Archive for August, 2009
August 29, 2009
Quoted about using data to grow your e-commerce revenue
I was quoted last week in the E-Commerce News about how to use data to grow your e-commerce revenue. One of my favorite topics! Here is an excerpt from Having Your Data and Using It Too:
“The best online sellers know their own data like the back of their hand and use it every day to improve their e-commerce performance,” Gammel said, adding that it is important to identify a few key metrics. “Only use metrics that enable you to make decisions about how to improve your marketing and conversion to sales online.”
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
August 27, 2009
Budgeting for a Website Redesign
The big question: what’s it going to cost to redesign our web site? Everyone comes to this sooner or later (usually sooner!) when they are determining how to improve their web presence. I’d like to share a page from my book, Online and On MIssion: Practical Web Strategy for Breakthrough Results, that addresses this very issue.
Show Me the Money!
Budgeting for your website falls into two general types: ongoing and redesign. Ongoing budget support should cover things such as staff, outsourced resources, hosting, maintenance and support agreements for technology, and other items required to keep your site up and running and performing well. Redesign budget is money specifically allocated to update or completely replace your existing web site.
Ongoing budgets vary widely and are often a function of the size of your organization and the relative importance placed upon web operations. It is easy to overlook the ongoing expenses required to keep your current site humming along while you are in the midst of figuring out how to replace it entirely. Always plan this out after devising your strategy but before investing in a redesign. The best site in the world won’t do you much good if you can’t afford to maintain it. You don’t want to be like the game show contestant who wins a new car and then has to sell it for cash because they can’t afford the taxes and insurance on the windfall.
Budgeting for a revamp or redesign of your website always raises the question of how much you can expect to spend. The investment will be determined by the technology you ultimately need and the expertise and assistance you require to create the site, including design and content development. All of these variables have a huge impact on what you will invest in and to what degree. When working with outside providers (rather than doing the work in-house with your own staff) I’ve seen everything from budgets of $25,000 to well into the hundreds of thousands. In general, the budget will track with the size of the organization’s overall budget, since complexity and the total requirements tend to go up proportionally.
Ultimately, a redesign should be driven by a change in strategy. The same goes for budget; it should be an output of your chosen strategic direction online rather than your starting point. Once you have your strategy, look at the available budget and consider if you can achieve it given the resources you are likely to have available. Sometimes you can get pretty creative and do a lot without huge budget but you won’t know until you do the strategy legwork first.
The reality is that web strategy projects often do start with a pot of money that was allocated for the site. If that is what you have to work with, look at that number briefly and then try to forget about it while you devise your strategy. Do not limit any ideas or concepts because you think you might not be able to afford them. You won’t know until later in the process, so eliminating them early may simply limit how much value you can create online with the budget you have.
When interacting with outside vendors you are considering to help you with your site, I am always in favor of disclosing to them the budget you have available. Firms that are out of your league will withdraw and those for whom your budget falls into their sweet spot will actively pursue your business. This is a good outcome! Hiding your budget simply delays things and wastes a lot of time both for you and the providers that will not be a good fit.
Finally, this strategy process will give you very good ammunition for increasing your budget to fund site development and maintenance. When done well, you will have clearly identified outcomes the site will create to serve the core of your organization’s mission and purpose. Outcomes draw money. When someone tells you they don’t have money available to fund the site it means that they don’t see the value in doing so. There is always money available if you demonstrate enough value.
Ultimately, there is no magic answer and benchmarking against other organizations is not going to be tremendously valuable if all you look at is raw budget. Above I mention $25k as a low end but you could certainly do it for considerably less if you are simply putting a new look on an existing site, not adding functionality, and already have a good content management system in place that can push the design out. That is rarely the case in a redesign, however.
If you’d like to get a copy of the book, please visit this page.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
August 26, 2009
Speaking on September 14 at the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore
I am presenting next month at a lunch event for the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, right here in Salisbury MD. I will be discussing the top lessons from my new book, which the session is titled after: Online and On Mission: Practical Web Strategy for Breakthrough Results.
David Gammel, an internationally known web strategist, will discuss his new book, Online and On Mission: Practical Web Strategies for Breakthrough Results. David will zero in on: why you must have a driving force for your web strategy; the precise steps in formulating strategy; the seven potential online strategies for any organization; and more. $40 registration fee, lunch provided, first 25 paid registrants receive a copy of David's newly released book of same title.
Here is the registration page. Hope to see you there!
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
August 25, 2009
What is social media good for?
I saw an update on Twitter this morning that asked plaintively: what is social media good for?
It is so easy to get buried in the daily details, drudgery and distraction of social media that it is very easy to lose sight of what you hope to achieve with it.
The simple truth is this: you have to identify your desired outcomes and then focus with great discipline on achieving those outcomes with social media tools and techniques. Ignore everything else. Ignore check lists that say “you must do X of these on Facebook and Y of those on Twitter otherwise you are doing it wrong!” because usually only a few of those tasks are relevant to your goals.
If you are creating value for your desired outcomes with social media then you are doing it right in my book.
If you aren’t creating value (or can’t tell!): take a break. Take a few steps back. Redefine the goals you hoped to achieve and then look at your current activities with new eyes. Focus on just those things that are likely to advance you toward your goals and drop the rest. You’ll be more effective and do so in less time.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | 3 Comments
August 10, 2009
The Single Greatest Pre-Requisite for an Effective Web Strategty
The single greatest requirement for developing an effective web strategy is the will and ability to set priorities in what you want to achieve.
This sounds obvious, as do most pragmatic ideas. However, in my many years of working with organizations to develop web strategy, those who were ready, willing and able to set priorities for what they wanted to achieve online were the most successful.
The secret to setting priorities effectively is not so much in identifying the top ones. That’s usually easy. The challenge comes in actually investing less in the lower priority outcomes. This is where discipline pays off. This is where having the right people at the table who can actually enforce the desired allocation of scarce resources pays off.
Without that discipline you may have a prioritized set of outcomes but you end up investing in them all equally. Or, worse, one of the junior outcomes gets more than top priorities simply because it has a more effective champion representing it! Effective web strategy is built upon a statement of intent and your wherewithal to implement that intent will determine your success or failure.
This is why I like using the concept of a driving force web strategy that determines the content, design and functionality of your site more than any other factor. It forces the conversation on priority and gives you a strong implementation path for making it a reality. I cover this in great depth in my book, Online and On Mission: Practical Web Strategy for Breakthrough Results.
Remember, no web strategy fails on the white board. Failure will happen during execution of the strategy, so make sure you stack the deck in your favor by exerting discipline in your outcomes prioritization.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | 2 Comments
August 4, 2009
Online and On Mission Interview
My new book is coming out in a bit over a week. Titled Online and On Mission: Practical Web Strategy for Breakthrough Results, you can pre-order from the publisher now or pick one up in person at ASAE’s annual meeting in Toronto.
Seth Kahan, who helps visionary leaders get traction for their big ideas, was kind enough to interview me about the book last week. I have added the video to the Facebook fan page I set up for the book. Watch the vid and become a fan to get updates on content and events related to the book.
Permanent Link | Subscribe via RSS | Subscribe via Email | Comment
+1 (410) 742-9088 | david@highcontext.com
Copyright © 2010 High Context Consulting
Privacy Policy: HCC will never share your information with anyone without your permission.