Customer Carewords - Writing Web 2.0 - Usability Testing - Online Marketing

Join 4,000+ subscribers and receive:

12 to 15 marketing "news and notes" each month
"Link of the Week" email highlighting a special marketing feature of a college or university website

What I Do to Help You Achieve Strong Online Marketing

7 Key Services for Success in Online Marketing

Customer Carewords Research with Gerry McGovern
"Writing Right for the Web" On-Campus Workshops
Marketing Communications Website Reviews
Competitive Website Reviews
Content Copywriting
Search Engine Optimization
Usability Analysis

For a detailed proposal about one or more of these services, contact me by email or call me at 248.766.6425.

Many projects are completed in 8 to 10 weeks from the starting date... or less. Customer Carewords Research usually takes 10 to 14 weeks. Web writing projects will vary with the number of pages included.

Customer Carewords Research

Customer Carewords research helps you create customer-centric, task focused websites that generate higher conversion results from your key student recruitment and alumni audiences.

Customer Carewords takes you beyond "keywords" for Search Engine Optimization.

Keywords bring people to your website. Carewords bring them through your website to a point where they complete vital tasks such as making an inquiry, visiting campus, completing an application, or donating to your annual fund. Keywords and Carewords work together to give you a total online marketing solution.

Carewords research also includes a "customer-centric index" to learn what people who use your present site like and don't like about it before you start revising.
The "CCI" is also available as an independent service for future students, current students, faculty and staff, and alumni. We've done 18 for higher education clients so far. You get to see how your results compare to those for everyone else.

Customer Carewords research is a licensed methodology created by Gerry McGovern. Read a detailed project outline here.

"Writing Right for the Web"... On-Campus Workshop

The workshop is designed for everyone who creates or edits website content. Any number of people can attend. Record for future use on-campus.

Topics covered include:

How people read online
Basics of direct marketing copy style
Length of sentences and paragraphs
Use of subheads and bullet points
Importance of the first sentence
The danger of using PDFs to display print magazines and viewbooks online
Basic pointers for search engine optimization that writers can implement
"Writing Right" for mobile and social media
Examples of higher ed websites that "write right for the web."

The workshop features many examples selected from "best practice" college and university websites.

“Thank you for such a wonderful job! I’ve been getting great calls all morning from people who were really appreciative of the workshop content.”
— Lori Croy
Director, Web Communications
University of Missouri

Marketing Communications Website Review

Reviews often begin at the Home page and moves through primary audience paths similar to these: Future Students, Current Students, Athletics, Faculty and Staff, Alumni. Clients can select the pages reviewed to meet their special interests.

I pay special attention to 7 characteristics of effective websites:

Quality of writing;
Currency and relevance of content;
Interactive features;
Ability to link from one content area to similar additional content;
Ease of form completion;
Effectiveness of the search engine;
Search engine optimization elements such as page title tags and keyword use.

What You Receive

Detailed report on each website page included in the review.
The report focuses on changes to achieve best practice status in online communications, often referring to my Link of the Week selections.

Content Copywriting Services

To quickly convert large amounts of current content on your website to a more web-friendly style, you need the help of professional copywriters with a strong direct-marketing background. That's exactly the service I can provide for you.

Your website will benefit from the skills of an experienced direct marketing agency that subscribes to the key elements in my "Writing Right for the Web" workshop and the critical guidelines in Gerry McGovern's book, "Killer Web Content." The result: content that brings a new spirit to your website, making it far easier to engage and hold the interest of your visitors throughout a recruitment or annual fund cycle.

Competitive Website Review

Your review starts with a visit to the websites of four competitors as a first time prospective student seeking initial information about these schools. I make an inquiry at the websites and use the response as an initial measure of how effectively each college is using online communications.

The review includes the following:

Analysis, including frequent screen shots, of the availability of content that is most important to first-time visitors. The review starts at the Home page, moves to the admissions page, and continues with a visit to a primary academic program page.
Submission of an online inquiry to the competitors, with analysis of the speed and content of the response, allows an estimate of the effectiveness of an online communications program.

What You Receive

A report and recommendations on areas that are most important for improved impact on student recruitment, including any notable features that give your competitors a recruitment advantage.
On campus presentation and discussion of the results with your campus team.

Search Engine Optimization

Make your site... and your most important academic pages... easier to find.

Usability Analysis

Do you really need to invest in a comprehensive rebuilding of your website?

A usability review with the Customer Carewords partners at Neo Insight will help you make that decision.

For a detailed proposal about one or more of these services, contact me by email or call me at 248.766.6425.