Web Project Roles

Web Development

Web Project Collaborators

Web Project Roles

What you need to know before starting

Website design, web development, and web marketing require every detail to be as perfect as the design of a machine or electronic device. Success depends on many roles and skills, yet most small firms depend solely on their “web person” to carry the entire load. Even in firms with well-established marketing departments, roles become blurred, and lines are crossed, which can stall any project. But once you understand everyone’s roles and how those roles contribute to the overall design, development, and marketing of the site, your team can complete any web project on-time and within budget.

As you read through the descriptions below, keep in mind that roles can be filled by many different employees or vendors; and sometimes, the same person or company can fulfill multiple roles. The most important factor is that you have a solid project plan in place first, and then fill the roles based on skill sets, project requirements, timelines, and budgets.

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Important to note. Scope creep is a common problem with web design and developments projects. It can cause big budget overruns and time delays. A well-developed project plan helps mitigate scope creep by allowing you to evaluate quickly if a new feature fits within the plan. Sometimes it is necessary to stop the project, reevaluate a new feature, make necessary plan adjustments, and then restart the project. 

WEB PROJECT ROLES

The marketer

The website marketer is tasked with marketing the site. Driving new prospects to the site, satisfying customers and prospects needs for information once on the site, and maintaining the brand are their primary goals. The website marketer should understand the scope of search engine optimization (SEO) and be able to provide the necessary information to correctly implement SEO. It makes sense to bring the marketer on first and engage them in managing the overall project. Website marketers should:

  • Be branding experts to ensure every piece of marketing collateral, including the website, clearly and consistently communicates the company’s unique selling proposition (USP), competitive advantage, and tells a compelling business story.
  • Be content experts to make sure content meets customer needs for information.
  • Be messaging experts to ensure overall messaging resonates with clients and offers solutions to solve their application issues. Messaging should also concisely communicate the company’s value and competitive advantage.
  • Understand how SEO contributes to the site’s findability and usability.

The designer

The web designer is the site’s architect. They create the site’s color schemes, imagery, and overall design aesthetics. They are usually right-brained and creative. Ideally, your website designer is a design expert to ensure the look and feel of the site are pleasing to the eye and consistent with company branding standards.

The developer

The web developer is the site’s builder; they make the site work. They are usually the left-brained and analytical. A developer understands coding, is a functional user interface expert, and carries a significant programming role when implementing online shopping sites. An ideal web developer knows various programming languages to ensure the site performs as expected, and they are user interface experts to make certain the site’s navigational layout is expected and easy to understand and use.

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Here’s something worth mentioning. There are thousands of website themes available touting, ‘website development made easy – anybody can build a website.’ While this is true to some extent, you need to understand that functionality that deviates from the standard theme design requires coding, and this is when you will need a good developer or designer with coding skills.

Role combinations

Can someone meet all three role requirements? It’s possible, but success would be along the same lines as an engineer handling marketing, product design, sales and accounting functions.

Sometimes a web designer will know enough code to handle easy theme modifications. And sometimes a web developer will be skilled enough in PhotoShop to create some of the site’s imagery. Likewise, for the internet marketer, they may have some coding and design skills to design and develop a simple site.

How to proceed?

There is no easy, cut and dry answer to this question. How you staff your project should be determined by the requirements called out in your web development plan. The important thing to remember is that the success of any web project, big or small, is dependent upon having a solid project plan and then staffing the project based on requirements, skill sets, budgets, and timelines.

If you need help writing your requirements document or staffing the project, let us know. We’d be happy to help you create a beautifully designed website that is findable and usable.

SEO or PPC

PPC, Search Engine Marketing, SEO

SEO vs PPC

SEO vs. PPC

What’s the difference and where should industrial firms spend marketing dollars?

We see a lot of our industrial clients struggling with the question, “where do I spend my marketing dollars, on search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine advertising (like Google AdWords)?” The answer to that question, like so many other things, is not an easy either-or decision — SEO is essential for a site to be found by prospects, it improves the customer’s experience, and it helps improve search engine advertising results.

Before we discuss how to determine what is best for the company, let’s look at both options in greater depth and explore some of the pros and cons of each — this knowledge will save money and avoid disappointment.

What is search engine optimization (SEO)?

SEO, also known as organic search is, according to Google, “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.” Search results are ranked based on algorithms that closely match the searcher’s intent. First page rankings increase your probability that searchers will click through to your site, and are even higher when your site ranks 1, 2 or 3 on the first page.

To rank well on a search engine result page (SERP), a website must be properly search engine optimized. It is imperative that a company optimizes individual web pages for their most important keywords with highly relevant content and a host of other factors (see our detailed blog posts on On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO for additional information).

Let’s look at the pros and cons of SEO.

Pros

  • Trust and credibility. High search rankings carry the perception of credibility; they imply authority, which generates trust.
  • Click-through Rate (CTR) studies show that CTRs are always better for organic search results for informational searches.
  • Organic search is less costly than paid search to achieve results.
  • SEO practices yield a superior human experience leading to superior results.
  • Works for your company 24/7 – everlasting.
  • SEO creates the foundation for long-term success.

Cons

  • Organic search can take months to rank highly; it is a long-term strategy that requires resources to apply SEO tactics and develop and maintain content.
  • Maintaining organic search results relies heavily on fresh content and building authoritative backlinks.

What is search engine advertising? 

Search advertising, also known as Paid Search or PPC, are advertisements that companies place with search engines to have their ads displayed when a searcher enters specific keywords. Companies bid for keywords and only pay for the ad when a searcher clicks through to their site from the ad.

Keyword bidding and the ad’s quality score are used by search engines to determine ad placement. Keywords are used in the bidding process to match your ads with what prospects are searching for. You choose how much you are willing to pay for a keyword — you pay for each click on your ad. Quality scores are variables based on the ads expected Click through rate (CTR), ad to keyword relevance, and the ad’s landing page relevance to the ad. High-quality scores can lead to lower ad prices and better ad positions.

Now, let’s look at the pros and cons of PPC.

Pros

  • If ads are properly bid and have high-quality scores, paid advertising can propel search rankings to the top of the search results page.
  • PPC can be tailored to target specific audiences, for example, industry, locations, product users.

Cons

  • Ads won’t rank well unless ads and their respective landing pages are highly relevant to each other and the searcher’s query.
  • Competitive keyword PPC ads can be expensive.
  • PPC ads require close monitoring to avoid excessive clicks by unqualified traffic.
  • For informational sites, there is some level of distrust by searchers for paid ads.
  • Informational sites, PPC ad CTRs are lower than organic search CTRs.

When is PPC beneficial?

The perfect time for industrial companies to run an AdWords campaign is when the company needs to:

  • Jump start organic search results for a new or redesigned site or a new web page — organic SEO methods can take months to show results.
  • Launch new products, promote a new service or inform your audience about an upcoming event.
  • Quickly gain brand recognition.

The question, “should we spend marketing dollars on search engine optimization or PPC advertising?” is more of a question of how can I get the best bang for my buck to achieve my marketing goals.

PPC advertising can be used to help quickly gain search engine traffic for a new site, new web page, or new product. If it is imperative to rank well for highly competitive keywords, AdWords might be the answer, but remember, if the keywords are highly competitive, a substantial budget is needed to bid enough to rank well for those keywords.

SEO optimization, on the other hand, should be part of the company’s long-term strategy. The goal of SEO is to rank on page one of a search results page for the page’s most important keywords. You can think of SEO as an investment in the future — if website ranks well organically for relevant keywords, then a PPC campaign might not be necessary allowing you to spend marketing dollars elsewhere.

We can’t stress enough the importance of a developing a clear marketing strategy and marketing plan that deploys tactics that make sense for your business. Search engine optimization should always be part of that plan to ensure high-ranking, long-term, sustainable organic search results. However, activities like creating a company blog to position the company as industry experts or using email marketing to target your audience with a particular message might be money better spent than launching an AdWords campaign — let your strategy and data drive tactical decisions.

Still need help deciding the best course of action for your company, give us a call to discuss your unique situation — 360.834.2780.

Web Development Services

Web Development

Web Development Icons

Web Development Services

Enhanced Offering

We are celebrating our 2-year anniversary by adding web development services to our growing portfolio of digital marketing services. This new offering saves our industrial clients time and money when designing or redesigning websites.

After two years of focusing on the marketing side of customers’ websites, we saw the need to expand services to include web development. “We were constantly asked to help customers implement search engine optimization best practices on existing or newly updated websites” commented Keith Gagnier, Pump Marketing Solutions’ president. “This was a natural progression for us. We knew we could help save our customer base time and money by implementing on-page search engine optimization in conjunction with web development and redesign projects.”

On-page search engine optimization includes applying elements to the backend of a website to get the site found by search engines and potential customers, and adding elements to the sites front-end to ensure visitors quickly locate the information they need to make a purchase decision.

At Pump Marketing Solutions, we have long and successful industrial marketing and engineering careers. We started the company because we saw a significant lack of ‘best web marketing practices’ in the industry. We share a combined passion for bringing industrial enterprises into the 21st century of best web marketing solutions.

Learn more about the company’s web development process at www.pumpmarketingsolutions.com/web-development

Distributor Guide to Website Success

Keywords, Search Engine Marketing, SEO, Site navigation, Strategy, User Testing

Distributor Website Success

What is website success?

Website success means your site achieved its goals. For the purpose of this article, we’d like to focus on success that is measured by qualified lead generation – a goal 99% of our clients use – sounds simple right? Well it can be, but 3 things need to happen first:

  1. You have implemented Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices. Meaning:
    • Your site is found and indexed by search engines.
    • Search engines rank your web pages on page 1 of a search results page.
    • Your search snippets (page description) entice searchers to click through to your site.
    • Your site provides searchers with product and service information relevant to their search inquiry.
  2. You’ve user tested your website. Usability testing means your site meets the navigation and information needs of your prospects and customers.
  3. You analyze website and competitor data on a consistent basis allowing you to make data-driven decisions about the site to ensure it meets set goals.

Website success: What it does for your business.

  1. It generates a generous ROI.
  2. It helps you better understand your target audience. Search engines provide gobs of very focused usage data, but it also gives your insight into:
    • Human behavior as it applies to your business – this is important. What search patterns do site visitors use? What keywords do they use when looking for your products and services? How do they navigate your site? How long do they spend on the site? What are your most visited pages? Where did the visitors come from? And so much more.
    • Competitor data that reveals their success in ranking for specific keywords, which ad campaigns they run and how successful they are and other internet tactics they deploy.
  3. It pulls in leads that can be highly filtered to minimize and simplify response priorities.
  4. It establishes company creditability and authority.
  5. It warms up the customer experience by humanizing your website.
  6. It provides you with market trends applicable to your products/services.
  7. It builds and maintains brand recognition. And when accompanied by various marketing tactics and practices, will propel revenue.

What’s the process for developing a successful website?

  • Develop clear marketing goals – goals that are aligned with overall business goals. Ensure your website developer, graphics specialist, and internet marketing firm understand the goals and carry out their respective jobs with the intention of meeting those goals.
  • Understand customer expectations and develop your site based on their feedback. Searches have two sides; input and output. Search engines are becoming better at monitoring and understanding user behavior, and they are becoming very sophisticated at matching website content to searcher intent.
  • Understanding the keywords and phrases that drive qualified searchers to your site and ensuring all elements of your site (backend and frontend) are optimized and in synch. A search engine’s ability to match a searcher’s inquiry with relevant results depends on how well they understand a website’s content – this is where a lot of websites fail. If search engines can’t determine how to navigate your site and understand the information well enough to index and rank your site, prospects won’t find your site. How sad, since getting it right is a win for all players and the cost is low.

Get started.

So you may be saying, ‘this is all good for the big guys, but small distributors don’t have that kind of money,” which is a big fallacy. Optimizing your website, creating the ultimate user experience and analyzing the data does not require deep pockets.

Internet promotion, when focused on Company goals, provides you with the biggest bang for your buck. If you are still spending on exhibitions, print ads and paid directories, maybe rethink those activities by analyzing just how much business you acquire from each. You might have to reallocate marketing dollars, but you won’t be disappointed – the internet allows you to speak directly to your prospects and customers without excessive spending – the internet truly does level the playing field.

Sales and Marketing Partnership

Strategy

Industrial S for SEO

How to have an effective and successful sales & marketing partnership

Someone once told us that, “typically in the pump industry, the focus is always on sales.” Wouldn’t it be perfect if sales and marketing worked together to form sales strategies and go-to-market plans with the same goal in mind — meeting companies’ overall business objectives for revenue?

The following infographic illustrates how to achieve the best sales and marketing partnership for your organization. Just think how efficiently things would run and how successful the teams would be if both departments performed based on their respective job descriptions: Marketing provides sales qualified leads, and then sales converts those leads (prospects) to customers (sales) — all with the same end goals in mind.

Sales and Marketing Partnership Inforgraphic

Download a pdf of the infographic. You can also share this image on your site by embedding the code below into the HTML of your site.

As always, we welcome any and all comments and questions. And, if you need help defining roles, creating strategies, or developing goals for success, give us a call today, +1.360.834.2780.