Week 7 HW #10 - Martha's COIN 72
Marketing Report
FINAL PROJECT
INSTRUCTIONS Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5
TO DO: This week's #10 Assignment HW will be a rough draft of your Marketing Report to date in 500+
words, spell checked (answer each question in around 100+ words). Here are some guidelines to follow:
Question 1. WHAT is it that you are going to market (product/service/nonprofit, etc.)? What is the name of the company/product? Does it exist as a real company? What are the goals for that website and what kinds of results do you want?
My COIN 72 project will be the marketing of NARFE's local San Francisco Chapter 65 Web site, which already exists at narfe65.org. Created by me in the fall of 2006, as part of Robert Cormia's COIN 74 Dreamweaver class, this Web site is now in urgent need of refreshing. Chapter 65 members still express pride that we have "the best NARFE Web site in the Nation". However, the webmasters have noticed many deficiencies, and have also picked up on many desires of members for increased functionalities. For instance, our Search function, located at the top left of every page, has never functioned. Our reports, displayed as a drop-down menu on the left sidebar, are hard for many members to find. And our monthly updates are tedious to produce. As a volunteer organization, it is an anticipated fact that one day someone else will take over as Webmaster. When that time comes, the site should be easy for someone else to edit and update. The coding needs to be sufficiently easy for others to understand, and to work with.
The goals of the organization are to provide resources and a VOICE for all National Active and Retired Federal Employees. We have monthly meetings, where we are continually recruiting new members, and actively pursuing retention of old members. The monthly newspaper has been the bedrock of our organization’s communications, and is well-received by our 800+ members The Web site, now, adds an important dimension to our communications, and enables us to do so much more. It gives us:
- the opportunity to present and preserve Chapter resources (leaflets, letters, data, dues information);
- the ability to attract younger members, who will hopefully be more active, and stay longer;
- the practicality of being always available, 24/7, in any Internet environment (mobile, desktop, smart-phone);
- the feasibility of being economically appealing - any member with an email address could conceivably be alerted about upcoming events or issues;
- the attractiveness of design, wizardry, and technological advances, that will appeal to our younger prospective and current members; and above all,
- the likelihood of increased recruitment and retention of members.
What results are we looking for?
- Increased membership;
- Elevated participation levels - at meetings, on the Web site;
- Decreased # of "drops" in membership, stemming from non-renewal of annual dues;
- Increased interactivity between members, between members and Officers, and between the Chapter and our state (Federation) and national organization;
- Increased pride in our organization and its accomplishments;
- Increased attendance at meetings and events;
- Increased legislative activity (call/write/email Congressmen and Representatives);
- Increased attendance at National/Federation (state)/District (Bay Area) meetings & conventions; and
- Accolades and awards!
Question 2. Who is your audience that will 'buy' the product/service/idea? What are their demographics? How do you know for sure? Where did you get the facts? How do they like to be sold to?
NARFE members are most likely in the age group 45-75, though they may be much younger, or much older. In the past, the membership was entirely made up of annuitants, but beginning in 2005 the name of the organization was changed (the "A" now stands for "Active", where once it stood for "Association"). This change highlighted the decision to recruit younger, non-retired Federal employees - as explained in this reprint of a news article: http://www.csfcnarfe.org/ptp05-06. Our chapter has had success in recruiting active employees, but not in retaining their membership. That is the current focus of our membership plan (http://djnmarti.com/foothill/coin72/final_project/narfe65/MembershipPlan2011.doc) - to RETAIN the members that we RECRUIT! We are handicapped by the fact that most members have not signed up for automatic dues withholding. If membership must be renewed every year, as it is for the majority, then we have to actively, even aggressively, work to encourage our members to re-enlist their membership. One way to stem the gradual loss of members is to encourage more to adopt dues withholding. However, another option is to ensure our activities meet the needs of our members, and that is what this effort at Web site refurbishment is all about.
The National organization maintains records of our membership levels, and produces reports online monthly. However, we don’t often ask our members what they would like to see our organization do. Part of my project’s plan will be to solicit input via an online poll or form to be filled out, and emailed for analysis. With this information, we hope to achieve a greater sense of participation by our members, and a greater relevance of our Web site to our members.
Question 3. Which ones from the list below (and from book, Discussions, website resources, etc.) look like the kind of Web marketing tools/techniques you want to include in your own marketing? Why?
- Affiliate marketing (shaded click-on ads that bring $ to host)
- Content marketing (freely share info)
- Display advertising (banner ads)
- E-mail marketing (direct sends by bulk e-mail)
- Referral marketing (through word of mouth/buzz)
- Search engine marketing/SERPs (through paid placement, contextual advertising, paid inclusion, or free SEO techniques)
- Search engine optimization (tweaking content/keywords/metatags for crawlers/search engine algorithms)
- Social media marketing (blog/microblogs, bookmarking/tagging, crowdsourcing/voting, discussion boards/forums, event meetups, mashups, online video, photo/presentation sharing, podcasting, ratings/reviews, social networks, virtual worlds, widgets, wikis)
- Others?
- Email marketingis a very attractive, but ambitious, goal. We would like to be able to contact our members more quickly, and keep them informed of upcoming events, legislative alerts, and meeting topics and locations.
- Referral marketing- the adding of a "Refer a Friend" or "Email to Friend" option would be a good way to increase our Web's visibility, and could be an immediate addition to the Web site.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will be a prime focus, at least in the beginning phase of this Web's remodel. The study of keywords and phrases, the inclusion on all pages via metatags, semantic navigation, content, and images, is very important - and may be an "easy" way to update our Web's ability to be found.
- Social media marketing
- is our long-range aim. We want to increase the attractiveness of our Web product - to become an integral part of our member's activities. Increasing the relevance and use of our blog and wiki, adding a discussion board or a membership arena, increasing the visibility of our photos, including video interviews and podcasts - all these options increase the ways in which we can reach out to our members - and the ways in which they can reach back. A membership organization, after all, needs to be responsive TO its members, as well as provide FOR its members.
- Content marketing may well be an ultimate goal. After all, if we can provide content for our readers, they will want to download it, share it, bookmark it, and come back to it. That is the goal - make ourselves, and our organization, be seen as "the solution to our members needs". That is what BRANDING is all about, and that is what we hope to achieve: indispensability.top
Question 4. Use a spreadsheet or some kind of organized table to list all your expenses/costs for your project. If you are doing marketing for somebody else who already has an e-biz, you won't have startup/licensing/funding costs, etc., just your fee-based or hourly based salary for doing the work. Either way, you need to cost it out realistically (don't just guess...place a value on your time/labor, otherwise it is just a hobby!). This is the hardest part of the project for many students because they just don't take the time to research what all these costs are (i.e., paid search, securing domain names, registering, etc.)
This is the impossible requirement - we have no finances! My work on this Web site IS a hobby. However, in the effort to make my learning more complete, I will attempt to create a spreadsheet, and keep track of my hours. It is probably a good exercise for our organization - to be aware of how much volunteer time we take for granted from our members. And, it might even be a good thing to share this information with others - the officers work very hard on our behalf!
Certainly I will want to create a spreadsheet to track the SEO efforts. We already have a Google Analytics account, and are familiar with Google Webmaster Tools. Other tools may provide additional information that should prove helpful. Xenu and SeoQuake are two I've explored. XML-Sitemaps, Picasa, YouTube - many Internet tools are available for exploration.
Just for the sake of exploration, I looked up the average salary of a Webmaster: $66, 162 (http://swz.salary.com/SalaryWizard/Webmaster-Salary-Details.aspx). Dividing 66,000 by 2080 hours (52 weeks at 40 hours/week), I got an approximate hourly rate of $32. Using $30/hour, I need to next estimate how many hours of work will be spent in this project. See attached Excel chart (projectExpenses-narfe65.xls) for an estimate of the projected costs of this Web site re-design.
Question 5. On a weekly schedule/spreadsheet, plan a 6-12 month list of what kind of marketing activities you will do and which tools/strategies you will use/when (don't use everything at once, start small!). Try using a Gantt chart or a spreadsheet or just rough it out as a sketched list (some phases will overlap). Hint: Put weekly dates across at the top of each column, and list your activities along the left/vertical side.
The important thing to begin with is a calendar - an OUTLINE of what we expect to do, and when. Then I can gauge my time more carefully, and focus on the most immediate needs, or the most easily-accomplished additions. In any case, we will want to be able to produce results within a year that will achieve some of our goals.
Now that we are actually "designing" our final project, I have realized something very important - I am no longer "in charge"! When I created this Web site, we had nothing. In fact, most members had no idea of what a Web site was, or how we could use it. Now, we do have a knowledgeable set of Officers, who are well-aware of how useful this Web site has been. At the least - we can print out the newsletter (whose mailed copy we may have mislaid or lost), we can find out what room the meeting is in, at what time, with what agenda, and we can see the calendar of upcoming events. But now each of these Officers has ideas of what they'd like to see on the Web, and what they don't like. I am no longer a free agent - I must represent the wishes of an amorphous body of Officers and activists, as well as the needs of unknown members. SO - part of my job will be undoubtedly to find out just what everyone wants - what is their agenda?
The other interesting aspect of my web re-design is that I have, in effect, turned over the running of the Web site to my partner Dianne, for the last several years. We are both listed as the "co-webmasters", but in fact she has done ALL the input in the last half-dozen years. I have acted as resource person, teacher perhaps, and trouble-shooter. Any re-design must now win the approval of her wishes and needs. In fact, I will have to create this project with her as an active participant! That is a hard role for each of us - it requires a new way of working together, and demand collaboration where before there was independent co-ownership. It is a humbling position, to have to win approval for ideas, and to have to overcome objections - or even follow another's dictates! I am the design person, and perhaps the CEO, of this endeavor. But I am most definitely NOT a lone agent anymore!
Attached is a second Excel chart in the same workbook (projectExpenses-narfe65.xls), mapping out a possible scenario for the remodeling of narfe65.org. This proposed project is estimated to be completed within 12 months, by 12/31/12.