Input is the foundation for a website and this worksheet should help identify the goals of a new site including audience, look and feel, functionality and content. You should allow every person involved in the project fill out his or her own form. Skip the questions not relevant to your project, and once all the information is gathered, collate into a single document and email it to solutions@theblueolive.com. We can help get your site off the ground or revise a tired and outdated site.

1. Project Scope
a. In order for Blue Olive to get to know your company a little better a brief background is needed. This will provide better insight into what you are looking to accomplish not just for your site but for you company.

b. This should be followed by a brief description of the project.

c. There should already be a budget set aside for your website so that miscommunication and disappointment is avoided. Budgets are a driving factor into what can and can’t be built and/or programmed.

2. Objectives
a. What do you wish to accomplish with your website? – a well thought out or defined goal must be considered if you want to build a successful site. Think things through, even if you start small, you can grow with ease if the site requires a particular approach or feature in the future.

b. What are the expectations of the website?

c. Do you want to sell a product online or will this be an extension to your traditional bricks and mortar business?

d. Will the website accompany a new product launch?

e. Do you want to collect information from your users (aka data mining) so that you can establish a better profile of them and have the ability to communicate with them via outgoing emails later?

f. Will you expect people to use search engines to find your site (if so SEO or search engine optimization should be budgeted) or will established customers use it for informational purposes?

3. Target and Project Management
a. Who is your company’s primary target audience? If Blue Olive has a profile it can be easier to plot out a design with that group in mind, so try to give us an idea about the audience including
     i. Age,
    ii. Gender,
   iii. Race,
   iv. Income level,
    v. Marital status, etc.

b. How often will the site be updated? CMS (Content Management System) tools allow for self management and therefore do not tether you to an agency when a small change is necessary.

4. Site Structure
a. Most companies don’t have a structure in mind when they contact Blue Olive. However, a structure, blue print, or site map is an important part of the price setting formula. Blue Olive can help you in that area but it’s always better to do some research on that particular topic so that you can determine the number of pages your site will be. Just like a collateral brochure with numerous pages is more expensive than a tri-fold, so too are many web pages. Browsing the internet for examples of sites you like and don’t like is very wise. This will also help you identify and define the major content areas.

b. Think about the navigation and how to keep it from being complex. People will quickly leave your site if it takes too long to find something or they feel lost within the site. While people want content, good web design will have the right balance between visual appeal, content, and usability. A website with an amateurish design will not provide credibility and visitors potentially won’t buy anything from an untrustworthy looking site.

c. Will you need a back-end to house encrypted information or manage an e-commerce site? If so purchase of an annual security certificate is a must to include in your budget.

5. Content
a. This needs to be at the top of the list. Use the site structure as an outline and then define the content for each page. Knowing how much copy and or visuals (aka content) needs to be housed on each page on the front end and ensure that the design will compensate.

b. Content is king and it is necessary for a site to be searchable. It should also drive users back to your site. Like we mentioned previously, a regularly updated website is a factor not to underestimate. A well updated site together with cleanly coded pages will get a higher ranking on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

c. If the budget allows, a professional copywriter is the best way to ensure your site communicates its message – Blue Olive can handle that too.

6. Summing It Up
a. Company Info
     i. Contact Information
    ii. Brief background of your company

b. Scope, objectives, and Target Audience
     i. Brief description of project
    ii. Goals and general scope of the project
   iii. Target audience, to whom the site is aimed

c. Budget & Time Frame
     i. Provide and estimated budget – allow additional dollars for complex sites or ecommerce sites
    ii. Include time frame or upcoming deadlines – the larger the site the longer it takes to build

d. Design Information
     i. Site Structure
    ii. Overview of design elements that should or must be considered
   iii. Corporate identity guidelines (if they exist for your company)
   iv. Examples of site you like and dislike (at lease three of each, good to use competitor sites as a point of reference as well)

This list may seem long, but in fact it’s more efficient to keep your answers brief and to the point. This list simply provides us a reference to get the communication started. Only in an ideal world would all the items be answered, so use this as a guide to talk with Blue Olive or to any firm providing you a website.

Need social marketing help.. stay tuned for the next blog.

Offline businesses that opt to own or lease space in a more remote area must spend more dollars in marketing and advertising so potential customers are aware they exist.  It’s truly a trade off.  And while there is no LOCATION advantage on the web, there is an ADDRESS advantage, but let’s face it by now there are NO short, easy, one-word URL names available, unless you want to spend big bucks buying a name from an address name “hi-jacker”.  So what’s a new business (or older, established one that didn’t buy a name years ago) to do? 

They must advertise and market their online business.  Driving potential customers to their online website is where the whole wide world is heading on the World Wide Web.

Page 1 – that’s every client that walks through my doors #1 goal and objective for their website and/or web business.  Getting there is time consuming and staying there is not inexpensive. Currently Google, the #1 search engine of choice as I write this blog,  states plain and clear in their own documentation that it can take anywhere from a year or more to get to Page 1.  Now keep in mind as you are working to get to Page 1 so are hundreds of thousands of other websites; so even when you get there you can’t be complacent.  You must continually work on your site to stay on Page 1.  Why, because Google says so and so do most of the other search engines, like Yahoo, and Bing.  They mostly recognize websites that are well maintained and have “fresh content” – that’s not to say a weed or two (old articles) doesn’t creep into the search, but they generally try to keep Page 1 offerings with the sites they deem are following their rules.

Lots of companies offer assistance for getting and staying on Page 1. Beware!!! Not all companies’ offerings are alike.  Be sure you know what you are buying or better yet, what you want, as services from provider to provider will vary dramatically.  Like … hamburgers. Yes I just said hamburgers.  You can buy a $1.00 hamburger from McDonald’s, a $7.50 hamburger from Chili’s, a $12.00 hamburger from Marriott Hotel & Spa’s restaurant 360, a $30 hamburger in New York City and most of you have a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in your home town or city that will have a great, juicy, delicious burger for around $5.00.  Each burger is palatable and priced right for its intended audience – however they really can’t be compared nor would you expect or demand the Marriott to match McDonald’s price just because they are right down the street from one another or because they are both hamburgers and should therefore be the same no matter who is cooking/serving them.

I like to think of our agency and interactive capabilities as equal to the hole-in-the-wall restaurant.  Most people don’t know we’re here but we have a very tasty product and those that dine with us, are provided a good product they enjoy, they are well taken care of and each meal is cooked to order – and while we aren’t located on Main Street some of our clients are ranked on Page 1.

My parenting style is not to everyone’s taste, I am strict, direct, set high expectations, yet not unrealistic, and as a working mom I am not available for every milestone or achievement, so when I am with my children I try to be extremely nurturing and focused to make up for all the time I’m away.  As I considered my parenting style it became quiet obvious to me that my professional style was parallel – and that not only was I raising 3 children, I am and have been raising dozens of client over the past 13 years as well.

As a small marketing and interactive firm, we don’t get Fortune 500 companies calling us to participate in an upcoming agency review. In fact, it is a rare occasion that we get an opportunity to work with a well seasoned company with a dedicated full-time vice-president of marketing or even a director of marketing who understands the agency’s role as a support to their goals and objectives. Most of our clients are newcomers to the advertising, marketing, and interactive arena and we spend much of the first year or two in a teaching mode.  While they aren’t in an infant stage, as they aren’t completely dependent on us, they are more in a toddler stage.  Our clients can do a few things for themselves, but are easily distracted and easily upset when we say “no” to some of the things they want, and like many toddlers even after being told “no” they will attempt to do it themselves and later understand the consequences. Unfortunately just like toddlers, those lessons learned don’t usually apply to new wants and wishes.

While I do miss the days before I became a parent and business owner, when I was living in Atlanta and later in Nashville, working for large agencies in production and account management and some of my clients were, Marriott Hotels, Swiss Hotel, BellSouth, The Home Depot, Turner Communications, Cox Communications, Northside Hospital, Northside Realty, Opryland Hotel, Baptist Hospital,  just to name a few, I take great pride in seeing my “toddler” clients grow and am glad to see many of them, just as I am personally glad to see my son, reach ”early adulthood” where they appreciate Blue Olive’s rolling and guidance in helping them reach their goals of brand recognition and revenue growth.