The first month of the year is drawing to a close, but we are still curious to hear what others are saying about the state of the web in 2012. While technology may seem like it moves at the speed of light, we can count on Internet sales and marketing to adapt as needed. As search engine marketing experts are supercharging visitor engagement though social media and content marketing, website owners are taking note and making big changes. This is the year in which quality content is necessary for not only search engine optimization, but visitor engagement, conversion, and retention as well.

Keyword-Stuffing No Longer Works

A few years ago, it was quite easy for your website to secure a top ranking in search engines and drive a lot of traffic just by writing content loaded with keywords. Website content authors took advantage of this and would seize every opportunity to insert a keyword here and there to ensure prime real estate in Google’s search results. However, instead of finding the answer or solution to your search query, oftentimes what was returned to you was empty, meaningless content.

Take, for example, the following sentence: “We are an Indianapolis company located in Indianapolis, which is in the central part of Indiana, which is where many other Indianapolis companies reside.”

Although this is a bit of an exaggeration, it is obvious that this sentence was written to merely drive traffic and rank high in search results. Many websites might have performed well with this optimization trickery, but it has proven to be an ineffective and insincere method. Now that our search engines have gotten smarter and have upgraded their algorithms to sniff out lousy websites, website content authors can no longer rely on keywords.

Don’t get me wrong, though: keywords still are an important factor in the SEO equation. You still need to focus on strong keywords and terms to acquire new visitors to your website. However, now you really need to strategize about how your website content is going to engage, convert, and retain these visitors.

Engage Your Visitors

Your content should speak to the needs of your target audience and present solutions to their problems. Likewise, it should also entice your visitor to want to learn more about your company, products, and services. To take your engagement to the next level, set up a social media and email marketing strategy that will allow you to interact with your visitors on a more authentic level.

Convert Your Prospects

If you write content without regard to what it is your visitors are looking for, then what’s the point? It’s like throwing bait into a lake without putting it on a hook. By focusing on quality content, you create more opportunities to engage and earn the respect, trust, and (hopefully) the desire of those who visit your website. And when you have the respect, trust, and desire of your visitors, you are more likely to turn that opportunity into a golden one and, more importantly, that prospect into a loyal customer.

Retain Your Customers

It is important to plan to update your website content accordingly to keep it fresh and relevant not only in the search engines’ indexes, but in your visitors’ minds as well. By getting your visitor to come back to your website on a consistent basis, you know that your company will come to mind whenever they have a need for your products or services, regardless of search engine rank. Likewise, make sure the social media and email marketing strategies you have in place engage all of your visitors.

How will you engage, convert, and retain your website visitors this year? Please share your thoughts with us – we welcome the discussion!

This meeting should be conducted, at the very least, by the project manager and the client project sponsor. This is a meeting that is very important to the project and all the stakeholders involved, so the discipline to have this meeting is critical. Oftentimes the biggest issue with any project is the lack of communication and awareness; a simple solution to this issue is a short status meeting. This meeting should last anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour based on the complexities and timeline. Here are some simple highlights of what can be accomplished in this meeting:

1. Completed Tasks – List the items that have been done since the last status meeting.
2. Budget – Where is the project as it relates to budget? The project manager needs to showcase budget spent, budget remaining, and budget estimated at completion.
3. Upcoming Tasks – What tasks are being worked on between now and the next status meeting?
4. Issues – Don’t be afraid to showcase the issues. Every project has issues and they need to be managed. So make sure you showcase the issues and the solutions in place to fix each one.

If you are able to communicate at least these four things to a client every week, then your project should not offer any surprises. Also, if you think about it, these four things are being discussed every day of the project. Putting together these daily discussed items into a document for a client is not only an easy process, but a valuable 15-60 minutes spent.

Design is the most important part of any website or software project because it’ll impact the user experience. Don’t get me wrong, without the database, the software code, the testing and everything else “under the hood” the application won’t work so I don’t want to give the impression that those aren’t important because they are. But it’s the user interface design that allows a user to interact with all that functionality and put it to work.

But does functionality drive design or does design drive functionality? Ultimately, they need to come together at the same time. We have taken on development projects and the designs for the user interface were already complete but the functional requirements have not even been defined yet. We have also taken on design projects where everything has been developed but nothing has been designed yet. These have each created obstacles and some rework.

The ideal situation is to make it a collaborative effort. Design teams and development teams have to work in unison and the best way to do that is to get all sides engaged from the very beginning. When the functional requirements are being defined you would want the development team and the design team discussing how each requirement will function as it relates to the overall experience while being mindful of the budget. Once the functionality has been defined then both developers and designers go into their corners and work on their next deliverables while the business analyst starts writing the use cases (or user stories) for those requirements. The user interface designers now know how the application will be architected and what the solution needs to be so they are able to take those requirements and start creating the wireframes. Each wireframe will be designed so the functional requirements can be met. After all this is complete then the beauty starts by creating the graphical design which now matches the wireframes which matches the functional requirements.

“But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious” – Vince Lombardi

As a company we hope we are able to make a profound impact on the lives of our employees and the companies we serve. But to step back and realize that a company that you built made an impact on the world and made it a better place would be remarkable. Steve Jobs has worked his heart out for a good cause and has reached the finest hour every person desires and he can now lay on the field of battle – victorious.

Thank you, Steve Jobs.

1. Our Rail and highway Accessibility
2. Being a Leader in the Economic Recovery

Mitch Roob, Indiana’s former Secretary of Commerce, said it best when he was quoted that the, “push for speed and certainty” were critical to job growth. Since 2005, Indiana has made a great investment in improving their infrastructure, the services it provides, and the investment in business growth. These commitments have helped propel Indiana as an entrepreneurial giant.

Personally, I moved to Indiana 9 years ago and could not think of a better state to own a business. I often tell the story that when I started Galvin I only knew a handful of people in the area but the city wrapped its arms around me. The business climate here helped me grow Galvin to be a regional player. So many individuals and companies took a chance with Galvin and I would like to think that we did pretty well with servicing them to get where we are now.

I am thoroughly impressed with our state and city leaders and the emphasis they have put on economic development and creating a business-friendly environment. On the state level, we have good leaders in office who understand the importance of a strong economic climate. On the city of Indianapolis level, Mayor Ballard is positioning Indianapolis to be a very attractive to corporations so they not only stay here, but move their companies here.

Over the past three years I have truly enjoyed working with many of these organizations and government leaders. Not only is the experience great but the education I received by “seeing the inside” of the operations has been awesome. So I want to give accolades to a few of our clients who help make Indiana and Indianapolis a great place to do business in:

In 2008 Galvin designed and developed the website for Mitch Daniels' Governor Campaign

Galvin did the website design and development for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard

Galvin's website design and development for Indianapolis' economic development group - DevelopIndy

The Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce Website Design and Development

Imagine going to your city’s downtown area, taking out a bullhorn, and randomly yelling, “Who wants a [fill in your company service or product here]?” You would most likely have people walking away from you and making sure they don’t come across you in the future. But if you took that bullhorn to a specific target market or industry event and asked the same question, you would have better success gaining people’s interest. By tailoring your website content to be more specific, you will get better business development results.

Your website is the perfect platform to easily communicate and market to your prospects. If you write your content with a scattershot approach, you will not be able to capture the attention of your target audience. But if you are able to define who your specific target is and then write website content specifically for them, you will increase your prospect engagement levels.

Creating a Persona
A persona is a sketch of the type of customer or prospect you serve. By understanding who your audience is and what interests or obstacles they face, and then tailoring your content with valuable insights to that, you will have the right people engaged with your website and your company. By providing valuable and consistent content tailored to their wants and desires, it will make people eager to come back to your website to consume more.

Here are 6 ways to better define a persona:

• Who is the Decision Maker? – Your website content might be heavily read by the individuals who want to buy from you, but it could be their boss who makes the decisions to go with you. Understand who the decision maker is for each persona.
• Define the industry they are in – By tailoring your content to a specific industry, you will be able to better resonate your solution to specific interests of problems that their industry faces.
• What are their interests? – Create a list of topics that this persona would be interested in. By working with your business development team or marketing team, you can quickly understand what topics are being brought up the most.
  Also, by reading industry blogs and attending industry events, you will begin to see trends in your persona’s interest.
• What is their job title or function – Your list of potential job titles for this persona could get quite large. Make sure you narrow it down to a few specific job titles. I read a stat that 64% of people read content that is specific to their job title.
• Company Size – Is the company large or small? Try to be specific here. A company with 450 employees may be considered large to one person, but small to another. So try to make the company size more specific by documenting the annual revenue or employee number of the company this persona works in.
• Where are they located? – Define the geography of this persona. They can be in a specific city or region. By defining the location of your persona, you will have much better success with laser-focusing your content.

What Does Your Persona Want to Read?
Now that you know who your persona is, you want to understand what information they want to retain from you. Look closely at your persona and you will be able to easily identify what keeps them up at night or what information they are looking for. Now you will be able to write your content specifically for these items and how your company’s solutions can help the persona.

Here are 3 ways to help you know what to write about:

• What are their problems? – Create a list of the problems or challenges your persona faces.
• What are your solutions? – Match your solution to each problem.
• Are they familiar with my topic? – On a scale of 1 to 10, determine how simple or complex your content should be.

By creating personas and understanding what they want to read about, you will be able to narrowly focus your website content for better success. You have ultimately reduced the amount of variables while increasing the visitor retention to your website, and ultimately created a stronger and more trustworthy relationship. There is not a limit to the amount of personas your company can focus on, so create as many as necessary. Also, as an idea, at Galvin we use a spreadsheet to document our personas, which gets tailored often. It’s a simple spreadsheet with a row along the top that lists the persona’s attributes and interests; on the left, there is a column that lists each persona we want to target. Make sure you visit this spreadsheet often and keep it updated.

Sales and marketing is an initiative of corporate websites and the content on those websites need to nurture and “close” the visitor. Here are 3 simple suggestions on how to portray free versions of your software.

Set Expectations
Free trials are oftentimes necessary for SaaS solutions playing in a competitive arena. But whether you are giving it away for free or for cost make sure you set the expectation on what is included in the version you are going to sign up for. Below are two examples from Salesforce.com and Surveymonkey.com.

Salesforce.com creates a grid view of their various versions and what the user will expect in each of those versions.

SurveyMonkey.com shows exactly what the user will receive with their free version and paid versions.

Don’t Overcomplicate. Less Might be Better
Most likely your SaaS solution has complexities that take time for the user to learn and understand. Don’t feel that you have to provide these in the free version. Although these features might set you apart from the rest the mere complexities of them could overwhelm the user and thus give the impression that your software is too complex and not easy to use. Give the user enough features to wet their pallet on the potential of your software for them to use during their trial period. Remember, you are still in “sales” mode and you ultimately want the user to buy from you. Give the user enough to get them interested to move onto the next stage of your sales cycle.

Remember to Upsell
For the features that are turned off in the free version you should still provide an experience so the user can learn about the features they don’t have but could have. If you have a feature in your free trial version that is not accessible then allow a user to click that feature so they are sent to a page that explains the benefits of that feature if they buy or upgrade.

In closing, your free trial version is to help the user become a paying client. When a free version is being used they are simply trying it out. When you get a free sample at the grocery store you only get a sampling but that is what you expect. They don’t expect a 3 course meal and you wouldn’t give them one. Keep it simple, don’t overwhelm them and keep helping them.

The 2011 Galvin Cup trophy

On September 16, 2011 at The Trophy Club forty golfers competed in the second annual Galvin Cup. The Galvin Cup is an annual tournament organized by Galvin Technologies. It is not a scramble but rather a Ryder Cup Style tournament with the following format:

• 40 players split into 2 teams – Red Team and Blue Team
• 3 Round Format
• Holes 1-6: Best Ball
• Holes7-12: Alternate Shot
• Holes 13-18: Match Play

The team that wins the round gets a point.

As the golfers were coming in to return their scorecard the scoreboard kept going back and forth between the Red team and the Blue team. Everyone knew this was going to be a close match. When the final scorecard was turned in the tournament ended in a 20-20 tie. A 4 foot putt wasn’t able to seal the deal for the Blue Team so both teams were at a standstill. At this point everyone was eating their dinner and decided that a coin flip was the best way to decide the winning team. The coin landed with heads up which meant the Red Team won!!

Thanks to everyone who played and we look forward to seeing you at next year’s Cup. We appreciate all participants, especially those who traveled from Ohio, Chicago, Tennessee and Michigan.

Remember those websites from the 90’s that were only updated when their company address changed and the messaging was all about them? The homepage would say “Welcome to Our Home Page” followed by four paragraphs about how great they think they are. Try acting like that at a party or social event and you’ll have a hard time getting people to want to hang around you or build a relationship with you (Brian Reagan explains it best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiUsfEkVRDY ).

We build relationships differently these days with the creation of social media, blogging, online video, etc. and our relationships ultimately have a demand for quality content instantly. Now there is a wonderful opportunity to deliver what people want and to use content to develop strong, progressive, deep, and lasting relationships through your website.

When you walk into a social setting, you are going to avoid engaging with the people who talk about themselves. Rather, you’re going to find the individuals who you can have a narrative, engaging, and meaningful conversations with so you both leave fulfilled. Ever met someone new and left saying to someone else, “he’s a good guy to talk to. I look forward to hanging out with him again”? This is the experience you want with your website. Writing content can’t be a task of just putting words on a page to fill up space, but rather a way of establishing ongoing communications and experiences between your company and your website visitors. Having content strategies that are strategic, measured, and planned with meaningful substance is going to create an experience that will want people to come back to your website for more.

Just like when you meet someone new at a party, you’re just starting the relationship and can easily evaluate whether to move forward with it or not. Your website visitors are doing the same thing. Of people who visit your website, 10% are ready to get engaged with you, but if you’re consistent with building those online relationship with value-added content, over the course of 12-months that number will go up to 87% (source: B2B magazine, 2004).

To get people engaged with your website, Facebook profile, or Twitter account, you need meaningful and consistent content. The days are gone when simply updating your website once or twice a year with new content was acceptable. Consider this, if your friend only called you once a year for five minutes it’s going to be difficult to develop a close relationship beyond the surface. The same thing is true with your website content. If you’re updating your website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts with persuasive, educational, and thought-provoking content on a frequent basis, you are on a good path of getting people engaged with your website and ultimately your company.

I consider that my office is decorated quite simple. There are whiteboards that cover whole walls, my Mad Men wall calendar, a roll-up putting green, a baseball bat from the 2006 Detroit Tigers, drawings from my kids and photos of my family. But in front of me is a wall of inspirational quotes that I have heard or I have read. The quotes don’t look too fancy on my wall but are simply cut outs from Microsoft word documents. “One who fears failure limits his activities” has been on my wall since 2006 and it’s right at eye level for me to see everyday. As individuals it’s easier for us to do nothing but each of us have a drive and passion for something important. If we don’t do anything nothing will happen. But if we are able to clear the clutter, stay focused and continue to push ourselves great things will happen.