing is comprised of the strategy, tactics, and the creative implementation of a plan to ensure: fresh sales leads, timely customer communications, non-stop customer service, and continuous development of relevant product and services leading to improved sales, market share, and profitability. Coordinated advertising, PR, website, and other media campaigns create value in a customer's mind. With these tools savvy marketers are able to rise above their competition with better profit margins.

Elevator Pitch EJW Associates Inc

INTRO: Hello, my name is Emil Walcek, President and founder of EJW Associates Inc

Make it fast, I'm only going to the 7th floor...

EJW Associates Inc is a creative marketing services agency. We cater to small to medium sized businesses with a combination of creative boutique agency services involving marketing, websites, design, and content.

Our clients will describe us as a valued team member that helps them do the right marketing things in the right ways to effectively support sales.

We were founded in 1982 to help business-to-business marketers get the best possible sales return on their marketing dollar. Businesses selling to other businesses have historically been under-served by independent marketing services firms. 

Keep talking, I'm getting off at the 25th floor...

Typical EJW services - sold on a contract or project basis - include: advertising, PR, all things-website (including search optimizing, search marketing, hosting), direct marketing, print and digital graphic design/content.

We've been busily providing marketing services since 1982 - a very long life in our industry. We've been around so long largely because we are effective. Our projects result in more and better sales returns for our clients.

We are both professional and flexible in our work. Sometimes we augment a client's internal resources on select projects. Other times the EJW team functions as a company's de facto marketing department when management is running lean and mean.

Even though technology has made it better, faster, and easier for almost anyone with a tool or two to do almost any marketing project, that doesn't mean it'll come out right, or that it is the right thing to do in the first place!

With EJW services, clients typically receive better results for less than from any other marketing resource, including (if they have one) an overworked staff in-house.

CLOSE: Businesses selling to other businesses have historically been under-served by independent marketing services firms. Happy or not with your present marketing, I think we could probably both benefit from a no-pressure/no-obligation followup review. Call me at 770-664-9322, or email advertise@ejwassoc.com

EJW Associates Inc - Executive Summary 08-28-09

Business Description: EJW Associates Inc is a creative marketing services agency. We provide professional services that include: marketing consulting, website design, development and hosting, search optimizing and search marketing, advertising campaign creative and media management, direct marketing campaigns, creative design and writing, in addition to public relations services, corporate identity design, brochure design and production.

We cater to small to medium sized businesses with a combination of boutique creative agency services, marketing savvy, in house website development & hosting.

Additionally, to help clients with an outside perspective, EJW is a founding member of OLI (Outside Looking In), an ad hoc group of marketing specialists who help clients work the right path in their quest for marketing success. OLI sessions typically pay for themselves by revealing both potential marketing pitfalls and opportunities for improved marketing ROI.

Company Background: EJW Associates was founded in 1982 to help industrial and technology (business to business, or B to B) marketers increase both sales and profits with cost-effective advertising and public relations programs. The company has always been self-sustaining, chiefly by creative projects that meet or exceed ROI expectations while enhancing client brand.

With a track record of over a hundred marketing services clients and many more projects. It is not uncommon for EJW to serve as a client's de facto marketing department, picking up any on-going or temporary slack in client resources.

EJW Associates marketing agency services founder, Emil Walcek was previously employed as an artist and graphic designer, producing storyboards and commercial art in a creative group, and later, as a creative director and pre-press manager at a commercial lithographic printer. Prior to founding EJW Associates he filled a newly created advertising manager position at a scientific instrument manufacturer where he planned and implemented marketing communications programs that contributed to a tripling of sales within a 6 year tenure.

Among his early innovations and the entrepreneurial basis for EJW Associates was the development and implementation of a system for custom client databases for targeting news release distribution to an up-to-date list of niche-market, trade and business press editors.

Based on client demand, the agency's offerings were expanded to include complementary marketing communication services. EJW was an early adopter of desktop publishing for both design and production of advertising and brochure projects. Advent of the Internet led EJW into website design and ever more sophisticated shopping cart, eCommerce, and site admin systems, complete with custom website hosting services.

Problem/Solution: Businesses selling to other businesses have historically been under-served by independent marketing services firms. Ironically, small to mid-size manufacturers, professional services, and technology companies who stand to gain the most from an outside, experienced, professional marketing agency services are the most insulated from them for a variety of reasons. Conversely (except in lean times) most marketing services firms shun marketing-challenged startups and small companies that cannot meet minimum marketing spending levels, or commit to time-based contracts.

It is not uncommon for B to B managers to harbor misconceptions and distrust of outsiders. Multi-tasking client-side executives are loath to take on added training of agency team members, or added cost-of-sales. Aversion to outside help can outweigh even glaring internal marketing inadequacies that might include wasteful or inefficient marketing spending. The result is "I know half my marketing dollars are wasted, I just don't know which half!" the oft-quoted C-level executive lament.

On the other side of the desk, most agencies are unwilling, or are not set up to accommodate non-retail, niche market clients with glass-half-empty marketing budgets and multi-focused managers.

In many ways, this conundrum is a self-fulfilling prophecy. In lieu of a strategic partner, freelancers fulfill the niche-marketer's requirements for outside expertise on a tactical level. This short-circuits any strategic benefit to be gained from more professional marketing expertise. In this environment, marketing becomes a crap shoot with the odds stacked against the B to B marketer resigned to marketing inefficiency. In this way, unserved or under-served clients can deflect any failures to the vagaries of marketing, and not due to any lack of expertise or experience.

EJW Associates addresses the special requirements of a small to medium B to B marketer on a number of levels. First, the agency is right-sized to profitably provide all of the marketing services a niche marketer may require with terms that make sense for companies selling into unique markets.

We help clients deal with today's media choices, including setup and maintaining SEO, and Search Marketing (aka: search engine "click", or "adwords") campaigns to ensure best cost per click return on invested dollar.

We do not apply minimum spending limits, or restrict clients on how they purchase professional agency services. Accounts may be set up on an as-needed project, retainer, or hourly basis. Each have their pros and cons which we will be happy to review.

Planning>Strategy>Execution. EJW helps clients save money, increase program effectiveness and increase ROI from their marketing spend at any point in the marketing cycle, from planning, to project budgeting for maximum return on investment, through to individual project development and execution.

Our clients deal with seasoned professionals at EJW who have walked in their shoes and have negotiated many of their same issues. It is in our blood to provide customers with a single source for knowledgeable, creative, yet practical and cost-effective business marketing solutions.

If a client is lacking special marketing expertise, or requires services to supplement in-house capabilities, EJW can help.


Technologies/Special Know-how: As is evident in our agency history, EJW has flourished by judicious adoption of technology to a degree not commonly found in creative or marketing service agencies. Specialization in B to B client solutions over the years has reinforced our focus on the essentials of good marketing, saving time, money and boosting end-product results.

Search marketing (pay per click advertising programs) has changed lead generation accountability forever. A client's prospects who don't click didn’t like it, didn’t see it, or didn’t think the offer relevant. EJW provides Search Marketing Program management that is 100% accountable, optimized for lowest cost per click and results in maximum conversion rates.

Over and above website design, we offer in-house development services for eCommerce and interactive websites. Basic websites require ongoing search engine optimizing and search marketing to drive traffic. We also offer website analytics to help marketers track conversions, and fine-tune visitor experiences.

EJW manages our own Shared Website Hosting Server, and provides Dedicated Managed Website Hosting Servers for select clients, designing data backup and system redundancies that have resulted in 5-9's uptime performance averages.

While EJW is unique in providing the degree of in-house expertise required for successful marketing in the 21st century, every service we offer supports our core business: providing effective, creative, successful marketing solutions.