Don’t get me wrong, there is a ton of potential in Social Media.  I am convinced of this.  What’s funny though is that small businesse love to run out and create accounts thinking that something magic is going to happen.  To make matters worse, they immediately start posting specials or a link to their home page on every Tweet/Post.  Marketing behaviors in small (and medium) sized businesses is very predictable.  How do we react?

One of the recurring problems I’ve see over the years is that clients don’t understand the importance of creating a connection across their marketing efforts.  Additionally, they have a tough time understanding that a website is more than just a few pages of information (home, about, products & contact us).  In a world where marketers MUST deliver results, we need our clients to understand that their marketing efforts shouldn’t ‘stop’ with their current website.  Rather, they must continually to evaluate their marketing game plan and create consistent forward movement.  This often starts with the website - a website that they don’t want to change right now. 

The more I think about the economic mess we are in, the more I become convinced that marketers will have to focus more on human-oriented efforts.  As much as I am a fan of newer forms of marketing - which I will continue to pursue - we cannot forget that the fundamentals of marketing remain the same.  Provide a good product or service and take care of your customers.  Period. 

I’ve been hearing the phrases ‘invest in your customer’ more and more.  And I think it typifies what we as designers, developers and marketers must do.  Aside from having to work harder and do more with less (that’s what we all need to do during these times) we have to stay focused on the consumer and make sure that we are using our time wisely.  A recent article from Advertising Age caught my attention and reaffirmed these notions.  Read on.

Ah yes, it used to feel so good.  Manila envelope.  Big business contacting you.  Big budget.  And then you start reading a bunch of gosh darn gibberish that makes absolutely no sense and doesn’t tell you anything about the project.  But this post isn’t about those companies, city or government affiliated knuckleheads who used a template (previously used for paving their parking lot) and re-purposing it for a web agency.  This post is to bring to light another interesting scenario where you are completely unaware of your competition.  My story begins here…

Sometimes fulfilling tasks in the marketing industry will get the bills paid. For example; ‘Build an application that does exactly this’, ‘convert this to HTML’, ‘produce a commercial with this footage and storyboard’...etc. 

We’ll always have ‘tasks’ to do for our clients.  But my friends, if this is all we are ever going to do with our creative design and development resources, then we could just as easily be fixing cars, bikes, machines, or even computers.  Within our profession we tend to know how to get things done.  A client comes in and wants an agency to tackle a marketing initiative.  Of course, they shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not we know how what CODEC to produce a video in, what language to write web applications in, they just want it built/created.  We are the experts.  But at the same time, the client should not be dictating the process or creative direction.  There is a big difference in asking someone to ‘produce’ something versus ‘creating’ something.  If you are a designer (or developer) and find that you’re spending a lot of time explaining things, miscellaneous tasks that are unrelated to your expertise, and are busy doing, well...’busy’ work, then you seriously need to evaluate where you are going.  I suspect that we all have to deal with various mundane tasks, but I’ve learned that the more pressure you have to ‘perform’ (and thus think) the better off you’ll be as a professional in your industry.

Here’s a beauty.  A potential client contacts an agency and asks about its services. After a brief response email about who the company is and the services it provides, the client lo and behold asks for a proposal!  Now this would be fairly normal except that the client hadn’t said a damned thing about what it is that they wanted done?  The person (with a law degree) simply asked for a proposal after being introduced to the agency.  A proposal for what? What are we going to propose? Design your bathroom, back yard, a flyer for a babysitter that you can post on your mailbox? Wash your car?  A proposal without any information about the project.  That’s just wonderful.  I mean..I already know that most people are lazy and don’t want to have to actually think or work - and would prefer that others did it for them.  But this goes beyond those awe-inspiring emails that say, ‘we want a website for our new company, how much does it cost?’.  At least these people provide a tiny morsel for us to chew on.  I may have a solution for this problem though.  I’d like to create some kind of email that will deliver a small, but slightly painful electric shock to the recipient. Does anyone have any ideas how to build this sort of application? 

Nearly every marketing project inevitably has moments where there is an assumption about what is, or is not to be done with regard to the deliverables.  Sometimes these moments passively slip by, and the Agency realizes that it’s probably better to just the item out versus going through a long explanation of why it should be a change-order.  And other times, a small item that becomes a ‘change order’ can inflame the whole situation.  So how can we best avoid these scenarios.  Well, first, we have to pick our battles.  Is it a good client?  If so, sometimes it’s best to lay low and knock it out (assuming it’s not an over-the-top request).  If it’s a difficult client and it is an over-the-top request, well, put on your seat belt.

It’s easier (and less expensive) to sell to existing clients than to find or sell to a new client.  This is a common principle in sales.  But how do online marketing agencies communicate value for newer concepts?  This is a tough one, expecially if the client is not familiar with the topic. Take for instance, online marketing.  The conversation starts off about how you can help drive more business to the client, return on investment, but eventually you have to start explaining how SEM/SEO, PPC, Social Networking, Link building, Video marketing all work…

While I am not a fan of country music, I do try to recognize inspiration and wisdom from all walks of life.  So what then could an old country singer provide to the marketing industry in the form of advice?  Well, I reckon there is a golden nugget in this hear post because I’ve had an epiphany (’epiphery’ if you’ve seen a certain episode of ‘The Office’.  Becoming a better marketing service provider is ultimately our goal, but becoming efficient at what we do is even more important.  That’s why this song is such a gosh-darn brilliant lesson to designers and marketers alike.  Because, if you gonna learn to play the game boy, ya gotta learn to play it right.

Here at StormPilot.us, we spend a fair amount of time venting some of our frustrations.  While browsing through a recent issue of .NET magazine, Jason Walsh (of moduszine.com) touched on some agency/client topics.  A good read.  So it got me to thinking, we spend a lot of time talking about shortcomings on the client side, but what about our own errors?  One of the most frustrating scenarios for any agency is missed deadlines and the inability of the designer, developer or creative team to manage their time properly.

This is an important one that continues to be probably the single best deterrent for bad projects that anything else...a client’s preparation for their project.  Many of us know that potential clients are very likely to come in an agency’s door and are usually not equipped with much information (on paper) about their project.  They may be able convey some of their ideas via conversation, but oftentimes their thoughts can be a convoluded mess.  Here is an agency’s perspective about project preparation that speaks to this scenario. 

Your contract has just been signed.  The deposit check just came in (on time) in an overnight envelope in a big brown truck.  You’ve landed the new client, payment is in, team is excited, creative energy is abound and it seems to be the best creative web design project that your agency has come across in some time.  All you need to do is knock out the project within the 3-month timeline and as soon as it is done you will be sipping chi-chi’s six months later on some beatiful tropical coastline, enjoying all your hard efforts and success.  This sounds nice...but snap out of it dreamer boy as you’re client is planting a time-line bomb.

Beware.  There are certain types of people that you need to avoid when moving into a new project.  I’ve assembled a list of these wonderful personalities which can make projects, well...interesting to say the least.  Take a look and let us know if you’ve seen these people around.

“Know that a word suddenly shot from the tongue is like an arrow shot from the bow. Son, that arrow won’t turn back on its way; you must damn the torrent at its source.” - Rumi

We’ve all been there.  A client sends an email that is completely ignorant, biting, without merit and utterly ridiculous.  Sending email when your mad as hell, well, isn’t a good idea.  Within the online industry, where a large portion of our client communication takes place via email, it is very important for the agency or service provider to maintain the upper hand and not write a knee-jerk response.

I remember being on a conference call with a friend of mine.  I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve - and in my voice and thus I noted how the inflection of his voice remained very low-key when speaking about a sensitive subject with the client.  I made a remark that he sounded like a pilot of a passenger airplane - you know, the one that comes on about 30 minutes or so into the flight and says something like, “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain ‘Jack Sparrow’ we just reached our cruising altitude of 30,000 feet.  We have slight tail wind which should get us into the gate about 10 minutes early...’.  Did you ever notice that the pitch of their voice never really goes up or down?  They must have a school for this.  Anyway, I thought a little more about this…

When chatting with friends at other agencies or reading my favorite web magazine - .NET, I often come across the same comments from designers and creative directors in the industry.  They say something to the effect of, ”It is frustrating to deal with clients who want to hire an interactive agency, do so, and then turn around and go conservative - not wanting to do something that is too bold”.  I’m not talking about coming up with the next great viral video, or even coming up with some crazy-cool design...I’m talking about clients that hire agencies for our expertise - and then try to tell us how, or how not to do something.  Or even worse, the client edits, edits and edits some more, while converting you into a production (not creative) agency, until the final product looks like something from 1995. Read on…

This post is dedicated to all those hard-working and competent (yes, I said competent) designers, developers and marketers who happen to be nice guys/gals.  Running a business and/or being a consultant tends to wear on the psyche over time.  I remember the days when I was young, innocent and the only thing that ever came out of my mouth is ‘yes’, ‘sure’, ‘golly gee Mr. client you are asking for a lot, but ok I’ll do it’.  I will give you a piece of advice before you click into the meat of this post.  Are you ready?  Ok, here it is.  If you do not value your time, no one will. The bottom line is that consultants and developers need to protect their time.  Read on.. by clicking on “more” below.

Have you ever noticed that it is super easy for humans to spot any type/form of a hair piece?  Someone could spend a butt-load of money to have a very special section of customized hair to place on their grape, but no matter what they do they just can’t fool human perception.  I mean, ‘the flop’ (aka: comb-over) is bad enough, but a hair piece is always easily spotted.  So why the heck am I talking about hair pieces when I should be talking about websites, applications, print & marketing?  Well, when you really want a project and are desperate for income, your potential clients will sniff this out like nobody’s business.  Read on..

This post is primarily for web and print designers.  Remember that project where you finished a design of the website (or print piece) and the client realized that ‘Lorem Ipsum Dolor’ just wouldn’t be enough to sell their product or service?  Then, after the client realized that they don’t have any copy, they kept hinting about you just ‘filling in some content’ or ‘can you use this or that to put some content together’?  Well, if this sounds familiar read on…

One of the hardest things I had to learn in creating a business was to learn how to say ‘No’.  I came from a mentality that I must take any project that comes my way.  There are a couple schools of thought on how young independent contractors should look at their business, but I have certainly learned one very important fact: ONE MUST ABSOLUTELY LEARN TO SAY NO TO EXISTING AND PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS

I was once told by an old wise man that “The number one mistake young entreprenuers make is that they don’t charge enough for their services.”.  In many cases, this is certainly true.  Yet, when he told me this I couldn’t help wondering how I would have been able to build a solid Marketing Agency Portfolio without doing a little work here and there for free.  In a previous post, I mentioned some of the deadly sins of marketing and one of these sins was doing work for free.  Since I am contradicting myself a bit here, I’d like to explore this a little further, so let’s have a look…

If you’d like to save yourself some angst with future clients, please read further.  Picture if you would, a good lead.  Everything seems just peachy keen, potential client contacts you because they ‘saw some of your work’ or were referred to you by another one of your clients - and they may even mention that you do ‘really good work’.  There is one very simple thing that you need to know when taking on a project, and that is, ’What will your (the service provider) job be, and what does the client really want from you.’

We all make mistakes.  I certainly have.  And I am not always right in my opinions about the web & media industry.  Still, there are certain mistakes that we make as marketing consultants, designers, videographers & developers that can really make our lives miserable.  Here are a few:

• Doing work for free
• Failing to manage client expectations
• Not drawing up a simple contract that covers some key elements

We’ve all been down this road.  A small project comes along and it of course has a small budget.  You think to yourself, ‘hey, I get this project in/out, get a portfolio piece, and we’re done in two weeks!’.  Ahh, if life would only be so simple.

In the military there are certain acronyms, or one or two-syllable words that people can utter that let you know immediately that something is wrong.  Words like “Mayday”, or “Gun!”, “Fire”, “Bomb” or evn “Bogey, 6 o’clock”...you catch my drift. So should there be terms in the design industry that we can utter amongst ourselves when we hear or see things that raise red flags.  Picture if you would - a lead has been generated and you are speaking with the prospective customer for the first time and they say something like, “We are looking for a web designer to design something that will, uhh, put us up on the top of the web page - you know, with hyperlinks (annunciated dramatically) and photos - yeah, can we get have our company information on Google.com?”.  Say what? Hyperlink what!, WTF are you talking about?!

Before starting any kind of project (ie. web design, print design, interface design..etc), you must know what the client has running around in their grapes (heads).  You see, from experience, I’ve learned that everyone has the capacity to think that they are a designer or have some kind of creative talent.

There are many things that you don’t want to hear from a client - especially a new client.  If one heeds warning signs of a potential client, you the design, developer or marketing may save yourself a lot of trouble.  One comment that can definitely send up a red flag and it is ”the site design looks great, but why is it written in Italian?”

This blog has been a long time coming.  I’ve thought of different ways to voice my opinion about this industry and the clients that I’ve run into.  When I talk to other agencies it doesn’t take long to realize that I am not the only one in the world who has suffered some.  I’m no saint, nor to I purport to be holier than though, but I would like to think that I have become somewhat competent within the Interactive Marketing industry.