Content is defined broadly as all information contained within your website and/or application. It can come in the form of text, images, audio/video and animation. This is where your company is provided with amazing opportunities in showcasing what you can do. However, it can be one of the most challenging and complicated tasks a company has to deal with and organize. This refers to a robust system designed to facilitate clients managing and updating their website content to varying degrees.We in web land call that a Content Management System (CMS). Managing content online is vastly different than in  other traditional forms of marketing. Plus, today’s consumers are used to highly functional websites containing tons of fresh and up-to-date content. They thrive on it!

If content management is something your company is considering, here are some questions to keep in mind.

1. What will your formal and informal policies for content inclusion be?

2. How will content be entered and stored in the system?

3. What technology needs do you have?

4. Who is your actual audience? Internet is a pretty big place!

5. Who will maintain your content? Will you need to hire new staff?

6. How is your content management process going to evolve over the next year, 5 years or 10 years? Better know where you’re headed!

One of our Content Management Solutions involves blogging. Blogs allow for immediate interaction between you and your clients and can be a great way to run a proactive website as well as having the ability to update the content on your website as often as you like.

Building a website can be very overwhelming and has many facets of development. Smart Image Media offers comprehensive consulting services for taking a website from conception, to launch and to final SEO and marketing. In order to launch an effective campaign, you must have a clear definition of goals, extensive planning and expert execution. Even if you currently have a website, you must know what your goals and future direction are. We are here to help

In order to identify your goals and make sure they are met, we organize our consulting and actual development planning into 5 phases. Through these 5 phases, we are able to get the right questions answered and develop a concept of the project as a whole.

Research, Strategy,Design, Implementation, Administration

While Smart Image Media would always like the opportunity to develop projects we consult on, we understand that this is not always the case. We can prepare documentation to help guide you through this process of realizing your website’s goals and making it successful. Companies are ever-evolving and we are here to make your online future a bright one.

Here is a story from my own experience:

A major firm decided they wanted to overhaul their website adding a significant amount of complex functionality e and wanted the project to be completed in a 4 month period.  The goals and objectives of the site were very vague and no planning was done to validate the time line.  In other words the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing, all they knew was they wanted the site up and running in 4 months! Our web team jumped in feet first in order to reach our deadline, without an approved plan of action and clearly defined goals. We were playing a constant cat and mouse game to get the information we needed in order to execute the project successfully. At the end of the day the project could not be completed in the expected 4 month time period, deadlines kept getting pushed back and the client was unhappy to say the least.

That being said I offer the following advice……………..

The most successful websites have one thing in common, a disciplined approach to project planning and execution.  Most business owners feel they don’t have the time to plan so they jump in feet first without defined goals and expect the website to be up and running in an unreasonable amount of time. The end result is they are not happy with the outcome because the proper planning was not done up front.  There is a better way!

Get the goals and strategy first, what is the purpose of the website? The best execution on the planet cannot save a failed strategy.

Execute the project in phases, everything does not have to be done at once. With goals in mind you can prioritize and identify the features that are most important to the project and schedule them out accordingly.

Don’t over simplify when it comes to site functionality and outcomes. Down the road all that really does is push problems to the end of the project where they will multiply and end up blowing up your project budget and most likely stress out the individuals involved in the project.

Insist on a project plan, set deadlines and create a plan to back it up before beginning any work, if there is no plan there is no reliable launch date and expectations will not be managed effectively.

At the end of the day you want to win consistently and the way to do that is be the BEST rather than the FIRST!

Smart Image Media insists that our clients do proper planning before commencing a web project . We are happy to assist them in doing so – it’s part of our company’s process of delivering excellence.