Website Projects
- RESPONSIVE DESIGN
- OPTIMIZED FOR SEO
- SOCIAL MEDIA & BLOG INTEGRATION
- WORDPRESS
- SQUARESPACE
- HUBSPOT
Paid Search (PPC)
- 25-POINT WEEKLY OPTIMIZATION CHECKLIST
- INTERACTIVE REPORTING DASHBOARD
- GOOGLE ADWORDS
- YAHOO / BING
- YOUTUBE
- FACEBOOK REMARKETING
Custom Digital Marketing Plans
A value-based points pricing subscription model is utilized for custom plans. All digital marketing activities in our service catalog have a pre-determined point value. A Digital Marketing Strategist works with each client to create a monthly Digital Marketing Blueprint for point allocation.
BASIC
- 69 POINTS / MONTH
- $33 PER POINT
BRONZE
- 139 POINTS / MONTH
- $29 / PER POINT
SILVER
- 208 POINTS / MONTH
- $27 PER POINT
GOLD
- 347 POINTS / MONTH
- $25 PER POINT
PLATINUM
- 555 POINTS / MONTH
- $23 PER POINT
| A sample of what services are available within our digital marketing plans: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Certified Inbound Marketer | Social Media | Lead Generation Campaign |
| Marketing Strategist | Keyword Research | Marketing Automation / Workflows |
| Account Manager | Search Engine Optimization (SEO) | Marketing Scorecard |
| Touchline Client Cloud | Graphic Design | Press Releases |
| Web Conference Meetings | Email Marketing | Google Analytics Reporting |
| Client Calls & Emails | Buyer Persona | Media Monitoring |
| Blog Articles | Landing Pages | Website Updates |
| Blog Promotion | Auto-responders | Google Analytics Dashboard |
| Newsletters | Lead Magnet | Lead Scoring |
| Webinars | Trade Show Integration | Video |
FAQ
ANSWERS TO SOME OF THE QUESTIONS WE MOST OFTEN HEAR ABOUT DIGITAL MARKETING AND OUR SERVICES…
1. A blog – The client required to host an active website with blog capabilities. Blog setup is available as an add-on service.
2.A social media channel – The client is required to own at least one social channel on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Social media channel setup and branding is available as an add-on service.
3.An email service provider – The client is required to host an active account with an email service provider (ESP) to receive newsletter services. Supported ESP providers include MailChimp and Constant Contact. MailChimp setup is available as an add-on service.
4.A webmaster tools account – the client is required to provide access to their webmaster tools account to receive search engine index submission services. Webmaster Tools Account Setup (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, Yandex Webmaster) is available as an add-on service.
5.About 1 hour per month – We request that clients attend scheduled meetings, provide us access to the systems, people, and materials we need to complete quality work, and review work in a timely manner. A typical Touchline client in this program will allocate 1-2 hours per month to working with us.
We often like to use the analogy that we use technology systems & platforms (like WordPress, HubSpot, MailChimp, Constant Contact, Adobe Creative Suite, Unbounce, Salesforce/Pardot, InfusionSoft, Marketo, Insightly, Eventbrite, Google Analytics, etc.) similar to how an accountant uses Quickbooks or how a carpenter uses a hammer, they are our tools of choice. Sure, these people can make some great things happen, but they need their tools. Tech system costs are in addition to the costs of our packages and are typically paid directly to those vendors.
Touchline Marketing has moved towards operating on a point system. We have 10+ years of internally tracking every minute of time we spent on marketing activities so we know how long things should take. With this history, we have cataloged how many points are needed for common marketing tasks so we can focus on providing value rather than billing hours.
Provided you subscribe to one of our digital marketing plans, we will be your first point of call should something go wrong with your website. We will determine whether it is something the hosting company needs to fix or something that is covered by your plan. We will provide training and tutorials to assist you in using your website once it is launched.
Your contact and prospect lists may contains a lot of information, like when they signed up, where they’re located, which content they are interested in, and how they interact with your campaigns. You can use this information to filter subscribers into groups or segments, and then target these contacts with customized marketing content
Website Project clients are charged a flat rate for services. All materials (software purchases, rich media content, subscriptions, hosting fees, etc.) are considered outside the rate for services.
50% of the services for a website project are due to Touchline Marketing prior to the start of the Discovery phase. 25% will be due at the sign-off of the Requirements Phase. The remaining 25% will be due to prior to website Deployment (Go Live!).
Touchline Marketing adds the client Google Adwords account to their Touchline PPC Client Center (Google MCC).
Once your website is launched, we will provide 30 days of support to make sure any bugs have been ironed out and that you are confident using your new website. After this you will need to subscribe to our Monthly Website Maintenance Plan or one of our Custom Digital Marketing Plans to make sure your website is looked after and maintained. These plans may include updating your software, regular backups, security checks and making sure your website is online and open for business 24/7/365.
Clients are required to secure hosting for their website. Many Touchline clients on the WordPress CMS host their websites using GoDaddy.com Managed WordPress Hosting services. As the world’s largest WordPress hosting provider, they have award-winning, 24/7 support.
More than 95% of your visitors won’t buy anything or contact you based on their first visit. They’re typically still in the awareness phase of their buyers journey and just looking for information to help research their problem. It takes time to build trust, instill confidence and build a relationship.
To start this process of relationship building, we can benefit from knowing how we can reach our visitors. A lead magnet is the (free) offer you make to get information from a visitor. The goal of a lead magnet is to try to capture some information (most often their email address) and to start forming a relationship.
Touchline helps clients create compelling lead magnets that appeal to their buyer persona’s pain paints, challenges, and goals to maximize conversion rates and kick-start the lead nurturing process. A lead magnet can most often take the form of an ebook, whitepaper, mini-course, video series, audio recording, checklist, guide, cheat sheet, free webinar, survey, or assessment.
A one-time client onboarding fee is applicable to all new accounts. Client onboarding includes a kick-off strategy meeting, landing page setup, email notification configuration for new leads, lead magnet creation, Touchline Client Cloud account creation, social media account access, webmaster tool account access, email service provider account access, creation of a Content Development Guide and development of initial content ideas specific to your company’s buyer persona, target keywords, and phases of the buyers journey.
Yes. Our model allows complete flexibility so you’ll be able to get the help you need to succeed. If your internal team is already doing a great job in particular areas of marketing, we’ll use that as a starting point and allocate points where we can make the biggest impact in your marketing.
Google restricts and/or prohibits advertising of various products and services such as prescription drugs, firearms, counterfeit goods, etc. If Google deems a Client’s product or service to fall within one of these categories, the use of Adwords may be severely restricted or completely prohibited.
We recommend conducting a Market Analysis to see if your company, product, or service is a good fit for paid search marketing. In some cases, the costs of advertising through a specific digital channel may not make sense. It’s best to have experienced professionals make recommendations before so you don’t make expensive mistakes on your own.
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional, generalized, representation of an ideal customer. The most valuable buyer personas are based on a combination of internal insight, market research, and interviews and surveys of actual customers. Why is it important? – Even a basic buyer persona will help an organization determine where to focus investment and will drive consistent messaging across the organization.
Through tangible profiles, they help you understand your customers and prospective customers better. With a defined portrait in place, it becomes easier for you to tailor content to the specific needs, behaviors, and concerns of different groups. As a result, you will be able to attract the most valuable visitors, leads, and customers to your business.
At Touchline, our mission is to help companies like yours customize your marketing to cater to your buyer personas. We can help align a content strategy to the path of specific buyer personas as they travel through the awareness, consideration, and decision phases of the buyer’s journey.
Content Management Functionality
A Content Management System (CMS) will give non-technical staff the ability to maintain site content via a password-protected browser interface. The CMS will allow the administrator to maintain an unlimited number of pages. The central site will have is its own CMS database with its own content.
Administrative Access
The CMS system allows for multiple users to have access to the Admin area for editing site content, menu items and general configuration parameters. Administration and management of the website is all done through a password-protected browser interface. The main point of contact will be initially put into the system to allow access to CMS. After the initial setup, the administrator can add and remove users as needed.
All pages in a website project will be stored in a database and can be searchable via search engines. Touchline will utilize their SEO Checklist to prepare pages for on-page SEO (search engine optimization).
It is recommended that clients conduct market research and conduct interviews with their customer base to develop a baseline buyer persona to guide all of the company’s marketing efforts, including keyword and keyword phrase definition.
An interactive prototype is a bare bones version of your website that is designed to prove the functionality and features as they will work in the browser. No design elements are applied at this stage as the prototype is just built to allow all parties to make final decisions on the functionality.
- Migration of content from old website to new website (pages, offers, images, etc.).
- Integration with external systems separate from the content management system (WordPress, HubSpot, Squarespace). Examples include Google Apps, Mailchimp, CRM, registration systems.
- Additional website code for purposes outside of design customization.
- Additional HTML, software engineering, other web development code that is not packaged with the theme.
- Re-creation of functionality from the old version of the website that has since been rendered obsolete with HTML5. <FRAME> tags fall into this category.
- Furnishing of stock photography outside of what is included out-of-the-box. If necessary, the client should be prepared to provide their own high-resolution photography and video or be prepared to purchase stock photography via Touchline for applicable content areas of the site.
- Support of third-party code or WordPress Plugins
- On-going maintenance and administration of the web application after deployment. Check our Monthly Website Maintenance Services and for ongoing support.
- On-going Managed SEO support.
- Multilingual capabilities.
- Marketing automation workflow and auto-responders associated to new registration/sign-up, contact us, lead magnets, and other forms. Check our Digital Marketing Starter Program and Custom Digital Marketing Plans for for additional service options.
- Newsletter design & distribution. Check our Digital Marketing Starter Program and Custom Digital Marketing Plans for for additional service options.
- Email marketing, including list building and prospect/member list support. Check our Digital Marketing Starter Program and Custom Digital Marketing Plans for for additional service options.
- Sell sheets, case studies, and other printable material (PDFs). Check our Custom Digital Marketing Plans for for additional service options.
- Social media scheduling or monitoring. Check our Digital Marketing Starter Program and Custom Digital Marketing Plans for additional service options.
- Social media channel/account configuration. Check our Digital Marketing Starter Program and Custom Digital Marketing Plans for additional service options.
We work with clients that are very involved and clients who are not. At a minimum, we request that clients attend scheduled meetings, provide us with access to the systems, people, and materials we need to complete quality work, and review work in a timely manner. A typical Touchline client on a custom plan will allocate 2-5 hours per week to working with us. A “Better Than Nothing” Digital Marketing Starter Program client will allocate 1-2 hours per month to working with us.
WordPress
Your website needs to be hosted by a hosting company that specializes in WordPress hosting. There are many companies that do this. We host many of our client websites at GoDaddy.com. As the world’s largest WordPress hosting provider, they have award-winning, 24/7 support.
HubSpot
Your website will be hosted on the HubSpot Marketing Platform.
Squarespace
Your website will be hosted by Squarespace.
A typical Website Essentials Project will take approximately 8 weeks to complete. Website project enhancements and add-ons may extend the project timeline. Timelines are also subject to variables that are often out of our control, such as systems access, resource availability, and client reviews & sign-off being executed in a timely manner. In some cases, timelines can be accelerated with a well-prepared client.
Discovery [2 Weeks]
- Discovery: Requirements gathering and scope of work review.
- Discovery: Development of a sitemap.
- Discovery: High-level design theme
- Discovery: Requirements gathering
- Discovery: Detailed scope of work
Design [2 Weeks]
- Design: Development of wireframe or functional prototype.
- Design: Website user experience and user interface to allow the target audience to easily navigate and use the website to address their challenges and goals.
Development [3 Weeks]
- Development: Development of a working website on the WordPress content management platform.
Deployment [1 Week]
- Deployment: Final testing and debugging
- Deployment: Pre-Launch Checklist
- Deployment: Migration to production
- Deployment: Post-Launch Checklist
- The client will identify a single point of contact to work with the Touchline Marketing Account Manager.
- The client will provide timely access to all necessary systems.
- The client will assume the ongoing costs of hosting and subscriptions to third-party code / WordPress plugins.
- The client will provide images and photography in a high-resolution format (300 dpi. Min 2000 x 1000).
- The client will have an active email mailbox setup for correspondence.
- The client will provide all necessary text/narrative content for designed/wireframed/prototyped website sections.
Clients can cancel at any time. A 30-day notice is required to discontinue services.
A typical website project project consists of an out-of-the-box deployment of a pre-built theme / design on the most recent version of the selected content management platform (WordPress, HubSpot, SquareSpace).
The functionality of the web application is limited to what is included in the theme / design and native to the content management system. Requested functionality that is not compatible with the out-of-the-box version of the software and/or requires creation of additional website development code (HTML, PHP, CSS, etc) is considered out of scope.
Customizations to the design of the out-of-the-box deployment and documented configurations for systems integration are intended to make the website specific to the client and are outlined in a scope of work.
Unless specifically defined, all our design-related activities allow for up to 2 iterations. With these boundaries in place, it actually forces both the agency and the client to be more efficient with their time and feedback.
The following link provides a sample of pre-launch, launch, and post-launch checklist items completed for a WordPress Website Project.
Sample WordPress Website Launch Checklist (via Touchline Client Cloud)While we like to be flexible and responsive to your needs, we also like to deliver what we promise within the time frames and budgets we have allowed. If you ask us to add new features to your website while we are building it, we will most likely ask why? If we all agree that your new request will help us achieve our objectives then we will be more than happy to oblige. If your new feature is something you would like to add to your website but is not directly tied to your original objectives then we will suggest to schedule it for a second iteration of the website once it has been launched. This will require a new statement of work.
The time it takes for your website to appear on page one of Google depends on a number of factors. It depends on the search phrase people are using to find your website and the number of other websites that are also available for those search phrases. Nobody can truly say how long it will take for your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages (including people who actually work for Google), however, there are a number of factors that can improve your chances. Building your website on WordPress is a good start as WordPress has some great Search Engine Optimization fundamentals built-in. Creating unique and interesting content on a regular basis for your website is also critical to increase your visibility amongst search engines. Launching your website and then forgetting about it is a surefire way to get lost amongst the noise. We are happy to talk to more about your search engine strategy if we haven’t already.
A FREE Market Analysis is available to clients who are new to PPC.
- Includes an estimated cost-per-click (CPC) for achieving top position in the industry and target geographic location. We use the estimated CPC to give you a projection of potential performance assuming an industry standard conversion rate with your landing page.
A FREE Account Audit is available to clients who already have a Google AdWords account.
- Designed to identify wasted ad spend in the following areas: display network, overnight advertising, mobile devices, and search partners. Not all audits will include a waste analysis.
- Includes a brief analysis of other technical issues such as conversion/lead tracking, campaign settings, impression share, ad copy testing, keyword selection, search query analysis, and ad extension review.
- Touchline can execute audits on active AdWords Accounts with ad spend of $1000 or more within the last 30 days.
- Touchline must be provided access to the account to perform an audit.
The most common metrics used to define success criteria for Google AdWords management are:
- Cost Per Lead /OR/ What is the target Cost per Lead ($)?
- Number of Leads /or/ What is the target number of Leads per Month?
WordPress is open source content management software and currently powers around 25% of all websites on the Internet. The project is contributed to by tens of thousands of developers all over the world and is growing from strength to strength. WordPress allows us to develop flexible and customizable websites to modern standards and observes web development best practices. Furthermore the community of web developers that use WordPress reaches far and wide and allows us to tap in to this collective intelligence and bring that wealth of experience to your project.
Google may, at its discretion, place any AdWords account “under review”. During this period (typically 1 to 3 business days), ads will not be eligible to run.
If your company is looking to generate leads from your online marketing, has a sales team to work those leads, and is willing to think creatively, we’re probably a good fit for you. We have experience working with all types of companies, including B2B technology companies, professional services, consulting companies, and real estate firms. We understand that we’re not a fit for everyone, and if we’re not completely confident that we can help you succeed with inbound marketing, we’ll let you know that upfront.
The following is a list of items that clients can typically be expected to provide. Delays during website projects most commonly come from this type of content not being readily available by the development phase of the website project.
- Images – Banners
- Artistic photos suitable for page feature images (2000 pixels X 1000 pixels)
- This content can also be purchased, but is ideal if the content is exclusive and personalized to the organization.
- Images – Client Logos
- ai or .eps file format
- If the above file formats are not available, high resolution transparent .png files can sometimes work.
- Images – Staff Photos – Head Shots
- For each member of the staff to be featured on the website
- Ideally these are professional photos where the staff member looks approachable/happy, wearing professional apparel, and against consistent backdrop (logo drape, logo wall, plain white background).
- Video
- Marketing-ready video that might be applicable to page content (e.g. case studies, services, technology, about Versa).
- Value Proposition Statement
- Format example: Company XYZ helps [Buyer Persona] with [Service] so they can [Buyer Persona Goal] without [Buyer Persona Pain Point].
- Copyrighting – Staff Bios
- Copyrighting – Customer Testimonial Statements
- Copyrighting – Company History
- Copyrighting – Certifications & Awards
- Copyrighting – Services
- Services short description (1-paragrah)
- Services long-form narrative content (600 – 1000 words).
- Case Study – Copy, Images, Video
- Business Driver (goal or pain point that served as the catalyst for the project)
- Solution (what did your company do?)
- Qualitative Results (opinions, observations)
- Quantitative Results (anything that can be expressed as a numbers: revenue, consolidation of systems, headcount, etc.)
- Company Locations (Address, Phone, Email, Hours of Operation)
- Google Maps API Key
- For website integration with Google Maps (Contact Us, Facilities, Events).
- Google’s way of monitoring who uses their mapping engine and how often.
- Free service.
- Instructions at https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/get-api-key
- Google Analytics Property ID / Google Tag Manager Container ID
- For website integration with Google Analytics to track traffic, goals, and conversions.
- Free service.
- Provide if this already exists, otherwise Touchline Marketing can help.
- Tracking Pixel Code (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)
- Google Adwords Remarketing Tag
• For website integration with Google Adwords PPC services.
• Provide if this already exists, otherwise Touchline Marketing can help setup. - DNS Configuration
- So we can turn the lights on to your new site, when ready.
- Your domain name is just an entry on a domain name server (DNS) that point to an associated webserver’s IP address and port number.
- If Touchline is provided access, we can make the DNS configuration changes for you. Otherwise, we can give you the information to make the changes yourself.
Information architecture describes how the different pages of a website are related to each other. This is usually communicated through a visual tool called a sitemap.
A statement that summarizes the unique benefits our company, product, or service delivers to a target customer. What is the product/service? Who is the target audience? What value is provided? Why are they unique? Does that value prop sound cool? Does that really make them sound unique? Do people understand it?
A blog is now a fundamental component of a modern marketing mix. With a best practice implementation of a blog, small and medium-sized businesses get 55% more web visitors, 102% more Twitter followers, and 126% higher lead growth. Search engine ranking algorithms also rely heavily on fresh web content and blogging is an effective way to continually inject fresh content into your site. Blogs can also establish credibility and ensure that you are participating in the discussion about your company. Businesses that post multiple times per day are significantly more likely to generate customers from their blog than those who post only on a monthly basis.
Touchline helps each client establish a unique strategy for their blog and producing content. This may include identifying a process to produce content with subject matter experts at the company and/or supplementing the content generation for the blog with our network of writers, using a strategically defined list of subjects with keywords and phrases.
Our agreements can be configured on an annual contract or a month-to-month basis, similar to a subscription model like Netflix. For annual contracts, the incentive is a discount of up to 20% and you can cancel at any time with an early termination fee. For month-to-month agreements, we simply ask that you provide a courtesy cancellation notice 30 days in advance.
The website will be configured to send data to Google Analytics via a tracking code and, ideally, Google Tag Manager. The instance of Google Analytics will be an out-of-the-box setup with little to customization. Further customization may be desired at a later date to track goals and conversions. The most important part of this deployment is to begin to collect traffic data that can be analyzed later.
Google Analytics is a free web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google Analytics is the most widely used web analytics service on the Internet.
Google Analytics’ approach is to show high-level, dashboard-type data for the casual user, and more in-depth data further into the report set. Google Analytics analysis can identify poorly performing pages with techniques such as funnel visualization, where visitors came from (referrers), how long they stayed and their geographical position. It also provides more advanced features, including custom visitor segmentation.
Your keywords are the key words and phrases in your web-related content that make it possible for people to find your site via search engines. A website that is well optimized for search engines “speaks the same language” as its targeted buyer persona with keywords that help connect searchers to the website. Keywords are one of the main components of SEO.
We can install Google Analytics software on your new website and show you how to log into your Google Analytics account where you can see a wide range of statistics about your website including number of visits, page views than the amount of time people are spending on your website. Once you subscribe to a Monthly Website Maintenance Plan or one of our Custom Digital Marketing Plans, you will also receive more detailed analysis about your website performance and recommendations on how to improve.
On-page search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO that refers to links and other external signals.
On-page SEO continues to change every year, so it’s important to keep up with the latest practices. Touchline uses a handy checklist that helps map buyer persona and associated keywords and phrases to each page. Each page is evaluated for mobile device responsiveness, page length, links, phrase density, use of markup tags <HTML>, intrusive linking, calls-to-action (CTAs), and more.
As an initial attempt to become involved with an approach to modern marketing for your organization, the recommendation is to develop a recurring monthly newsletter to support list building and basic lead nurturing. Development of a recurring eNewsletter is a basic core component to any organization’s marketing strategy. Touchline has developed a repeatable and scalable process for construction of a company eNewsletter that is focused around efficiency and effectiveness.
Google Analytics is a web traffic analytics service offered by Google and is the most widely used web analytics service on the Internet. The purpose is to show high-level, dashboard-type, data and more in-depth data that can identify poorly performing pages with techniques such as funnel visualization, where visitors came from (referrers), how long they stayed and their geographical position.
Once PPC on-boarding items/tasks can be completed, Touchline Marketing can begin active management of the client Google AdWords Account in as little as 5 business days.
SSL Certificates validate your website’s identity, and encrypt the information visitors send to, or receive from, your site. SSL websites can most often be recognized by the https prefix in the URL and a security or padlock icon visible in a user’s browser. The primary reasons to apply SSL to your site are:
• Keep thieves from spying on any exchange between you and your shoppers
• Gain customer confidence
• Safely accept credit cards on your website
• Gain a better search engine ranking (i.e. Google)
Touchline recommends that all clients apply an SSL certificate to their website. The cost associated SSL Certificates typically varies from $50-$200/year depending on the level of validation and is not included as part of this website project. Touchline can help clients interested in applying an SSL certificate on their website.
Although we’ve built hundreds of websites since 1995… we’re not only web designers, we’re digital marketers. Our team will create a website that aligns with your marketing initiatives, not act as a billboard in the desert. Our website designs are based on strategy. We listen to our clients and develop a web design strategy that reflects their business objectives (ex. lead generation, awareness, customer loyalty). We create websites with these client objectives in mind.
It’s common for people to think that inbound marketing alone will generate an immediate spike in leads. Although this can happen if a campaign goes “viral”, albeit rare, inbound marketing is a long-term play. As with everything in life, balance is the key.
Inbound marketing is opposite of advertising. Effective advertising, which is often much more expensive than inbound, can generate that spike in results, however, once you turn it off, the results go away. Inbound marketing is more like investing in the stock market, where results compound with more content you release and followers, subscribers, and database contacts you build. Also like investing in stocks, your investment will continue to produce returns even if you stop contributing since past content will continue to get found in search engines, generating traffic and leads for years to come.
It may be a few months before you can start seeing a true ROI from inbound marketing, but the long-term benefits will power your future sales efforts and can significantly increase the value of your business. A recent study from HubSpot reports that 83% of respondents saw a measurable increase in lead generation within 7 months, and 65% reported seeing a measurable increase after only 4 months — And remember, performance gets significantly better over time.
