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

What I Do to Help You Achieve Strong Online Marketing
6 Key Services for Success in Online Marketing Usability Analysis Marketing Communications Website Reviews Gerry McGovern's Customer Carewords Research Content Copywriting Competitive Website Reviews Writing Right for the Web On-Campus Workshops For a detailed proposal about one or more of these services, start now and contact me by email or call me at 248.766.6425. Most projects are completed in 8 to 10 weeks from the starting date... or less. Web writing projects will vary with the number of pages included. Usability Analysis Do you need to invest in a comprehensive rebuilding of your website? Or just strengthen a particular part of it? Before you start, ask a selection of users to sit down and see how well your current website works for them now. You might find out that you don't need to change as much as you were expecting to change. And even if you learn that you need to rebuild rather than renovate, the results of a usability test will provide valuable input for your new directions and tell you what features of your current site you should continue on your new one. A typical usability test covers four areas: Usefulness: Ability to give visitors meaningful, valued information and services Effectiveness: Ability of visitors to accomplish their tasks and goals Efficiency: Ability of visitors to quickly perform tasks and accomplish goals Satisfaction: Attitudes of visitors to ensure that they enjoy using your website What You Receive You receive a detailed written report and an on-campus presentation that ranks the results according to the need for attention as (1) severe, (2) moderate, (3) minor, and (4) an enhancement to your website that you shouldn't change. With this report in hand, you can set priorities for your web team that will ensure that their time is best spent in areas that will have the most immediate impact on improving the performance of your site. Marketing Communications Website Review Your review begins at the Home page and moves through primary audience paths similar to these: Future Students, Current Students, Athletics, Faculty and Staff, Alumni. Clients can adapt the audience paths 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 The most important change areas for improved communications capability in a analysis in PowerPoint format. The report focuses on changes to achieve best practice status in online communications, often referring to my Link of the Week selections. Customer Carewords Research Customer Carewords research helps you create customer-centric, task focused websites that generate higher conversion results from your key audiences. Customer Carewords takes you beyond keywords for Search Engine Optimization. Keywords bring people to your website, but Carewords bring them through your website to a point where they complete vital tasks such as making an inquiry, completing an application, or donating to your annual fund. Keywords and Carewords work together to give you a total marketing solution. Keywords are about traffic. Carewords are about engagement and conversion. Customer Carewords research is a licensed methodology created by Gerry McGovern. Read a detailed project outline here. What You Receive The words and phrases that are valued most highly by your audience in a detailed survey report. Results presented on-campus so that key stakeholders have an immediate opportunity to discuss the findings, share their reactions, and begin to plan an implementation strategy for content and information architecture changes. 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 new 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 the appropriate campus team. Writing Right for the Web... On-Campus Workshop The workshop is designed for anyone who will prepare or edit website copy, whether or not they actually post it to your website. Any number of people can attend. 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. 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 For a detailed proposal about one or more of these services, contact me by email or call me at 248.766.6425.