What’s Hip Hapnin?

A client asked me to put this together so they could understand exactly what I do as a consultant.  I think often times we make it look way too easy.  People say they want it to be easy and they don’t want to think about it but often times if they don’t understand what is going into the process they will think it is easy.  Maybe that is why so many people when pressed about the website suggest they have a neighbor or a nephew who could do it.

So this is my advice for the day.  Let your clients know how involved it is and that you are saving them tons of time by knowing the answers to these questions.  Maybe you could present them with this list and have them fill out everything they know or at least what they are thinking.  Spend a little bit of time educating your clients and they won’t try to tell you how to do your job.

Why are you building a website?

• Recruiting
• Awareness
• Retention
• Cost savings efficiency
• Commerce
• Partnering
• Generating leads
• Launch a new product
• Sales
• Promote industry

Personas/Audience Segments
Who will be using the website and what will they search for?
What will your visitors want to do immediately once they get to the website? (let them pee) How will they go about doing that?
Should you be using the web to build community?

• Blog
• Forum
• Newsletter
• Podcasts

If you could only communicate one thing from your website what would that be?

Marketing strategy/launch plan
Where does the website fit into the marketing mix?
How will people find you on the web?

• Brandable URL?
• Web Marketing
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Pay-per-click
  • Buzz building
  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Banner ads = waste of money (usually)
  • PR
• Offline Marketing
  • Print
  • Radio
  • Flyers
  • Direct Mail
  • Television
  • Billboards
  • Trade Shows

How will you get people to stay on the website and then comeback later?

• Newsletter
• Email opt-in list
• RSS feeds
• Frequently updated content

Where does this website fit within it’s web ecosystem?

Measurement
How do you define success? How will we measure that? What are the metrics that matter?

• Analytics?
• Call Tracking?

Do you know what your acceptable customer acquisition costs are?

Operations
Who will create/update the content?
How will the website be kept current who will be updating it? How often? CMS?
Who will answer the email?
Who will answer the phone?
Who will maintain the website?

Constraints
Are there any Imperatives

• Creative
  • Colors?
  • Images?
• Platform
  • Windows
  • Linux - This is what I prefer
  • Unix
• Hosting
  • Who is the current host and what do they support? Can they scale? Are they reliable?
  • I like Media Temple
  • (more) I need a reliable link that isn’t just a bunch of affiliate marketers
• Web Programming Languages
  • ASP
  • PHP
  • xHTML
  • Ruby
  • Java
  • Flash
  • (more)
• Database
  • MySQL
  • ColdFusion
  • Microsoft SQL server
  • PostgreSQL
  • (more)

What is the budget?
What is the timeline?
How long do you need this website to exist before it is redesigned?
Who are the stakeholders in this process and the key decision makers?
What is the approval process?

A few months ago I posted about the horrible UI experience when trying to buy a printer on the HP website.

Here is another example.  But instead of coming from a big company that you would expect to be clueless it is from sphinn a forum on internet marketing

Not only do they make you go back and try to remember some math problem from fifth grade.  They also make you decrypt a secret code.  I tried to make it through the registration 5 times before I realized my encrypted code was actually case sensitive-it seems like that would be an important detail to include.

So the point of this is that with any transaction the risk must be shared.  If consumers are carrying too much of the risk they will sense that and go away.  Traditionally companies pass on the risk to the consumer with restrictive return policies, expensive warranties, etc.  Typically the lower the price the more of the risk you will inherit.

In this transaction they obviously don’t want to pay somebody to go through every account and moderate them and make sure they are legit.  So they are passing on the pain in the transaction to real users.  I pay the price because they don’t want to pay another forum moderator.

I tried to create an account 5 times before I cracked the code.  How many times would you try?

How are you frustrating your customers and making your job easier? how long do they have to wait at your call center?  How many questions on your contact us form are for you and not them?  What are you charging for that you should be giving away?  Just because a few people abuse a service that is offered doesn’t mean you need to make a policy about it. You should be finding ways to make it easier for your customers every step of the way.

We recently moved from Divinci Draper (great central location) to Divinci Cottonwood (nicer larger office).  We were all talking about what made our new office space better.  Melissa made the observation that when you are a girl you know you are in a nice building when your heals click as you walk in.  This struck me as profound for some reason.  It is a simple thing but really ads to the “brand” of the building.

• Have you noticed that laminate floors look the same but don’t sound as nice as real wood?
• Have you noticed that nice cars have a different sound when you close the door than my Mazda?
• Jen pointed out today that she doesn’t like to work at starbucks because they make it too noisy.  I bet that noise is part of the brand.
• Your Ipod makes a nice comforting click when you do something.
• Leather sounds “rich” when you sit on it
• Did you know Harley Davidson trademarks the sounds of it’s bikes?

Sounds are an important part of the user experience.  It seems like I knew this once before but I just realized it again.

I spent the morning looking at literally hundreds of websites for associations. I am working on  three different websites right now for non profits and associations so it wasn’t a total waste of time.  I feel strongly that they should try to take their offline networks and put them online.  That way the conversation can continue even when your not physically together.

Here are four sites that I felt have done a good job for various reasons.

International Association of Amusement Parks and Attraction – This site does a good job of knowing and understanding the audience.  There are a couple things I don’t like but overall it has solid navigation and user interface.  What I do like is that they treat every page as if it is an entry point to the website.  It is obvious that the Industry Buyers Guide is a very important part of this website because it has prime real estate and it is found on every sub page. The lefthand navigation is very clean and clear.
Military Officers Association of America – I liked the navigation, I also like that they have a bunch of blogs and they are starting to put their toe into the water of taking their offline social network online.

American Heart Association - They did a good job of driving website registration and building community.  “Join 617111  other women”  These women are not joining the American Heart Association they are joining the AHA community and inadvertently increasing the influence and thought leadership of the AHA.  They have done an integrated campaign around this “Go Red” campaign including makeovers for spokespeople on TV shows (giving them more opportunity to tell their story)

AARP/Divided We Fail – Their attempt to build a community around something they see as an important initiative.  Simple registration, clean modern navigation (you tube look)  They are obviously trying to extend their reach below their demographic.  (are AARP members allowed to use the internet?) They have also done some viral things.  They created a banner ad that people can place on blogs and websites they also created ecards you can send around.  There is also a place to “Share your Story”.   All ways to increase the size of the community.   I also like the logo