I was writing some content for e-CBD, the web design agency I co-own when I’m not working on DP Dialogue. This article on ‘Questions to Ask Your Digital Agency Before you Sign a Contract’ came out quite nicely so I thought I’d pop it in here… Enjoy!

• What qualifications and experience do the business owners have?

Web design companies often change hands and if you’re not careful, you’re likely to find that the person who runs the business knows very little about designing websites or best-practice online marketing principles. If you want to know you’re in good hands, choose a web design company with an experienced, qualified management team who have been running the business for at least a few years.

• Do your designers work in-house, or do you contract them out?

A lot of companies contract their designers out and they rarely, if ever, set foot in the same office as the person who answers the phone. That’s not necessarily a problem, but you’ll find designers who work as part of a motivated team tend to do better work than those working from their bedroom, in Eastern Europe. Quality control is also much easier when everyone is sitting within shouting distance from each other, and if you can pop in and talk to the designer at their desk on their computer, it’s much easier to communicate what you want and get your ideas across.

• What qualifications does your team have?

University degrees and TAFE courses are no substitute for talent, but they definitely help make it shine. You don’t need a PhD in Information Technology to build a website, but it’s good to know that at least a few people on the team have taken the time to get a tertiary education and learn best-practice principles from those in the know. Any high school student can knock together a basic web page these days, but if you want a site that helps you make money, you need someone who has studied the theory behind making that happen.

• Who does your programming?

You’ll invariably need a feedback form, shopping cart, funky map or some other little gadget on your website at some stage. Make sure the person who does the programming knows their stuff and get a reliable, set-in-stone estimate of the timeframe for completion. Many web design firms out-source the tricky bits to interstate or overseas contractors and communication errors and long, unexpected delays are common.

• Are you certified by Google?

Google offers certification courses to people and companies who can demonstrate that they know how best to promote a site in their search results. It’s certainly not mandatory to have a site built by a Google-certified company, but it does show a high level of commitment and professionalism, not to mention recognized expertise.

• I want a website, but I also want help marketing it, do you do that?

Online marketing is more than just getting your site into Google, although that’s arguably the most important start. A good web design firm should be able to help you work out exactly how the Internet fits in your overall marketing plan and point out strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for you. They should be able to provide you with a detailed search engine optimisation plan that embodies Google’s guidelines, create and manage a paid search campaign, advise on banner ad placement and suggest other ideas like affiliate marketing, social media and viral. If they don’t do that, they should at least be aware of the issues and able to put you in touch with a reputable firm who can help. The last thing you want is a website designer who builds the site without even considering any marketing opportunities - or worse, one who doesn’t know enough about what they’re doing and ends up getting you in trouble. If they’re claiming to be an expert, ask for solid proof of their claims and evidence of their knowledge in peer-review journals and mainstream publications.

• What are the payment terms?

Most companies will ask for a deposit up-front before they start working on your project. This helps with their cash-flow and it’s a sign from you that you’re serious about getting something done. A normal amount is anywhere between 10% and 50%, anything more than that and it’s starting to look risky. A website is a big investment, so ask if you can pay the remainder of the fees off over a period of a few months. Make sure you get a detailed quote that outlines every component of the project and ask if there are any fees over and above what they originally say. You don’t want to find yourself paying for endless ‘updates’ after you thought the site was finished.

• Can I update the website myself?

Ask what sort of content management system they recommend and if they offer a variety of choices. This will save you big bucks.

• Do you provide a money-back guarantee?

Ask what will happen if you’re just not happy with the end result, or if they fail to complete something they said they would.

• Can I ask some of your clients about your service?

Find out what work they’ve done and call their clients to see what they thought of the service. Any half-decent agency will have a bunch of testimonials, but every agency in the world has done work for their brothers, sisters and cousins at some stage. Ask for a few examples, and call them. If they were happy with the service they shouldn’t mind a quick chat about your potential new designer.

Yesterday’s news that premier Anna Bligh looked outside the “Smart State” when developing her official election campaign raised my ire more than a little. According to MX, “the anna4qld site - which is emblazoned on every page with the slogan “Protecting Queensland Jobs” -  was developed by the Melbourne-based DTDigital and the Sydney-based Lawrence Creative Strategy.” I know DTDigitial do great work, but fucking hell Anna, it doesn’t send a very good message does it you turkey. Grrr.

We’re putting together a marketing plan and digital strategies outline for a children’s television series which is in development for an Australian network. It has been sold around the world and the producers are pretty excited about the social networking opportunities. Forums, blogs, ‘Second Life’ Islands and behind-the-scenes access areas are nothing new, but this series comes at a time when 90% of nine-year-olds have used the Internet and 34% of twelve year-olds have a profile on a social networking site. Never before have young teenagers engaged so enthusiastically with online content or been more inclined to join online communities.

I can’t reveal too much about the series, given that it’s in production and all a bit hush-hush, but it’s along the same lines as something like The Saddle Club or Bluewater High — a bunch of kids who are elite proponents of a particularly popular activity who are growing up together and attending the same school. The websites for those shows are pretty good, I particularly like Bluewater High’s, but the strategy we’re putting together is going to be on a whole new level.

The online strategy for the show is divided into four basic parts:

• A website which invites fans into a virtual world, allowing them to interact with the characters and their unique environment and chat with other fans.
• A behind-the-scenes website which acts like an online (extended) version of the special features on a DVD that shows interviews, allows fans to ask questions and even allows people to audition for the show.
• An online store which sells related merchandise.
• Discussion forums where fans can post messages and respond to related topics about the show and the popular activity the show deals with.

Here’s some of the cool things we’re doing on the social networking side:

A ‘Virtual World’ Website with Characters Integrating with Facebook and MySpace

Using Flash™ technology a detailed virtual world will be created where fans can walk through the sets and see where the characters have been. Bandwidth issues in Australia prevent video-intensive features like real-time character interaction (like you might find in a video game), but it’s certainly possible to create a static virtual world. Powderfinger’s Hotel Existence website is along the lines of what we’re talking about.

Fans will be able to sneak into character’s bedrooms and read their diaries, see what they’re listening to on their iPODs, see what they ate for lunch and gather clues from the virtual set to use in online games and competitions.

The coolest feature of this virtual world though, is how the character’s profiles will integrate with actual Facebook and MySpace profiles. The producers were keen to create a new stand-alone social networking platform especially for the show, using something like Ning, but we explained to them that if we used existing platforms, fans will already be familiar with the user-interface, they won’t have to sign-up for anything new and most importantly, every single aspect of their interaction with the show’s characters will be automatically broadcast to all their other friends who share the same social networking platform. The average Facebook user has more than 150 friends, so by allowing fans to interact with characters on Facebook you are increasing the show’s marketing reach by a factor of 150 for every single fan.

The social networking profiles will be updated weekly by production staff, in sync with the onscreen events. So, for example, when two characters start dating, their Facebook profiles will change to show that they are ‘In a Relationship’. When they break up, their profile will be updated accordingly. These changes will obvioiusly also appear in their real-life ‘friends’ news feeds as if the events were happening to real people. When characters post on other characters’ walls, fans will be able to track the conversations between them.

The characters will also post event invitations. For example, in the lead-up to an episode where one character throws herself a sixteenth birthday party, all her real Facebook friends will be invited to attend. Candid photographs of the party will later appear and fans will be able to comment on the photographs.

YouTube Integration

Several instructional videos will be created by real-life, professional proponents of the activity the show centres around (imagine if Kelly Slater had put together a series of instructional surfing videos for Bluewater High and then they were posted all over YouTube). A section of the website will be devoted to showcasing these videos and via step-by-step tutorials, fans will be able to learn what the characters are doing. Fans will then be able to film themselves and their friends and upload them to the site and to YouTube. This will ensure the website gains significant exposure in YouTube (and Google) when people from around the world are searching for videos of this activity – increasing the reach of the online campaign far beyond the core Australian audience.

Montages of popular television shows created by fans who put their favourite scenes together in a YouTube re-mix are another recent video Phenomenon (one fan film clip from Australian children’s series H20: Just Add Water has had more than 650,000 YouTube views). It’s a labour of love that can take countless hours, but tools like Flektor are making it easier to do and by providing fans with a library of useful clips, helpfully sorted under appropriate categories, we’ll make the process super-easy and encourage fans to plaster as many clips as they like on YouTube.

Fans will also be able to download songs from the website soundtrack and edit them into the clips, resulting in huge exposure for the artists (a bargaining chip when licensing the songs). The website will then run competitions and the fans can vote on their favourite montages, bringing new filmmakers to the fore and increasing exposure on YouTube to a worldwide audience.

Fan Fiction

Creative, dedicated fans love writing fictional stories about their characters. Sites like Fan Fiction.net have millions of stories uploaded about virtually every popular television series ever created. Buffy the Vampire Slayer alone has more than 30,000 stories uploaded by fans.

A section of the website will actively encourage fan fiction competitions where people write stories about the characters and upload them for others to read. Producers will actively use this as a research tool to figure out what fans want to happen in the next series.

Those are just some of the strategies I can talk about publicly. We’re pretty excited about it all and I’d love to hear any feedback you had on what we’re doing. If anyone has any brilliant ideas of their own I’m all ears…