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Five Steps to Building a Vision for your Website.

A recent conversation I had with a client about their website really sums up this post nicely.

They said: “I’d like something simple, just a page with my name and contact information.”

I nodded. More information almost always follows that sentence, so I waited for it.

“Then I want to be able to take orders online, maybe in the next six months or so.”

How will your website grow with your business?

Having a website is kind of like building a house. Maybe at first you just need the basics: a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. But what do you do if you decide to have a family? And how will that house change as your family grows?

Most people would just buy a new house, which is where this analogy kind of fails, but your website should grow with your business. Just like you could build additions and new features on to your house, you could add pages, features and functions to your website.

Before you hire a developer or buy a template to fill in keep in mind what you want for your business, your website and how you’re going to talk to customers and clients online.

Maybe eventually you’ll want to take orders online like my client. Or maybe you want to build a community or sub-community within your industry, or have a huge list of subscribers.

If you’ve got big dreams for your business, that “basic” page might not cut it in a year or two.

The point is this: Have a vision for your website, one that matches the vision you have for your business.

Even if you already have a site, there’s no harm in reviewing it against your vision for your business.

Once you have that vision, you or your developer can start to plan the actual site (or the changes). Your vision will impact everything that goes into development.

As promised, here are the five steps:

1. Think about yourself + your business. First.

  • Where do you see your business in five / 10 / 15 years?
  • Will the website need to “do” anything to support your business vision? Like take orders, track return visitors or take subscriber information?
  • How much time do you have to devote to a website? Will you make all updates or will you need some help?
  • Should the website look, feel and sound like you?

2. Think about your current + potential clients.

  • How long does it take between initial contact to a client making a purchase? Or is this even a thought?
  • Are you already connected with some clients and customers online?
  • How tech-savvy are they?
  • Can you sell products online or is your business local?
  • How much time will your audience spend on your site?
  • After they purchase your product or service, do you want clients to come back to your site? Or will they do this anyway?

3. Hunt for inspiration.

  • Look online for sites that you think are cool and imagine your website looking like theirs.
  • Bookmark anything you find that you like or think you might want for your own site. The sky is the limit (for now*)!
  • Taking a look at what your competition is doing will tell you what your potential clients expect when it comes to their experience.
  • For inspiration I usually start at awwwards and themeforest.

4. Explore all your options.

  • Talk to your friendly, neighbourhood web developer.
  • Take a quick look at what goes into build a site.
  • Explore your options, including services like Wix.
  • Think about your vision before paying a deposit or entering credit card information. You don’t want to buy something that might not work for you in the future.

5. Get on social media.

  • This post by Onboardly outlines some of the most popular platforms and can help you figure out where your audience is right now.
  • Not only will connecting over social media help build your audience when your site goes live, it will also give you ideas on topics to cover for your content.

*Don’t get attached to anything you see online and that you think will work for you. Once you start learning about web development and talking to developers you’ll soon find out there’s a lot more behind all that cool stuff you see online. While the world (wide web – sorry, it was right there!) is your oyster, you do want to be discerning when it comes to what will work FOR YOU and your business.

Ok, go! Build your vision and watch this space: my next blog post will cover what to do once your site is live.

My Perfect HTML Email template with built-in CTAs.

Last week I got a reminder email from my salon about a hair appointment. After having a small first-world moment when I realized I couldn’t just add the appointment to my calendar straight from the email, I thought: ‘why not build my own HTML email template with CTAs already included?’

Screenshot of what HTML email template looks like on different devices.
My perfect HTML email template. Fully responsive and CTAs included.

For events — especially reminders — I think ‘Add to Calendar’ or ‘Register’ are two CTAs that make sense.

If you’re creating an invite for an appointment or event, making them with the intent to share over email can make the process easier, but most popular email clients should automatically generate whatever links or files you need to include in your message.

For news and updates, especially big news about your company or organization, a ‘Click to Tweet’ button is a great way to boost engagement with your devoted fans and followers.

So here’s my ideal HTML Email template. It’s responsive and comes with ‘Click to Tweet’ and ‘Add to calendar’ CTAs, and it’s flexible responsive. I was inspired in part by Lee Munroe’s simple responsive html email template, and Zurb’s Ink framework.

Here’s where you can download and contribute.

“Tell me something good” lyrics from here.

Internet-Things for Writers.

Here’s a random list of online resources that are great for writers and content-creators. Make graphics, pair fonts, and come up with ideas for stories, blog posts and websites – mix all these apps and tools together to write something tasty!

Being creative

| Sarah Selecky’s Writing Prompts

These writing prompts are awesome. Each day you get a random prompt (“Write a scene that involves overcooked spaghetti on the floor.”, for example) that you can use as inspiration to write for ten minutes. One of these writing prompts inspired me to write the story on the 404 Page.

Grammar + Readability

| Hemingway App

Though it’s been around for a while, earlier this year the geniuses behind this app released a desktop version for Mac and PC. At $6.99, the price is a somewhat wrong if you ask me, but if you’re a heavy user it might be worth the money. And of course, the free version is available as long as you have an internet connection.

Graphics

| Canva, Infogr.am + Pixlr

Need to add a little graphic design, create infographics or edit images for a blog post or site? Canva, Infogr.am and Pixlr make it easy and fun to take your ideas and make them reality. Also, this for stock photos.

Fonts

| What Font App + Typ.io

Here are two apps that can help you save time when trying to figure out how to pair fonts. And Google Fonts, obviously.

Writing Your Business

| Copyblogger’s Marketing Library

If you don’t already have an account with Copyblogger you’re going to have to get one for access to their online library of ebooks. Free Ebooks on copywriting, content marketing, research and general ‘how to make money’ topics. And it’s free. Did I mention it’s free? Ok, well. It’s free.

There are thousands of free things online that can help you improve your writing skills and bring visual interest to your posts and websites. Add your favourites in the comment box and let me know what you think!

DIY PR: media monitoring for free.

Knowing what’s going on in your industry is essential. Knowledge really is power. (Or power is power, if you’re Cersei Lannister.)

One of the things PR people “do” is media monitoring: tracking, reading, analyzing and… monitoring… media. Anyone can start media monitoring for any real reason: if you’re looking for a job you can start tracking coverage that mentions potential employers, or if your a small business owner you can monitor media for coverage related to your industry and competitors.

What it is

Media monitoring is basically reading the newspaper everyday, except your focus is on articles that cover your industry, competitors, market, etc. Sure you could assume that if there’s big news, you’ll hear about it, but chances are the most important information to you will be in articles that aren’t on the front page.

How it’s done

First, decide on your terms, because you can’t monitor without knowing what you’re looking for. There are probably hundreds of terms you can use for your business, but the more terms you have, the more time you’re going to spend on each one. Instead, pick a few that are most relevant.

Here are a few places to start:

  1. Competitors. Stick to one main competitor or get them all, depending on your needs. The more local the better, and the more direct the better.
  2. Industry leaders. Are there people, groups or organizations that make, or can make, a big impact on you or your business?
  3. Customers. This might be harder to drill down to one term, but consider also monitoring for anything related to your clients. Business clients are obviously easier, but social media can be used to monitor for information relevant to your personal clients as well.
  4. Yourself. Include your personal name or ‘online’ name, the name of your business and any organizations you’re a part of. Google yourself regularly – it’s fun.
  5. Relevant trends, popular stuff, events, things that are making an impact either in your industry and/or globally.

Once you have a list of terms, the searching is easy. Google and Bing are fine for this. But to find articles and content in between (or instead of) searches, set up Google Alerts for each term to get an email whenever coverage related to your search term pops up.

Once you get set up on Google Alerts you can almost-literally sit back and just check the articles that come in.

If you just want to find media coverage you can restrict each alert to just send you media or news alerts. Otherwise Google will attack your email with any blog post and mention that includes your terms.

Set up a folder in your email and, if you can, inbox rules for your alerts to keep your main inbox free of random clutter. Then check that box regularly, or whenever you have time.

About Social Media

Monitoring on social media is a little more involved. Thankfully you can learn nearly everything you might need for a basic monitoring program online. Here’s a link to some social media monitoring basics to get you started. Search for more information and you’ll get results for days!

Below is a list of free resources that can make the whole process easier as long as you have the right terms.

Traditional Media Monitoring:
Social Media Monitoring:

Write me or leave a comment below if you have any questions or need some help! General ideas and opinions are welcome too 🙂

Using survey results to start a conversation.

In my past life as an associate at a PR agency, I was on the account team for a major credit card company that did a survey of Canadian small business owners every quarter. After the survey was complete and results compiled, I was responsible for pitching local and national media outlets to let them know about the results. The CEO was involved in the whole survey process, so it was natural to have him speak to media.

After my third or fourth round on the project, I asked more senior co-worker on the team if there was another way we could use the results. My mistake may have been speaking off the cuff, because when my coworker asked: “what do you mean?” I didn’t have an answer.

Well now, I have one… or a few.

With so much time and money invested in creating a survey, getting respondents, compiling results and everything else, there has to be a way to get more ‘bang for the buck’.

Here are a some ideas on how survey results can start conversations and be used to share information with an online audience.

First, tracking and getting involved in relevant conversations or groups online before the survey starts and while it’s underway can be a great way to prepare for when the release goes out. The last thing you want to do is start talking to your audience only to push a product or your company.

Then once the survey’s out, start a conversation:

  1. Ask followers and fans what they think. Is there a topic covered in the survey that could be of interest to your audience? Or a certain segment of your audience? Take the opportunity to ask for general opinions and get feedback.
  2. Go beyond spitting out a stiff, scientific list of results and tell some stories. How did you and your team come up with the idea? Did anything interesting come out of the survey that didn’t make it into the release? These juicy bits are great to share in a blog post or podcast.
  3. While Twitter and Facebook might be great to ask a question + get an answer, consider using forums if you want more of a conversation. Especially if you want to reach out to a network that might not be familiar with your company or products.
  4. Are pictures or music important to your survey? Consider making a song list or posting images to Pinterest. For example, a Songza list connected to a survey that finds people work out best to music that’s over 180 beats per minute. Or linking a list of recipes on Yummly using the foods in this survey that ranks 41 superfoods according to health benefits.
  5. This one is a stretch from #4, but it could be interesting. There’s a big app world out there. Maybe there’s an app that’s easily connected to some aspect of your results. Say you’re reading a blog post about this study that found many food trucks beat out restaurants when it came to food safety. Wouldn’t it be great to find out in the same post there’s a Street Food App?!

For more reading, check out this post on why ‘most social media marketing strategies are garbage’.

And it’s a little… sell-y, but here‘s a blog post by SurveyMonkey on surveys as conversations.

Happy surveying!