It is inevitable that I end up explaining the evolution of the web several times a week. Whether with clients, prospects, peers, family or friends, the web and social media have hit a point of intersection where advertisers and consumers are now in the same dialog. Even Googling and facebooking are terms my seven year old uses regularly.

In times past, the “mother-in-law test” as I called it (no offense, Grandma C.), was a litmus test to determine how simple an idea was. I would just ask, “Would your mother-in-law get that idea?” If the answer was “No.”, then the concept was either bad or overcomplicated. Well, here is my “mother-in-law test” for the state of marketing on the web today, so tell me if I have passed my own test.

Websites have evolved from a brochure, to a book, and now to a magazine.

The brochure was early on. Just get your company brochure online so that you could say that you have a Website and be sure to have the phone number and directions to the office on there. Not much. Not meant to be read. And if so, maybe once and never again. “They will call us if they really need us,” was voiced by sales staff in marketing meetings.

Then came the book. For someone willing to engage, they could stare at the flash intro and read the animated text if they were into that sort of thing. But if they did judge the book by the cover, they hit the site and bounced because you wanted them to read cover to cover and they wanted the cliff notes. The book offered no user control, and honestly, most were really bad stories wrapped in a bright, glossy cover.

Today is all about content. Relevant content to a targeted audience. And content that changes frequently. So we have gone full circle and come all the way back around to our ink and paper heritage. Magazines are about great imagery and content, engaging stories, and current trends published regularly. We love magazines because we can consume as much or as little as we want. Whenever we want. And however we want. We can read the back first, skim the pictures, or do the crossword puzzles. Magazines are content-rich, engaging and stick around for a while. We may even pick the same one up over and over and always find something new. And only the best earn that primo spot on the coffee table when our guests come over. Oh yeah, the coffee table is social media and those yellow sticky notes are your social bookmarks.

So I ask, “Would your mother-in-law understand why your Website needs to be a magazine?”

Not that social media has fundamentally changed everything but it is a pink elephant in the room that got all three parties staring at the same thing. And if you look at what it has done, it has created two expectations from consumers that have forced the hands of clients and their agencies: transparency and real-time content.

So with the tighter budgets that most marketing managers are facing today, it seems that every call we get leads to a discussion on improving the user functionality, management capability, and ROI of their online efforts.

Here are 5 things that we are doing that clients seem to be responding great to these days.

1.    Open source content management systems (CMS)
A robust content management system is barrier to entry for any client web site these days.  With the proliferation of open source CMS options and the thousands of people that are pushing the movement everyday, proprietary CMS systems are going the way of the dinosaur.  Especially in the entry-to-mid level categories.

Joomla!, Drupal and WordPress offer so much out-of-the-box functionality and the open source community offers so much added value that widgets that used to cost thousands as a custom app are now readily available and installation is a breeze. Have you not seen the mommy blogs that look better than most professional agency sites?

And the major benefit to the client: no leash attached to your Web site provider.  If for any reason our clients decide they want to work with another firm, no hurt feelings here, the site is totally portable.

2.    A tightly defined 5D Workflow process
I know from running various agencies over the past decade that we all want to have our own “branded process” to try to add tangible value to our experiences. But in the world of Web development, a flawed process produces flawed results.  Over the years we have seen the many pitfalls of Web development and watched many firms rise and fall in this category.  Last year at a local industry awards show I had a friend that is the head of one of the largest agencies in the Southeast asked me, “Jami, have you figured out how to make an interactive division work yet?” Even at his level, they have struggled to tame this beast.

So what have we done? Well, we created a “branded process” that we call the 5D Workflow. But it was not created in hype, rather in an effort to help clients understand that a predictable process leads to predictable results.  We have been through the drill enough to know where to start, where to end, and ultimately how to keep the client in the middle through the entire process. You can download our 5D Worflow, but I will give you the high points:
1.    Discover your needs.
2.    Define the solutions.
3.    Design the experience.
4.    Develop the applications.
5.    Deliver the results.
a.    Monitor regularly.
b.    Modify if needed.

OK, I admit it. As words on paper it doesn’t seem that groundbreaking.  But the biggest breakthough is the concept of keeping the client totally involved and focusing on function, not form, in the early stages.  To do this we have incorporated a process that we call Functional Modeling in the Defining and Designing stages that really has clients engaged.

3.    The importance of the Functional Model
Form follows function should be the over arching principal of all marketing efforts, specifically online.  Most Web projects go from the Account Exec’s paper-based sitemap to the Designer’s interface design and last in line is the Programmer left to clean up the mess left behind.  Form has always led the way. Our experience has taught us to flip it all around. After our Discovery and the preliminary client approval of our content strategy, we head straight to our Functional Modeling process for the Defining and Designing phases.  The Functional Model is a demonstration environment where our client, account team, and programmers all build out the desired functionality of the site in a working online model.  The premise is this allows everyone to focus on content delivery and navigation in a “shell” of an online environment sans photos, logos, colors and graphic elements. This gets clients engaged early, keeps them engaged during the process, and allows us to define all of the variables of content and functionality before we ever put the pencil to paper with the creative team.

Here is what one our active clients recently said about this process:

“The 5D Workflow is a model of consistency and coverage, assuring that expectations are met correctly and within a clear timeframe.  The Functional Model truly makes Hill-Mullikin stand out in that it prevents unnecessary changes to the final design of a site due to problems with links or the sitemap.  Being able to see how the site will work before worrying about how the site looks is a valuable tool to have as a client and I highly recommend Hill-Mullikin’s approach.” Hoke Smart – Windsor-Aughtry Co.

4.    A solid foundation for search.
“How much does it cost for SEO?” is usually the next question after “What does a Web site Cost?” Well, if you build the site with the right foundation, the ongoing SEO costs are much less.  These days, content relevance is the driving factor for successful organic search results.  So taking search into consideration when building sites and developing your content appropriately gets clients out of the gate a lot faster and a lot cheaper. I equate this to the “solid foundation of your house”.  There are an assortment of steps that we take to make sure that each brick in your foundation is structurally sound.  Most are metadata and code best practices.  Each own it’s own may not be huge but their sum is greater than their parts. With this in mind, a client’s site should come with a rock solid foundation.  From there, a well-defined content, blog and linkbuilding strategy overtime will push them right up the ranks.  Should they pay us to do it?  Well only if you choose not to do it themselves.  It depends on what I call ROE (return-on-effort). If they have the time, we can train them and they should see huge returns on the little time that it takes.  If not, then sure, we have multiple options to help clients increase their organic and paid search traffic.

5.    The ease of monitoring and modifying.
Coming from a career in database and direct marketing, I am often called a Data Nerd. And for us “Nerds”, the internet has brought a whole new meaning to tracking and accountability.  We can turn data to knowledge and knowledge to power in real time.  And the big secret for most clients to understand: most of the tools are free! With tools like Analytics, clients can be trained on what to look for when they review their stats and how to continually monitor and modify their site content to create greater relevance with their audience.  Things like bounce rates, average time on site and site overlay tell us so much more than just knowing how many people are coming to your site. What most clients don’t realize is the high number of visitors who step on the porch but never enter the front door. All these tools allow you to get visitors in the door and let them get comfortable and hopefully stay awhile.

Well, I hope this helps and may seem like a self-serving plug for our process.  But I am really hoping it just opens up people’s eyes and demystifies a little bit about the web development process.  I would love to hear others thoughts and tips if you have found similar success stories with you own process. And oh yeah, it helps to have a senior level programmer who comes from IBM, NASA and the DOD.