Much like implementing other significant changes to an organization, integrating your website and CRM with your sales processes is best approached in steps. The first step is to collect and manage the information of the users that visit your website. The easiest and least expensive way to do this is via the Web-to-Lead capabilities of your CRM. Web-to-Lead generally refers to a link between the website and CRM that allows information entered on the website to be transferred to the CRM automatically.

Of course there are many different possibilities as to where you could collect this information on your website. The most common location will likely be via a contact us type form. In this instance, the form is already built and functioning. This means that only the link between the two systems needs to be in place.

Another common place to collect this information is prior to allowing your website users to download something from the site itself. This might be a white paper, video, or application download. Due to the data collection form that needs to be in place, this is a more advanced approach, but not overly complicated and definitely something that you should consider if you already have users interacting with your web site in this way.

Once the data is in place within your CRM, what do you do with it? This is where a general understanding of your sales processes is critical. You’ll want to clearly define who owns the follow up for each lead that comes in via the website. For some organizations, this can be decided by zip code or service/product type. Regardless, of how you categorize the leads and assign ownership, it is very important to do so. Going through the effort to collect the information and then not having a process in place to handle that information in a timely and meaningful manner is counterproductive to the end goal of retaining or finding quality clients!

This is simplest and most cost effective way to start maximizing what your website and CRM can do for your organization. Do these things and I”m confident that you’ll start to have some success in generating new clients and retaining your existing ones. Once there is some momentum in the right direction, it becomes much easier for most organizations justify the investment that comes with a more robust integration between the website, CRM, and sales processes.

Web Development

• The Internet celebrated April Fools’ Day with a variety of pranks. Which one was your favorite from the web?
• Internet Explorer gains 1 percentage point during March while Chrome loses a third of a percentage point. Will IE stay ahead?
• Using CSS3 can make your emails stand out. Not only is the presentation visually nicer, but it makes your email stand out.
• Does Firefox have a future? It’s hard to tell after the latest reviews of Firefox 11. What do you think?

Project Management

• How do you know if a project has been finished successfully? Here are 6 factors to consider when measuring success.
• Conducting a lessons learned meeting doesn’t have to be boring. Consider using social media to capture feedback from your team.
• Are you a project manager who’s drowning in deliverables? Be sure to focus on what’s crucial to stay afloat.
• There is more than one way to tackle project management. Consider these different approaches when managing a project.

Interactive Design

• How important is a mobile strategy in web design? It’s actually quite important since mobile matters more than ever.
• What makes a design intuitive? Jared Spool at An Event Apart shares why some users need to be treated differently than others.
• Attention designers: have you ever heard someone say during a design review, “I hate green!” Here’s how to manage the feedback.
• Facebook hires the best designers and knows how to keep them happy. What can we learn from their strategy?

Software Engineering

• The instagram app is now available for Android users! How does it compare to the app on the iPhone?
• Microsoft updates SharePoint 10, which now supports Chrome and Firefox. However, IE6 is now dropped and is no longer supported.
• Microsoft will also open source ASP.NET API. Developers can now fix bugs and have their code vetted by the mega-software company.
• What’s auto-coding? Computer scientists try out this concept in software engineering by by automating the coding process.

How can you do this?

While it requires time and effort to truly accomplish online marketing efforts to drive people to your website, there are numerous ways to quickly and inexpensively drive more traffic to your website. Here are 4 tasks that every sales person should being doing now:

1. Join the Q&A Discussions on Social Forums – People are asking questions and looking for answers on LinkedIN and Twitter. If you are able to help them, do so! As you answer their questions, see if you are able to send them to a resourceful article or document on your website that will help to answer their question. The hope here is that the added exposure to your organization will win them over.
2. Share Content (Both Old and New) –Just because it wasn’t written in the last week doesn’t mean it is not valuable anymore. As you produce content, you are building up a library of resourceful information that others will find valuable. Try digging through your archives to find older posts that you would want to send out to your followers from time to time. Likewise, remember to use your Twitter account to push out new content releases to your followers.
3. Add a Personal Touch through Email – When you are on the sales trail, you are likely to keep in touch with your prospects. Make a habit of sending them an article of interest from your website or blog on a regular basis. This adds value to the content that you’ve already generated while providing an opportunity to reach out to prospects. Also, as you move your prospect through your sales funnel try to identify the content on your website that can best suite their interests
4. Take Advantage of Auto Reply – If your website is integrated with a CRM solution, you should make sure that your auto reply is configured correctly. This simply means that when a visitor fills out a contact form, they should receive an automated reply from you. This automated reply should include resourceful links that will direct them back to your website.

By incorporating these 4 simple tasks into your weekly sales processes, you’ll not only be able to drive traffic to your website, but you’ll also be able to prove yourself as a valuable resource to your contacts.

Web Development

• Firefox 12 beta has made more than 85 changes to its developer tools, including updates to media controls. Likewise, users will no longer get alerts for updates!
• Last month at the Mobile World Congress, Opera announced its new browser, which will include some HTML5 functionality. How do you think it will compare?
• HTML5 standards are far from perfect, so we can definitely empathize with this list of 5 hated things in HTML5.
• What kind of browser tools are essential in the world of web development? Check out this list of tools that professionals in the industry recommend.

Project Management

• Setbacks, such as red tape, can halt a project. We enjoyed this project management tip of the day to explain how to get your project going.
• Pessimistic attitudes may be what’s holding your team back from success. Does having an optimistic team lead to greater project success?
• Check out these five ways to optimize your projects and resources. It’s important to know where your people are and where they should be.
• How do you rein in a runaway IT project? For starters, be sure to stick to the schedule, even when your business conditions change!

Interactive Design

• Stitching, forked ribbons, and zigzags, oh my! What do these all have in common? Well, if you’re a web designer, you might have caught on to these web design trends.
• Do condensed fonts leave you feeling cramped, maybe even a little claustrophobic? Here’s the the good, the bad, and the ugly of using squeezed typography.
• “How do we set our client up for success beyond just the initial launch of a new website?” Check out this letter to branding agencies that’s worth reading.
• Understanding the elements of navigation is essential in understanding how your users are finding information. What do you think?

Software Engineering

• How does iPad app development compare to Windows 8 app development? Microsoft develops a case study to compare and contrast the two.
• Who are the real victims in the software patent wars? We enjoyed this discussion as to what patents are hurting small startups.
• Software development CAN be fast, effective, and intelligent. Do you believe in this possibility?
• More than 80% of modern software includes open source components. How do you develop open-source software within any kind of company?

Web Development

• CEO of the World Wide Web Consortium, Jeff Jaffe, shares his predictions for the future of web technology. Are we about to experience a generational change with HTML5?
• Adobe prepares to relace Creative Suite 6, which will give developers cloud subscription tools and design tools that use Web Standards. How do you think these features are measuring up?
• Do you have web history enabled? Google’s new feature now gives users the ability to view their recent searches from PC to mobile (and vice versa).
• Mobile web development just got simpler! Adobe Shadow lets you synchronize browsing between your mobile devices, PCs, and tablets to check content display.

Project Management

• We enjoyed this interview with a 20-year veteran of the project management field; it gives a better glimpse into what it takes to be a project manager.
• As any project manager knows, there are many lessons to take away from every project. However, there are many lessons one can learn from a career in project management.
• How do you handle risk? Our senior project manager, Crissy Koger, shares her experiences with a project that forced her to navigate through less than ideal circumstances.
• “If it IS broke, fix it.” Where do you draw the line between project management and task management?

Interactive Design

• What does the demise of Flash mean for the user experience? As HTML5 swiftly dominates web design and the need for responsive design grows, it will be interesting to see how this will affect web visitors.
• “Clean” isn’t such a dirty word for designers. Thinking twice about what the word “clean” means can lead to valuable feedback, regardless if it’s an overused term in web design.
• With the release of Adobe’s Shadow, it’s a dream come true! It is now easier to design unified websites that are responsive in both PC and mobile devices.  Will you be using Shadow?
• What was design like before computers?  It’s hard to paint a world without our machines. But let’s just say the design process was completely different in the “good ol’ days”!

Software Engineering

• Yahoo is claiming they invented Facebook by filing a patent infringement lawsuit. Is this another sign that software patents are getting out of control – what do you think?
• Is software development a commodity? We enjoyed these 3 tips that will convince management that software development IS important to your business.
• Salesforce releases new products during the Cloudforce conference, including Rypple, a employee performance tracking tool that removes the need for employer’s conducting periodic reviews.
• The focus on how the software makes the user ‘feel’ can have coders & designers butting heads, which is to be expected. But why exactly does this happen?

Image source

I can’t lie: I love words.

Since I was old enough to pick up a crayon, I was writing three- and four-letter words on my parents’ manila-colored living room walls. In red, magenta, and various shades of Crayola pink, I scribbled the words ‘cat’ and ‘mommy’ with such pride on antiqued walls, only to be disciplined for not doing this appropriately on paper. I learned my lesson to never write on walls again, but that didn’t stop me from picking up another crayon (or perhaps a pencil, pen, and, these days, a keyboard) to construct bigger words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into essays, stories, poems, et cetera. Through the years, I have learned to embrace my love of the English language and have treated writing equally as a hobby for pleasure and a skill for growth.

The Perils of Writing

However, like anyone else who writes, I have struggled to accept my carefully composed words as an accurate representation of my thoughts and emotions. When you use words, you have to be mindful of what they mean. Writing is a craft that does not apologize for misinterpretation or lack of clarity. It is easy to spend unnecessary time mulling over the structure of a sentence or the way two words roll around together in your mouth. Likewise, it’s even easier to waste time erasing, scratching out, and pressing the backstroke key too many times when that perfect juxtaposition of nouns and adjectives never arrives.

As someone who relishes in words and analyzes the impact of each in blogging, social media, and content marketing, I knew two things to be true: words are precious and time cannot be wasted. After acknowledging my struggles, I decided to change the way I approached my writing process, especially when it comes to blogging.

What did I change? Just like with everything else in life, I’ve come to realize that planning is everything.

Planning is Everything

The Narrower the Topic, the Better

When I know I’ll be assigned with the task of writing a blog article such as this, I will allot myself 20 minutes to brainstorm topics related to the month’s chosen theme. When selecting a blog topic, I try to avoid broad topics that have room to fit 10, 25, or 50 blog posts. For example, I wouldn’t just write about copywriting; I would write about how you can create an effective editorial calendar to keep your content fresh. Narrowing the focus keeps YOU focused.

As a rule of thumb, if I can summarize the topic in a sufficiently brief headline, then it’s a doable writing prompt. My brainstorming routine usually involves me spitting out these brief headlines in either two 10-minute increments or just one 20-minute session. From there, I not only have several topics to choose from, but I’ve got content ideas to table for future use.

Everything is in the Details

Once I’ve selected my blog topic (and know that it fits within this month’s theme), I do another brainstorming session that allows me to summarize my thoughts into three to five supporting details to back it up.  As a visual learner, this method has proved the most successful for me.  It not only helps me visualize each thought, but it forces me to think about how each one relates to the main idea and other supporting details.

I am free to arrange the order of as I see fit; I can usually trust my first supporting detail to be the most important.  I will cross out any that overshadow my main point or are just too broad to serve as a supporting detail.  Rearranging the supporting details in the most logical way can be the most challenging part of this brainstorming process, but once you are able to understand how to transition from one point to the next, the process of writing will flow more freely.

Cite Your Sources, Please!

If you are writing to lead, persuade, or educate your audience, then back up your supporting ideas with credible sources. Especially if you’re citing specific facts, steer clear of plagiarism by always stating the source and linking back appropriately to any verbatim you borrow.

It’s also important to know when to cite sources. If you cite too much, it may come across to your audience that you have no valuable opinion or advice on the subject. If you don’t cite enough, your audience might hesitate to trust your words. As a rule of thumb, if you don’t know it, quote it. Always cite sources for facts that are not common knowledge among your intended audience.

If I need to cite sources, I begin digging into my topic a little deeper by doing research. Research is a tricky area for copywriters. Do you do it before or while you write? If you find at least 80% of your sources before you begin writing, you limit the possibility of interruption.  It’s so easy to open up a web browser to search for something to only find yourself enchanted for hours by warm glow of Facebook or Pinterest.  Don’t let this happen!

Remember: the more you plan, the more focused you are.  The more focused you are, the better the writing experience.

Let the Blogging Begin

Now that I’ve picked a topic, selected my three to five supporting details, and have a list of sources to use, the writing process feels like a breeze. I can write without tapping the delete button repeatedly for fear of my message getting misinterpreted or misunderstood. I no longer struggle to tie one point to the next. There is rhyme to my blogging rhythm.

There is no magic formula when it comes to writing, but planning gives you a place to organize your thoughts. Planning has brought clarity to mine, allowing me to drive my main message across the finish line in a timely fashion. I am a much more productive writer who doesn’t get overwhelmed with the ghastly power of words.

I am thankful for my struggles. Now I am writing smarter, not harder.

What’s your biggest struggle with blogging and how were you able to overcome it?

Web Development

• Deciding which mobile development route to take can be a tricky ordeal. You should take HTML5 or native based on the type of traffic the webite has.
• We enjoyed this public service announcement from A List Apart: Every Time You Call a Proprietary Feature “CSS3″, a Kitten Dies.
• Fluid typography is a possible feat in CSS3. Are you using rem and media queries yet?
• IE8 fell below 20% while Chrome pushed ahead of Firefox at almost 30% in the month of February. How do you think March will compare?
• Does strategy lead to a better customer experience? This article got our heads turning as to whether or not content needs one.
• The first step to making your website the center of your content universe is to control your brand, which includes every social media platform.

Project Management

• Change management is an integral part of managing business projects. But how does it fit exactly into the project management spectrum?
• Does the success rate of projects improve when a project manager has not only a management mindset, but a leadership and entrepreneurial one as well?
• We enjoyed this list of a project manager’s rights and responsibilities. Would you add anything to the list?
• Failure in software projects happens too often, but could failure be mitigated by replacing outdated software processes with better ones?
• If project managers know what needs changing, should it be their job to fix the company?

Interactive Design

• Are you designing responsively for the world wide web? It’s actually quite simpler than you think!
• Attention web designesr: are you bored with SiFR, Cufon, or Typekit? Custom web typography can now be created with Google Font API.
• “Design isn’t just wireframes or visual style; it’s about the product as a whole.” Sahil Lavingia shares his less than complicated design philosophy.
• How can you keep your users on the usability yellow brick road? Designing visual paths to guide a user from one element to another is a great way to start.
• How do maintain your website’s audience? It’s not just about developing original content, but ensuring the best possible “reading experience”.
• Are you a victim of creative endowment? Let Don Draper show you how to start thinking about the customer experience.

Software Engineering

• Attention developers: forget the Myers-Briggs test, what’s your programmer personality type? Check out the 13 subspecies of the programmer.
• Do you shudder at the thought of drag-and-drop tools? We enjoyed this look at users taking hold of dumbed-down software development tools to carry out testing.
• Want a piece of space? NASA is to auction some of its patents related to software code, giving lucky buyers exclusive rights to many exciting technologies.
• We definitely agree hiring a programmer isn’t just about administering some coding tests or looking at a porftolio. It’s also about making sure he or she is a cultural fit.

It’s that time again and I’ve been asked to write another post.  This month we’ve been asked to theme our posts around “love”. What do we love about our industry, job, processes, and so forth.  When I mentioned to my boss that I had to write a blog post about “what I love about being a project manager”, he laughed… kind of hysterically, actually.  I asked, “Why are you laughing?”  To which he replied, as he couldn’t stop laughing,  “no reason”.

This got me thinking, Does my passion for being a project manager not shine through my personality?  Do I focus too much on what’s left to be completed, what hasn’t been tested/fixed, what’s wrong, etc. and not enough on the wins?  I mean, if my boss thinks I don’t love being a project manager, what does my team think?

Project management definitely has its stressful moments: budget, schedule, meeting expectations – just to name a few. Heck, we have a lot on our shoulders.  So, it can be easy to overlook all the great things about being a project manager.   So, here’s why I love being a project manager.

• I love teaching/helping people.
• I love making a difference.
• I love my team.

Teaching and Helping Others

As kids, I’m pretty sure no current day project said, “I want to be a project manager when I grow up!”  And neither did I. But, I did know that I wanted to be a part of technology and I enjoyed helping and teaching people.  No matter what I did, I always found myself in the position to teach people.  This passion started as early as elementary school.  I tutored younger grades and in high school, and I also took every computer type class they offered.  (In those days they were still pretty scarce…LOTUS 1-2-3, WordPerfect, just to name a few.) I also was one of the first students to use the Internet, which allowed me to help students and teachers learn.  When I got to college, I majored in Computer Technology and even taught a freshman computer course for three semesters.

I just wasn’t sure exactly what job would fulfill both of those loves: helping people and technology.

Enter in project management.

As a project manager, I like helping people figure things out. I enjoy training them on new things in the wondrous world of technology. It makes me feel good to “teach people to fish” versus just giving them the fish n’ chips dinner.  I also have the pleasure of mentoring my fellow co-workers. I have a passion for hording knowledge. You never know when you are going to need it.

Making a Difference

As the senior project manager, I serve many roles to my clients:  I am their first line of defense, their knowledge base, their go-to person.  I really enjoy being able to meet a client’s deadline, exceed their expectations, and being able to help them solve their problems.  Some people may not like having this type of pressure, but I embrace it. I like to make things happen, both for my clients as well as in the office.  I think a great project manager learns to tote the line of knowing when to make executive decisions to get things done and when to ask for permission.  This is ‘key’ in getting things done.

Love Thy Team

But don’t let me take all the glory. In order to make a difference for clients, you have to have a great team. Without a supportive, motivated, and intelligent team, I would be nothing.  I learn the most from them.   But I also enjoy mentoring them as well.  As a project manager, I think we could all do better at giving accolades where they are needed and maybe focus more on what is right or has been completed rather than what’s wrong or hasn’t been done.

Looking back through my life, I was always a project manage.  Looking forward, I will always be one at heart, no matter what my job position is.  Even if I no longer have the title ‘project manager’, I’m sure I will always find a way to 1) teach and help people, 2) make a difference, and 3) have a supportive team.

Let’s hope that next year my boss doesn’t laugh when I say I have to write again about what I love about project management.

Design  For  With Clients

In my last eight years of being a designer I have had the opportunity to work with many different clients. Some clients will always be easier to work with than others, but for the most part I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to client relationships. The clients I love working with most are ones that are very interested and very eager to be a part of the process. Even from the most minuet details of a requirements workbook, clients who are excited about the entire process are the most enjoyable to work with. This is because the more involved a client is the more constructive feedback I can get. This translates into helping me fully understand who their company is and what their initial goals are. When they are open and willing to go through this process with me the design is always more successful.

You can help get your clients motivated by following these simple strategies:

1. Show them some really great designs that you think are successful right from the beginning. Odds are if they see something visual right from the start they will be more inclined to want to see visuals throughout the design phase.

2. If you find yourself in a design meeting and your client really isn’t communicating with you; start talking about how they want their customers to feel when they are in their office. That emotional attachment will get them talking about their company, and get you thinking about what the design should feel like.

3. When designing for the web one of the most important things is making sure the site functions how it’s supposed to. This means creating a long functional requirements document that isn’t fun to look at. If your clients aren’t looking at this and giving you the approvals you need, do some really quick sketches to add into the document. This will interrupt the content and hopefully not make them feel as overwhelmed.

Design is a huge part of my life, either in my everyday work with clients or creating work for family and friends. No matter who the work is for, design always serves a purpose and always has a problem to solve. The important part is to stay focused and keep your clients involved and interested through-out the process.

Web Development

• The terms “operating system” and “platform” are often used interchangeably in the technology industry. But should we be referring to Google’s Chrome OS as a platform?
• The World Wide Web is only 20 years old and people are already pining for its “good old days” of the web. We thought this discussion was pretty interesting as it questions the accessibility of today’s “bloated” websites.
• Did you know that QR codes can be beautiful? We didn’t know so, either. Web developers can start using these codes to their fullest potential by using URI schemes.
• Google is suffering from another black eye due to ‘Cookiegate’, or as some like to call it, ‘Safarigate’. What’s the deal with this exactly and how does it affect web privacy standards?

Project Management

• We know that adding more resources to a failing project won’t save it. So, we especially loved this article that explains why throwing money, including time and resources, at a problem won’t save it.
• Videos are a great way for project managers to capture low-performing or inefficient processes. Likewise, it may be just the proof you need to nudge project stakeholders in the right direction.
• How do you make sure you get requirements right 99% of the time? Check out what our senior project manager, Crissy Koger, recommends to accurately obtain them from clients.
• We thought this list of the 10 rules of project management was pretty spot on. We especially love #1: it’s always important to set and manage expectations up-front.
• Project managers should go with their gut, but they should do it cautiously. Making decisions on intuitive insights, after all, is risky business.

Interactive Design

• It’s almost the end of February, but it’s never too late to read what others are saying about web design trends for 2012.
• Determining what your clients really want is a task in itself. We thought these recommendations were a great way to start communicating more effectively with client.
• Designing for search engine optimization is the best way to promote your website to search engines. Designers have more power than they think to influence SEO and overall search rank.
• How do you avoid the ghost of decisions past? One way is to hold regular design reviews to keep the creative team engaged with design principles and constraints.

Software Engineering

• Mozilla announces that the Mozilla Marketplace will be open for developers to submit web apps, which will enable them to write a single app that runs across multiple devices and platforms.
• Microsoft has released the beta of ASP.NET MVC 4, which supports bundling and minification. In non-developer speak, this simply means developers can now build faster web apps on mobile devices.
• So do you want to be an app developer? Apple launches a new guidebook called “Start Developing iOS Apps Today” to help all those aspiring developers.
• Are we all coders? We enjoyed reading this article and hope you will, too.