This post was written by Marianne Amoss, Fastspot’s content strategist and resident writer.

What is the next generation of admissions marketing? And how can we integrate Web marketing and print marketing? These are questions that plague universities and colleges across the country, as they struggle with the cost and manpower required to keep materials updated and accurate—and see classes of increasingly Web-savvy students coming through their doors. When Tufts University considered these questions, they naturally turned to Neustadt Creative Marketing, which had worked with the school on undergraduate admissions for the schools of arts and sciences and engineering and on a university-wide brand strategy.

Tufts is a highly selective private university in the suburbs of Boston. NCM, a seasoned expert in providing marketing services to educational institutions, knew that Tufts would be ripe for a smart, creative approach. They launched an extensive, five-month-long market research project among prospective students and their parents to start to answer that question. Out of that research, NCM defined a series of marketing goals that altered the messaging strategy that Tufts was using, says Mark Neustadt, principal of NCM. What did they settle on? A relatively unconventional plan, says Neustadt: an “integrated program that abandoned the traditional package of print materials entirely and replaced it with a three-times-a-year magazine which coordinated with an admissions ‘microsite.’”

Once Tufts adopted the report’s recommendations, NCM brought Fastspot in on the project; the two companies collaborate frequently under the name Door No. 2. Together, the two teams worked together to design and develop the magazine, concept the stories, write the first issue, develop the Web design, architect the Website, build it, load in the content, and finally launch the joint project on 11/11/11. Fastspot also created a new virtual campus tour for Tufts, which launched at the same time.

The magazine, named Jumbo after the school mascot, is now published online and in print three times a year and mailed to students in the admissions funnel. The site and magazine are run on Fastspot’s BigTree CMS, a user-friendly content management system that allows the Tufts admissions staff to easily update admissions information and keep up with trends without assistance from their internal IT team. “Viewbooks can take over a year to develop and are very costly and difficult to update,” Neustadt says. “A three-times-a-year magazine is relatively economical to update and can be much more responsive to changes going on in admissions.”

It’s important to note that this program does not completely do away with print—or migrate everything to the Web, Neustadt says. “A lot of people think that’s what this is all about. This is not about eliminating print. But what is has done, which is incredibly exciting, is create a print program that is consistent with the pace and the energy of the Web.” Tufts now has an admissions microsite that is essentially separate from the main site; Door No. 2, which loads in the content for each issue of Jumbo (with minimal tech support), serves as “managing editor,” helping ensure that the content is consistent, professional, and on-strategy.

Since launch, the site has been enormously successful. Analytics show that the site is getting lots of traffic; the dean of admissions, Lee Coffin, often gets several dozen comments on his blog posts. “One of the successes of the design has been the integration of social media and the content,” says Neustadt. And Tufts has gotten students involved, creating a student group whose charge it is to create new content; you can see student-generated photos and content throughout the site. “Tufts has a superbly run admissions operation, and they are at a point in their evolution as an office where their staff feels energized and capable to take this on.”

There are lots of moving parts, and they all mesh together, seemingly effortlessly, from the print magazine to the Web to the social media. As Neustadt puts it, “It’s a smart approach to print.”

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Today I was reading a post by Ryan on 37signals’ blog Signal vs. Noise called The Documentation Dilemma. Ryan proposes that the act of documentation and creation of project artifacts is a symptom of a bottleneck in the value chain. He implies the documentation process can slow down the creative process to the point where you either:

1. Produce design ideas at the pace of development or

2. Freeze ideas in the form of documents, diagrams and requirements until they are ready to go later on in the process.

I think this is an oversimplification of documentation, and when, where and why it’s important to a project. I live in the land of client services, where every project involves a new set of stakeholders, participants, audience types and overall business objectives. Ryan’s team is developing one set of products, used the same way by every customer. There is little customization or need for bureaucratic buy-in as they are their own client, and the strategy may already exist and be a given. However, I see 37signals’ thoughts and propositions on workflow often espoused by design agencies and firms working with client services, and unfortunately I don’t think they overlap well. While we can all appreciate an expedited process and it’s the very reason why we hold the annual X-Day at Fastspot, it is not a system that can support long-term complex client projects.

This tendency towards assuming documentation is a waste of time or as Ryan puts it, “I used to think design teams made so many diagrams and documents because… well, they like that sort of thing.” greatly devalues the importance of clarifying important issues and goals in writing. It is immature to say that some people just like that sort of thing, when in reality, unless you an extremely detail oriented control freak who is trained or gifted as a writer, you probably dread the notion of having to create detailed and important documentation when you’d rather be coding or designing. No, documentation is not something people just do because they like to do it, it is actually important. However, documents and their usefulness should always be held up to scrutiny and improvements should be made whenever possible. Just as the design process should seek to create something perfect and useful for the client, so should the documentation. Documentation can be the first set of deliverables within an agency process to become outdated, stale, or redundant – mainly because they are dismissed as unimportant or left to a lackluster team to plod through begrudgingly. This doesn’t need to be the case if we throw out what we think documentation means and seek to find more meaningful ways to integrate the process of documentation.

I find myself interviewing designers and developers these days and spending as much time looking at their writing skills as I do their technical and design skills. I place a tremendous amount of value on someone’s appreciation for and ability to conduct strategic thinking. We live in an age where a knee jerk reaction is to “just do it”, or find the “app for that” problem. However, you can’t replace good old fashioned brain storming, and the results of that kind of thinking must be successfully documented. Documents can be exciting, inspiring and creative forms of expression. Documents can be “living” data, intended to be evolving road maps which can empower a client team long after the vendor has left and the project deliverables have been handed over. Documents are often the foundations that survive the longest and inform the next iteration of the thinking. They are building blocks that should inform the future, not create problems or bottlenecks for the present.

Some of the most important documentation we create for clients is where we restate recommendations or strategic goals. While one may argue that this is a rehashing of a productive group conversation, what many who are not as familiar with management roles may forget is that important people who have some say in the progression of the project may not have been part of these group collaborative conversations. Often, teams must move strategic goals and recommendations up the pipeline for approval, sign-off, and budget allocations. These stakeholders often don’t have time to sit through the nitty gritty of the conversions and brain storming exercises, but they do need to see the final documentation. This paper trail will also serve as reminders to new members of the team who come on board mid-project and need to catch up. It’s a reality that teams will shift and the last thing you want to have to do is backtrack because a new VP of communications is hired. Documentation, when done successfully, can keep forward momentum in place and keep the team focused.

Additionally, documentation creates trust. We’ve all sat through great meetings only to see good ideas forgotten, see tasks fall to the wayside, and get stuck in those frustrating loops of “well…we talked about this, so I assumed it was going to happen.” Documentation sets expectations, provides clarity, and creates safety nets. It prevents outliers from coming in and playing “dumb” and derailing a project. It prevents clients from bullying vendors with the old “we talked about this” game. It prevents vendors from talking a great game but playing “dumb” when it comes to the deliverables. It provides a sense of accountability, and it gives teams something to cross check against.

One of our documents is the Creative Brief. One part of this document is a list of keywords describing the tone and style of the design. This document is formed after meetings and is based on collaborative discussions and fact finding sessions and research. The list of keywords is short and to the point. However, this list is often referenced during the course of the project by the designers, the developers and the client. If one of the keywords is “friendly”, we have documentation (approved and signed off on by the client) which empowers us to make certain decisions and have them backed up. It prevents an outlier from coming in mid-project and saying “this should be more slick looking”, or “why are all these colorful icons included?” The documentation sets things in stone. It reminds, reinforces, clarifies and limits the scope of the project. Without documentation, we often find ourselves in never-ending circles. Even the mere act of writing something down gives it more legitimacy.

We know that writing is a helpful tool for memory, we have learned that lists help keep us organized, we have even seen studies that suggest the act of writing something down ensures it has a higher likelihood of succeeding. Many of us were told by parents to write down our pros and cons lists before making big decisions. We often can’t see something clearly until it is clearly written out before us. Perhaps the problem with documentation is the tendency towards wasted words and ineffective thinking? I suspect the issue is not with documentation, but with the types of documents being created for the purposes set in place. I also just have to say I find it ironic that someone at 37signals is talking about documentation being a waste of time when their most popular product, Basecamp (which we use and very much like), is essentially an application for better organizing and sharing documentation.

Ryan from 37signals ends his post stating,”Documentation may be necessary when your throughput is low, and that’s an opportunity to see documents not as charming deliverables but as warning signs of a deeper problem in your process.” I would argue that a lack of documentation which is focused on strategic thinking and establishing foundations should be a warning sign of a deeper problem in your process. At Fastspot our “throughput” is anything but low, and our productivity is accomplished with a small team who pride themselves on efficiency. Yet no one here would argue on the pointlessness of our documentation. Sure, documentation might have gotten a bad rap from all the poorly conceived ones that exist in the world, but that doesn’t mean the process of documentation is faulty. When documentation is a recording of a strategic and creative process focused on clearly outlining issues, goals, recommendations and guidelines, and created in a way that empowers collaboration and revisions in the future, it is one of the most important phases of any project.

What do you think? Have you seen documentation derail productivity or the creative process? Do you have a unique process for generating useful documentation? How do you keep clients with bad habits from forcing you to spend time on worthless documentation and instead generate productive documentation? We’d love to hear from you.

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Re-posting this article due to lots of discussion lately – let us know what you think!

Before clients see BigTree CMS, Fastspot’s proprietary content management system, they often ask us why we built our own when there are so many out there that we could have simply used. When they ask me, I usually picture this. I have seen these CMS offerings, and frankly, they are horrible. How could I ever expect my clients to wade through instruction manuals numbering in the thousands of pages when they should be focused on content? What is the point of purchasing a CMS if you need to hire several programmers or experts to run it? Why would I actually expect my clients to willingly log into a system that is unusable, unfriendly and doomed to frustrate and confuse as they try to update a page or change a video clip?

Clearly, there are different “types” of content management systems and there are blogs and companies that do nothing but rate them, review them, provide training for them, etc.. It is an industry of its own, and with little oversight or benchmarks being applied, it is confusing to determine what makes a good CMS. Here are the things that make a good CMS; they are built into BigTree CMS and enjoyed by our clients:

1. Easy to use. Let’s face it. Most of the time, you want someone who knows words and pictures doing the editing and updating on copy and imagery, not a computer scientist. I don’t know about you, but I only know a few very special people who can claim to be a programmer, a designer and a copywriter. If my goal is to be thinking about words and tone and audience, don’t make me worry about code.

2. Intelligent. If I need a piece of content to be placed in multiple places in the Website, it would be nice if the CMS could handle that for me. The benefit of a customized solution is that the development team can tweak the CMS to anticipate your needs and be ready to deliver when you need it to.

3. Helpful. When I need help, I want to get to it quickly and easily. Tool tips, easy-to-locate help sections, videos on how to do a certain process, FAQs—these are all extremely helpful. I like for this kind of information to be built into the system I am using so I don’t have to leave my CMS to find the information on a Website or, even worse, in a 1,000 page written manual.

4. Flexible. If I am going into my CMS to update a bullet point, I don’t want to have to jump through 30 hoops to get it done. Likewise, if I am adding an entire new section to the site—setting up new templates, adding links to the navigation, inputting SEO-relevant content, and setting up modules—then I expect some complexity, along with some checks and balances along the way.

5. Powerful. If I want something to be done, it should be possible. This is one of the reasons we developed our own CMS:  So we could do the things we wanted to be done within the system. It’s also why we developed it on open-source platforms. That way, our clients aren’t beholden to us if they want to build upon the system.

6. Intuitive. If I want to move a navigation item higher on the list of drop down items, wouldn’t it be nice to simply drag and drop it in the list? If I need to upload an image to use in a template or inline, wouldn’t it be nice if the system automatically knew the size and ratio and let me crop the image accordingly during the upload process? Oh, how we dreamt of sleep-filled nights without the worry of broken links or content that wasn’t being indexed by Google. Well, we answered our own dreams with BigTree—and any good CMS out there should be doing the same.

7. Stable. Don’t you love when you hit one button and it seems the whole internet goes down? Or, at the very least, it seems you may have fried some sort of major thing with servers and possibly satellites and you swear you smell smoke? A good CMS should keep you out of harm’s way. You shouldn’t be able to do massively bad things without being loudly prompted (several times) by your CMS:

“Are you sure you want to delete that page?”
“Are you sure you want to erase a week’s worth of work?”
“Are you sure you want to take down the whole site just because you want that animated gif in the copy?”

Additionally, if you do make a mistake and cause a problem, it should be a recoverable problem. Hitting one button somewhere should never take down your whole site. Ever.

8. Secure. You want the people who need to know, knowing. And those who only need to know a little, well, they should be in the ‘know a little’ room. A good CMS should allow for security and user account settings to be configured in such a way as to protect your sensitive information on the back end of your site, as well as on the front end. The system should only show users what they have been authorized to see. No more. That way, your disgruntled intern can’t mosey on over to the professional bios section and add a line about Mr. Smith’s prized Chia Pet collection…or something like that. You get the idea.

9. Pleasant. If you want your team to do something, willingly, proactively even, that something better be pleasant to engage with. Have you ever had your team say “no thanks” when you’ve invited them down for a pizza/brainstorming session? You make the brainstorm process more pleasurable by including the pizza. A little pleasure goes a long way, which is why we think a CMS’s administrative area should be as nice looking as the front-facing Website, if not nicer. It should be organized, friendly, use real world language—not things like “vars” or “default”—that make sense only to programmers. It should help you if you make a mistake, allow you to play without fear of crashing, and inspire you to log in and keep creating great content! A CMS is essentially tools for the creative process, same thing as Photoshop to designers, or paint and brushes to a painter. Who wants to create something in a sterile, threatening and confusing environment?

10. Simple. This is the most important element for a good CMS. Simple does not mean weak or limited. Simplicity is difficult to achieve and requires great effort and restraint to get it right. Sure, we could probably add modules to BigTree that would allow our clients to do some crazy stuff, but they don’t really need it. And, if they do, it’s one client out of a million. In that case, we do something custom just for them. Keeping the CMS simple allows you to build a solid foundation first. Then you have time in real world scenarios to determine if you really need it to reposition that satellite or not.

What do you think? Share your thoughts on what makes a good CMS, and don’t forget to tell us who you are. Perspective is everything!

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Seriously, have you seen Pizza Hut’s site lately? Or their apps? They make ordering a pizza about as easy as sitting down on the couch. They make it so easy you’d be crazy not to order a pizza from them, or get distracted halfway through and never complete your order, or decide it’s a pain and go to another pizza maker’s site. Take a clue from Pizza Hut. Make giving online donations to your school, organization, or cause as easy as possible. Make it so easy they can’t say no. And if they even think about saying no, use peer pressure to push them back into the “yes” column. Easier said than done, you say? I agree; being easy is hard work. It goes against what most of us are taught growing up. I’m going to give you a crash course, right here, right now. Then it’s up to you to put on your “easy” outfit and do your thing. And don’t say I never gave you anything useful!

1. Don’t be vague about what you are asking for. Be clear. But be realistic. Sure, you want everyone to give $1,000, but it’s easier to give $10. So take the easy route—ask for $10. Cheap isn’t bad. If you get more givers, you can still come out ahead. It’s worked for Walmart (the easy of retail); it’s worked for Zappos (the easy of shoe buying); it’s worked for Southwest (the easy of flying); and it can work for you, too. So be clear, and be realistic, and don’t be afraid to be cheap.

2. Don’t make the cheapskates feel bad. If you want $10, ask for $10. Don’t give people a range from $10 to $25 to $100 to $500, because then those that would have been happy to give $10 now feel like cheap bastards as they see all the other options on your list. If you must, leave a “set your own number” area, but just stick with a nice low easy range, and don’t make the lowest givers feel the worst. Make them feel like the winners!

3. Peer pressure works, and people love to brag about good deeds. Let your donors shout to the world that they have “GIVEN!” to the cause! Don’t make them work at it. Build into your online donation process an automatic part that prompts them to share their good deed on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t make it easy to opt out of this part (but don’t do it until after they’ve given the cash). Pre-populate the prompt with something like, “I just helped ensure another kid like me gets a great education at X University by making a donation. Have you?” People are wallflowers; they don’t like to brag if it takes too much effort, so make the message easy and to the point, so all they have to do is hit “allow” or “share” or “post.”

4. Don’t over-complicate things. Use PayPal. Use ChipIn. Use Google Donate (some of these are just for non-profits, but you can find plenty of good options). Spend your time and energy on making the “user experience” as easy and simple as possible. If you are collecting donations in “the real world,” use Square—just make it EASY! Ever wonder why Amazon introduced “One Click” to make it faster and easier for people to buy things? Of course you didn’t wonder! Why wouldn’t they make buying things on their site easier?

I’m a huge fan of the Savannah College of Art and Design, but when I see this online donation form my eyes start to bleed and I feel the urge to run. I gotta REALLY be in the mood to donate to put up with this. Seriously, shouldn’t “I,” as your potential donor, be given the nicest user experience? Instead I feel like I’m in some backroom storage area with cobwebs and an old PC terminal from 1996. After a quick scan, I can see that I’m not even CLOSE to handing over my credit card info once I do finally make it through this form. Yikes.

And Yale—I get that you want lots of information about my gift and me, but seriously, I’m BUSY! If I’m a Yale grad I’m probably super busy doing many important things, so just let me give some money already—leave all this “stuff” for later!

Hey, Greenpeace: OK,way to go on keeping it simple, but you could use a little work in the “nice looking” arena. However, as one of the longest standing do-gooder orgs out there that I can remember who’s been asking for money, you get it more right than others with your simple and to-the-point donation page. And THANK YOU for letting me just jump in through PayPal and hand over my $10! Win.

And Save the Children, I commend you for helping many needy kids, but seriously, lower your donation amounts. If I want to give you $10,000, I’ll probably come drop off a check in person, or have my personal assistant call you, or have my other personal assistant write the amount into the box you leave empty for us poor broke do-gooder wannabes to have to type in $20 and feel like cheap bastards. You’re on the right path, but you could do a bit more to make this situation better.

Testimonial Interlude: I’m a sucker for animals, and I LOVE dogs. I’ve started following a few pitbull rescue orgs on Facebook, and oftentimes a dog rescuer has a situation where they have a dog that needs medical help, and they don’t have the money. These people have started creating Facebook pages to plead their cases and have made great use of ChipIn to allow fast and easy online donations. I have given more money to help out dogs in last year than I EVER have to any other organization or cause (in number of times I’ve opted to help, not in total dollars donated—YET), and this is because they’ve made it so easy! My one complaint: ChipIn is a Flash widget, and therefore it doesn’t work on my iPhone, where I spend lots of time browsing Facebook.

Since I’m on the animal thread: Humane Society of America, I LOVE your site and what you do for animals—but let me please donate through PayPal. I am currently sitting on my wallet, which means I’d have to roll my ass to one side to pull it out, and I’m too busy writing this blog post. But I have a PayPal account (probably like many people do), and there is money in that account, and it’s tied to a credit card, so I can just hit a button, log in, and give you money. Or rather, I could have, if you’d let me. And I would have as I researched for this blog post. Maybe next time, but please don’t call me. Nice site, though.

5. Being easy doesn’t mean being outdated. Be Progressive. Realize that many of your new potential donors aren’t on your Website; they are on Facebook or Twitter—and not on their computers, but on their smartphones or their tablets. Make sure your online donation process takes advantage of these social media spaces and tools. Integrate everything so it’s all happening in one place. Optimize your giving process for these mobile environments or miss out on cash—your choice. This isn’t a small deal; it’s a big deal, and it’s going to be a HUGE deal next year—mark my words. The world is moving toward mobile, not away from it.

Want to see some more great examples of HORRIBLE donation forms? Here you go!

Got some good examples of orgs or schools asking for (and probably getting) donations? Share a link. Like this post? Share it with your network. Disagree? Let me hear about it.

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Just as Americans have finally started caring more about what they put inside their bodies than what they cover them up with, Website teams are finally caring more about what they are saying than what things look like. Let’s face it: Healthy eating, and healthy content, takes work. It’s much easier to roll into a fast food joint and order up a few Flash effects, snazzy animations, and some hot sauce than it is to sit down and make a delicious and satisfying batch of content. You know the old saying about how you’re always hungry 15 minutes after eating Chinese food? (Personally I’m usually too full to move because I overindulge in the MSG carb wonderland, but I digress.) The similarity is obvious – crap might taste good for a few minutes, but it won’t be good for you in the long run.

Creating good content is not easy. Like most good things, it takes planning, hard work, some possible failures, and even paving some new ground. It’s not typically popular to work hard and sweat out the seemingly small things – not in today’s “super size for less” society. Unless you are selling shit in a taco shell, your audience actually does care about the quality of your content. They want to know that you are working hard to “know” yourself. They don’t want happy meals, movie posters, huge fancy animations, or more blogs than you can shake an extra large milkshake at (sorry, couldn’t resist). They want an experience, authenticity, caring, quality. They want you. And if you serve them up a double dose of grease and “we can turn you into tomorrow’s leaders” (inspired by the higher ed universe), then you will lose. They will smell the fry tray a mile away and never even nibble on the sweet edge of your bun (geez, OK, sorry, this metaphor has LEGS I tell ya!).

I think it’s almost funny how many people pass up great opportunities because they don’t want to do the hard work to get to know themselves and then do the extra hard work to tell their story to the people who are sitting in the booth asking to hear it. It’s so much easier to throw some manufactured meat onto a piece of bread, and it’s so much harder to plan out a truly nutritious meal. But nutrition is what good content is – it’s fuel for the mind, energy for the imagination, inspiration for the spirit.

Let’s work even one more food metaphor in here while we’re at it – how about the local/seasonal/organic movement? Why has this become so popular? Well, lo and behold, stuff that is in season, fresh, and not covered in chemicals actually tastes better and your body actually feels better when you eat it! Holy Whoppers! Yep, it’s true. There is no denying it. And now back to content: Yes, dear reader, the same applies. We care more about what is happening right now, right here, and not bathing it in a bunch of preservatives or unnecessary adjectives.

So, the secret to great content?

Do the work to “know thyself,” and then tell your story to the world.

Be unabashed, bold, full of personality, proud, willing to make some mistakes along the way, and always full of nutrition.

Resist the urge to use the high fructose corn syrup of the marketing world (cheap effects, generic statements, overused jargon).

Stick to the basics and let them sing. You have no idea how amazing broccoli with a little lemon juice is until you’ve cleansed your palate of the junk and feasted on real food.

Just do the same with your content, and you’ll be surprised at how wonderful the results will be – for you, and for your audience.

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I think Fastspot is one of the best places to work, and I believe most of my coworkers would agree with me. Why? It’s actually not because of the great clients we have, or how creative our work is, or how many Webbys we have on our shelf. It is about how much fun we have at work. How important is having fun? Critically important.

In fact, having fun might be the single most important ingredient in the recipe for a business thriving and growing. I certainly think businesses can get by without fun, but add in fun, and watch out! Here are the things a culture of fun accomplishes:

- You look forward to going into work every morning
- You don’t mind going above and beyond to help your coworkers
- You genuinely care about what your team is creating
- Your health is improved from laughter on a daily basis
- You keep a good perspective on things
- You don’t stress out over the little things
- You don’t foster or get involved in drama
- You become closer with your coworkers and managers
- You become closer with your clients and other vendors
- You don’t take yourself too seriously
- You appreciate the people around you for who they are, not what they do

In true Fastspot fashion, we’ve honored our respect for “fun” by creating another random and whimsical Holiday video for you to enjoy. And remember, sometimes fun is about nothing more than being silly, together. Happy Holidays to all of you, and may your 2011 be filled with as much fun as possible!

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Those first few moments of interaction between you and a prospective client matter more than you can imagine. Everything you do in this critical early phase of your project development is important and will likely determine your success or failure. This post focuses on some of our methods for ensuring that initial contact is positive, mutually beneficial and results in business.

Before a potential client contacts you, you are essentially a blank slate. Everything you do adds marks to that slate.

Preparing for Inquiries

Your phone rings or an email arrives in your inbox. A prospective client is interested in hiring you. What now? Let’s start at the beginning and determine what we can know about this potential client right off the bat. Somehow they heard of you, so this is your first mark. Find out how they heard about you to know the context of their first impression. For example, if one of your favorite existing clients was raving about you, you have a great first mark on your slate. If the inquiry came based on a Google search for “Web designers” then your only mark might be that you came up in search results. The prospect who heard about you from your deliriously happy client will already be inclined to work with you and you will not have as much of an uphill battle.

TIP: It is important to be able to determine which leads have the most likelihood of turning into real work. This way when you get busy you will spend your time going after quality clients versus wasting your time.

The next mark on your slate will be based on how well that first interaction with you goes. You want this mark to be a good, solid one. Do they Google your name or company name and instantly they have access to a lovely Website and contact page? Do they have to sort through multiple search results for “your name” to find your site? Do they come across negative posts or even worse, your Facebook page with privacy settings turned off? You should assume that once someone hears about you, they need to efficiently and pleasantly be able to do the following things:
– Remember your name or your company’s name
– Find your site easily in a search (ahead of negative or personal sites)
– Quickly find out where and how a prospective client should reach out to you
– Be contacted back in a reasonable amount of time (I say no longer than 48 hours)
– Enjoy their first interaction with you

If you want to pre-qualify your prospects efficiently, encouraging them to call you directly on the phone may be a bad idea. Answering calls, returning calls, deciphering messages and then taking the time on the phone to cut through the chit chat and get to the essentials takes a lot of time. You may prefer to downplay your phone number and instead ask prospects to fill out a short inquiry form or contact you via email. Using forms or email you can set up convenient auto-responders letting prospects know their email has been received and they should expect to hear back from you in “x” amount of time. This leaves little room for confusion. Avoid sounding cold by using friendly wording and a promise (you can keep) of a quick response time. Just remember, if you go with the form or email route, you run the risk of a competitor getting on the phone with the prospective client first. You decide which works best for you. Try switching it up between various approaches and track how it affects your incoming business requests.

EXAMPLE: “Thanks for contacting us, we appreciate your interest in working with our team. Please fill out this short form so we can learn a bit about you and your project, and we’ll call you back pronto (otherwise known as within 1 business day).”

You need to decide how much time you will invest into each new prospect and how far you will go to get the information you need to provide a proposal.

WARNING: Some clients want you to do all the work for them so be careful you aren’t giving all your ideas and expertise away for free at the beginning. Sharing a few good recommendations goes far in letting someone know you are good at what you do, but figuring out the whole project for them will only lead to a client relationship where you are doing all the work, and probably not being compensated (or appreciated) for it.

The way a client gets in touch with you can determine if they will be a good or bad client. Did your contact come as an email inquiry, a RFP (request for proposal document) or a phone call? If they emailed you, did they follow your guidance on your contact form? For example, if you have an email address specifically for new business inquiries, did they use it or did they send their email to the first address they found? This approach of giving potential clients specific (and easy) instructions for contacting you will go far in telling you what you will be dealing with before you’ve even spoken to them. In the Web business, clients are often intimidated and misinformed; it’s your job to guide them. You can’t guide someone who won’t follow the rules.

REMEMBER: Someone who has followed your instructions is likely to respect your professional opinion, isn’t going to rush the process and will follow your lead through the job.

If the inquiry came as a voice message, you can start doing some detective work before you call them back. Note: I rarely answer a call I suspect is from a prospective client, I want to wait and find out who they are so I can do my homework. The first thing I do is check to see if their company’s URL is showing up in our Google Analytics. You want to know how much time they spent looking at your work and learning about you.

TIP: In Google Analytics go to: Visitors/Network Properties/Service Providers and you will see a list of domains that have visited your site. I look at this list daily, it’s the best crystal ball you have to see who’s checking you out. It also gives you a chance to be proactive and start researching them before they contact you. Talk about being prepared!


Next try a Google search to see who you are dealing with. You want the call to have come from someone relatively important at the company so check the “About” or “Our Team” page immediately. If you can’t find anything in Google, it should tell you they are a start up or a really small company; this means small budgets and unorganized teams (there are exceptions, but this is usually the case).

Another place to do some recon is on Twitter. Simply go to http://search.twitter.com and start searching. You might find a personal Twitter account, or the company account. Either way, it’s good insight into the prospect and what they are currently doing.

I’ve also found LinkedIn to be useful when doing some preliminary research. It’s helpful to know where your contact’s past jobs were. Maybe there’s a common denominator, who knows? Maybe you are both graduates from the same school. http://www.linkedin.com

The important thing is to not jump so quickly on the lead that you forget to do your homework. Check them out and see what you are dealing with. I sometimes break this rule if I get a call from someone who said a client recommended they call. Client referrals are often some of the best leads and they appreciate a prompt response. Another reason to wait just a little while is to prepare an agenda or a list of questions before you’re put on the spot. Nothing sounds worse to a prospect than a bunch of uncomfortable silences on an initial call. If you tend to choke up under pressure, have a handy list of go-to questions sticky-noted to your phone for emergencies. Here are some good go-to questions when the moments get uncomfortable (and ones that will help you learn more about the client, too):
– How did you hear about us? (I can’t emphasize enough how important this bit of information is to gather.)
– What are some of your frustrations with your current Website?
– How long ago was your current site created?
– Who else will be involved in this project?
– How many Web design projects have you managed in the past? Were they successful? Who did you work with?
– How many other agencies/designers are you inviting to bid on this project?
– When do you expect to make a decision?
– If you could have your dream site, what would it look like? (Get URLs for sites they like.)
– Will there be an in-house team working collaboratively on this project?

Did you spot the second most important question in that list? It’s the last one. Often times, you are working against a concerned in-house designer, developer or IT team. They are usually resistant to outsiders and may honestly be concerned for their job security. If you can learn as much about these people as possible, you can attempt to dilute the trepidation within your proposal or initial conversations. Including a section in your proposal entitled “Working Collaboratively with the In-House Team” or “In-House Long Term Management” will be sections which might very well earn you fans vs. enemies. It also shows the client you are thinking from a collaborative and long-range perspective. Trust me: you want these people on your side. Their votes often hold more weight and a client will be unwilling to hire someone that clashes with their in-house people.

Here’s another reason to make that first phone call count. People are going to want to do business with people they like, and it’s much easier to get a sense for someone on a phone call then in text. Don’t hide behind emails. Get on the phone once you are prepared. Make a connection that lets your prospective client know you are a smart, creative, insightful individual (or agency) who is genuinely interested in their project and their problems. Even if it’s not a good fit, they will appreciate that you cared enough to make the effort, and take the time. You never know where that person may end up working in a year or two, so even if the potential work in this instance seems unlikely, you never know what it may turn in to one day.

I’ll be continuing to discuss how we do business here at Fastspot, so feel free to let me know what you are wondering about!

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There are lots of good posts out there on how to give a great presentation, but how do you put a good one together? How do you take your audience on a ride with your content even as you are hula-hooping and doing all your other best saleswomany tricks to give it enthusiasm, conviction and clarity? Below is a breakdown of how I took what was sure to be a stinker of a presentation and turned it around.

I was preparing for a huge upcoming presentation, and I mean a big one! This would take our company to the next level, and I really really wanted it – it was fun, big budget, good client kinda juicy project and I wanted it bad. I had my slides, I made sure I covered the big picture elements from our proposal, and I took a look at it all and thought, “This is total shit”. My presentation was going to be boring, slow, labored and I would end up red faced, hands in pockets, sweating and wishing my hour was up within the first 5 minutes.

I could tell because I was bored just looking at it, why the hell would the client feel any different? So, I deleted that presentation and started over. I asked myself the following questions and came up with a presentation that was a million times better. Ask yourself what you would answer to these questions (I’ve included my answers so you can imagine how my slides shaped up) and then try making your next presentation about your answers and less about regurgitating factoids about how many awards you’ve won, how you execute the concept, relevant case studies blah de blah blah blech.

1. What is one of the most creatively inspiring things you ever saw in your life?
- Pictures of the cave paintings at Lascoux, France.

2. Why?
- Because humans have been using imagery to communicate for thousands of years and it’s beautiful to look at. It still tells its story.

3. What freaks you out?
- Outer space.

4. What amazes you?
- Language.

5. What excites you about your job?
- Problem solving.

6. What makes you special?
- I’m funny and use great metaphors to communicate concepts.

7. How do you make the magic happen?
- I mix process, fun, creativity, listening, problem solving and talent into a big bowl.

8. What scares you?
- Failure. But without it I’m doomed.

9. If you could invent a toy, what kind of toy would it be?
- Something that turned music I was listening to into a palette of oil paints and wherever my eyes moved marks would be created. Hey – it’s a dream, ok, not something I really could invent.

10. What is one thing that you are bad at?
- I can’t focus on details, or maybe I can’t stay focused for long enough to deal with the details.

11. What makes you mad at clients?
- When I see horrible sites and stupid marketing and dumbed down ideas catering to the lowest common denominator assuming that they are stupid.

12. What do you provide to your clients?
- Solutions that make them more honest, more organized, more respectful to their audiences, and more likely to succeed.

13. What is something you want everyone to know about you?
- I love dogs.

Now, I realize this is kind of random but trust me – start putting your presentations together from a different mindset, entertain your audience, tell them something they didn’t already know. After all, this work we do is as much about relationships as is it about the work, so let them get to know you – how you think, what your passions are, and let the great work follow.

Oh yeah – I use Keynote to put my presentations together and I love Flickr, Google Images and iStock for finding images to use. Remember, pictures can say a thousand words. Skip the bullet points – say it with pictures on screen and speak your points with your voice.

Got any amazing presentations you’ve given, or tips to get there? Do share. After all, I showed you mine

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I have noticed recently that in certain situations I am presented with someone who is clearly wrong, but has the kind of confidence normally reserved for brain surgeons. Not only do they exhibit extreme confidence regarding an issue they either know nothing about or are coming at from the wrong direction, but they seem predisposed to criticize and complain from such a lofty perch of righteousness that I am rendered defenseless from pure shock. What is going on?

I have read several bits of news lately, and if you combine them I think you begin to see a problem, and a reason for all this arrogance, criticism and supreme confidence in matters clearly beyond the critic’s mental capacity.

The first bit of insight was a study now being called the Dunning-Kruger effect, where the dumb get confident and the intelligent get doubtful. The introduction to this “effect” via a real life story goes like this:

Daniel Keogh: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1995. A local man, McArthur Wheeler, walks into two banks in the middle of the day and robs them both at gunpoint. Making away with the cash, he is arrested later that evening. Back at the station police sit him down and show him footage from the banks’ security cameras. Wheeler can’t believe it, the cameras had somehow seen through his disguise. He was seen mumbling to himself, ‘But I wore the juice.’ His was no ordinary disguise; no balaclava, mask or elaborate makeup, just lemon juice, liberally applied to the face. He was certain that the squirt of citrus would render him invisible to security cameras.

This story of supreme overconfidence despite the fact that the perpetrator was clearly incompetent provides a window into an interesting physiological area within which Kruger and Dunning (on behalf of Cornell University) shone their observational flashlights in 1999 resulting in a research paper titled ‘Unskilled and Unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessment’.

So, point #1. Stupid people believe they are correct, even in the face of obvious information to the contrary.

Bertrand Russell once said, ‘In the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.’ From his essay ‘The Triumph of Stupidity’, published in 1933.

Next, I was shocked as I watched the trailer for “Waiting for Superman” to learn that even as American school children trail miserably in Science and Math scores (compared to the 30 or so other industrialized countries), we did score #1 in one trait. What could it be? Art? Creativity? English? Nope. American children scored #1 in “Confidence”. Now at first you might like the sound of that, but step back and think about it. Why are they all so confident even as they trail at the rear of the pack in the other scores? Does this reflect the Dunning-Kruger effect? Point #2 is served.

Lastly, we now have a culture who is expecting to have a voice on any matter of things, from voting on the next pop superstar to posting videos on YouTube if they are pulled over by the police for speeding (shortly before they file a lawsuit). These actions seem to be accompanied by a silent raised middle finger implying “I can publish this, I have a voice, so you better watch out!” Are we dealing with a backlash of Americans who felt disenfranchised and unable to have an effect for too many years? Is the recent wave of social media giving the underserved a megaphone to finally air their grievances? Or are we dealing with declining intelligence levels which promote overconfidence? Point #3 to add to the mix.

Charles Darwin once said, ‘Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than knowledge.’

I have certainly experienced the benefit of having the wherewithal to stop in the midst of a crisis or stressful situation, and ensure I am looking at things from all available perspectives. Rather than rush forward screaming and cursing because something goes against what I believe, I tend to stop and leave the door of self doubt open, if for no other reason than to assure myself I have done my due diligence. Once all angles have been considered, I proceed with my decided upon course. This is the kind of analytical thinking we are (or perhaps were) taught in math, and most definitely in science. Science has control groups for a reason, it provides the counter balance to the test group.

It seems to me we have lost our appreciation for the “control group” and as a society we prefer to act like ignorant children who are supremely overconfident (or spoiled) and would rather throw rocks at everything that doesn’t reflect back the image we expect to see. It’s very easy to do this, you don’t have to open your mind, consider options, contemplate the fact you might be wrong. You just have to start bitching.

The Dunning-Kruger effect article makes this very important point:

At its extreme it lets charming and charismatic yet completely incompetent people to rise to the top and often end up being in charge.

So, how do you deal with this phenomenon when you are presented with it? According to Dunning and Kruger, grabbing these people, shaking them by their shoulders and screaming “idiots” at them won’t do you any good. The only solution is education, as only education can provide tools to greater competence. Unfortunately this paints a grim picture for those of us dealing with people who have long since graduated from the education system (or simply left it). Got any ideas or tips? Do you see this happening or is it just me? Am I completely off base here? Leave me a comment, I’m dying to know what you all think on this one!

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Gears of War...or Over Complication

If you want, you can make the simplest task the most complicated waste of time imaginable with almost a guaranteed outcome of non-completion. Now why on earth would we choose to do this? Well, there are a few reasons we tend to do this, and hopefully by identifying them early, you can avoid them and keep it simple. Remember, doing less things perfectly is better than doing more things in a half-assed manner.

“If you are never really done with it, you can never be held accountable for things that don’t work.”

1. By over-complicating the task, you avoid having to “hand it off”, where it now becomes something out of your control. (Control freaks – this one was for you.)

2. By continuing to noodle with a task or adding complexity, you can avoid having to ever find out if you did it right or not. This is a typical “fear of failure” behavior.

3. You think if it’s not complicated, it has less value, therefor you will be seen as less impressive or successful. We all know people like this.

4. You presume to know what the client or manager will say in response to your completed task (be it a statement of work, a design change, or an initial presentation), so you start trying to answer all the hypothetical responses before you ever get the dialog started. This is often a symptom of control freaks or insecurity.

5. You over-complicate because you can’t back your mind out of where you are in the task. You can no longer see it from a big picture perspective (or even a different perspective) so you get stuck trying to find solutions which all require a high level of complexity due to the fact that you are so immersed in the task or process. The only way to avoid this is to ensure you are getting team feedback and input at critical stages of your process.

6. You don’t want to say goodbye. Once you finish something, it’s truly up for critique, criticism and additional input. If you are never really done with it, you can never really be held accountable for things that don’t work, and you convince yourself that even though you can’t complete it, one day it will prove valuable to something else. This is the hoarder behavior.

So, do any of these behaviors describe you? Have you found ways to avoid over-complication? How do you help others follow the path of least resistance? I’m sure I missed some, so tell us – how else do we manage to over-complicate what could be simple? And why?

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