Effective Websites JOSHUA REYNOLDS, PRESIDENT JTECH COMMUNICATIONS 2014 JTECH COMMUNICATIONS JTECHCO

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1 Effective Websites JOSHUA REYNOLDS, PRESIDENT JTECH COMMUNICATIONS

2 Overview 1. Purpose 2. Planning 3. Budgeting 4. Promotion 5. Conclusion

3 Purpose

4 Question: What is a website to your organization?

5 Purpose Website definition: A virtual place to do business. Think big: Your site can make and save you significant money while serving your audiences better. Doing business online can serve audiences across all departments. Build and then enhance your site over time so that it serves its intended targets well. Stock, staff, manage your site as if it were a branch office.

6 Purpose Takeaways: Think of your site as a highly convenient, inexpensive place to do business. Think big. Site should serve multiple audiences. Questions on purpose?

7 Planning

8 Planning First, Who: Target Audiences Walk through entire food chain of stakeholders from prospects to vendors, then break into subgroups. Example:

9 Planning Second, Why: Goals of Website Look at each audience (in order) and think of how you can use the site to serve them better. Use this to build goals. Use goals for inspiration for ideas of what to do.

10 Planning Example: Benefactors Goal: Have potential benefactors contact organization. Ideas: Provide benefactors with information about bequests, memorial gifts, honorary gifts, etc. Provide downloadable legal documents to make it easy for individuals to create bequests. Provide interactive form for potential benefactors to open dialog with organization.

11 Planning Example: Patients Goal: Allow patients to serve themselves as much as possible. Ideas: Provide a patient portal where patient can login to see and interact with information specific to them. Provide interactive system for patients to be able to complete pre-admission forms digitally online. Provide area where post-procedural instructions and interactive checklists are available for each patient individually inside the private patient portal.

12 Planning Third, What: Site Structure & Features Too much to cover, this is a very high-level overview. Recommend hiring a professional. Determine site organization and hierarchy. Be careful with depth. Add navigational enhancements as necessary. Define process workflows for interactive areas.

13 Planning Takeaways: Before defining the structure of the site, first define who it s for and your goals for these groups. Once you ve defined goals, use them goals for ideas. Questions on planning?

14 Budgeting

15 Question: If a website is a virtual place to do business, why is Marketing paying for everything?

16 Budgeting Website build budget should be a capital expense: building another place to do business. Budget ownership typically with Marketing or IT but put where appropriate. Multiple departments involved based on budget category. If using RFP, need to internally plan project first to get any sort of apples-to-apples responses.

17 Budgeting Budget Categories: Initial build: planning, development, copy creation, photography, data integration. Maintenance: hosting costs, support. Promotion: PR & news, social, mass mailing, search optimization, online advertising. Enhancements: annual improvements and additions.

18 Budgeting Conclusions: Budget capital expense up front, followed by ongoing developmental improvements, maintenance and promotion. Based on your particular organization s needs, allocate budget to appropriate departments. Questions on Budgeting?

19 Promotion

20 Question: Do you promote your website?

21 Promotion Understanding Promotion: No one will go to your website accidentally. You must get each and every visitor there through promotional efforts. Virtually all of your offline promotional efforts should be attempting to get the prospect to your website. In addition to all existing promotional efforts, online promotional efforts are critical for your audiences to find your site. Search engines, while important, are just websites you can use to promote your own site. Social media must be used wisely to have positive results. Always use social to drive traffic to your website.

22 Promotion Online Promotion Includes: Planning & cohesive strategy Public Relations (PR): News & announcements Press releases Mass mailings Newsletters Social PR analysis & management Search Engine Optimization (SEO): On-page optimization Off-page optimization Link building Directory listing building Landing pages/sites Social SEO analysis & management

23 Promotion (Continued): Online Promotion Includes Search Marketing Pay-per-click campaigns Banner/graphical advertisements Ad placement and buying And on, and on. Just like in planning the site itself, plan the promotion of the site to best fit your needs, target markets and budget. Social SEM analysis and management

24 Promotion Conclusions: Search engines and social media websites aren t magic, they re just tools to promote your site. Online promotion is important to realize the potential value of your site. There are many, many methods and tools that can and should be used to promote your site. Create a plan. Questions?

25 Conclusion(s)

26 Conclusion(s) Think of your site as a place to do business. Plan your site to serve your desired audiences and achieve your goals. Budget your site as a capital expense. Promote your site to realize its potential. Questions?