1. Session 4 - Client's strategies and tactics
1.1. Current strategy
1.1.1. Explain the difference between Strategy and Tactics
1.1.2. "What is your current growth strategy?"
1.1.3. Do an informal SWOT analysis...
1.1.4. Strengths
1.1.5. Weaknesses
1.1.6. Opportunities
1.1.7. Threats
1.2. Strategy Options
1.2.1. Use a traffic + conversion strategy to...
1.2.1.1. Get more leads/sales/donations
1.2.1.2. Grow an email list
1.2.2. [Everything below also supports a T + C master strategy]
1.2.3. Use email to increase the amount of interactions your client has with their existing and potential customers.
1.2.3.1. Newsletters
1.2.3.2. Promos
1.2.3.3. Autoresponder/nurture series
1.2.4. Use social media to publicly engage with your existing/potential customers.
1.2.4.1. Fish bowl
1.2.4.2. Syndicate out content marketing...
1.2.4.3. Facebook
1.2.4.4. Twitter
1.2.4.5. Linkedin
1.2.4.6. Yelp
1.2.4.7. Foursquare
1.2.4.8. Youtube
1.2.4.9. Vine
1.2.5. Use content marketing to illustrate expertise, establish credibility, drive traffic, and increase search net.
1.2.5.1. Articles
1.2.5.2. White papers
1.2.5.3. Blog
1.2.5.4. Guest posts
1.2.5.5. Webinars
1.2.5.6. Seminars
1.3. Research
1.3.1. Find examples
1.3.1.1. Don't reinvent the wheel.
1.3.1.2. Find examples in the industry, related industries, or related business models where there is someone executing on your recommended strategy well.
1.3.1.3. The best example would be an existing client / past success story.
1.3.1.4. Create a "Swipe File"
1.3.1.4.1. Homepage screenshots
1.3.1.4.2. Search traffic screenshots
1.3.1.4.3. Email autoresponder samples
1.3.1.4.4. Workflow mindmaps
2. Session 3 - Client's competition and market
2.1. Market
2.1.1. Approximate market size
2.1.2. Are you focused on...
2.1.2.1. Local
2.1.2.2. Regional
2.1.2.3. National
2.1.2.4. International
2.1.3. Industry Associations or Groups
2.1.4. Industry Publications
2.1.4.1. Are there publications that are more 'customer-centric' than competitor-specific?
2.1.5. What would you consider the biggest opportunity is in the market?
2.2. Competition
2.2.1. Review existing competition
2.2.1.1. In the physical world (usually supplied by client
2.2.1.2. In the online space (bring found competitors
2.2.1.3. Review brand reach, website, SEO profile, engagement levels
2.2.2. What do your competitors do better than you?
2.2.3. What do you better than them?
2.2.4. Do you have any type of relationship with them?
2.2.4.1. ie. Friendly, competitive, arch-nemesis...
2.2.5. What do you think your biggest opportunity is to beat your competition?
2.3. Homework for ME prior to Session 4
2.3.1. Market
2.3.1.1. Research each association
2.3.1.1.1. Are there content marketing opportunities?
2.3.1.1.2. Are there opportunities for links?
2.3.1.2. Research each publication
2.3.1.2.1. Are there content marketing opportunities?
2.3.1.2.2. Are there opportunities for links?
2.3.2. Competition
2.3.2.1. Do the "existing site" research from above on each of the competitors that were mentioned by client.
2.3.2.2. Do the "existing site" research on each competitor you find that ranks well for competitive/trafficked keyword terms.
3. Session 2 - Client's Customers
3.1. Different customer segments
3.1.1. Who are their customers?
3.1.2. Do different customers buy different products?
3.1.3. Are different customers in different funnels/workflows with the business?
3.2. Create avatar
3.2.1. For each customer segment...
3.2.2. What pains/problems do they have?
3.2.3. What is the solution that you provide?
3.2.4. What market do you consider this customer in?
3.2.5. What is their annual income/revenue?
3.2.6. How old are they?
3.2.7. What other products and services do they use?
3.2.8. What are their spending habits?
3.2.9. Are there any personality traits that uniquely identify them?
3.3. CURRENT Customer Avatar #1
3.4. CURRENT Customer Avatar #2
3.5. POTENTIAL Customer Profile #1
3.6. POTENTIAL Customer Profile #2
3.7. Homework for ME prior to session 3
3.7.1. Collect competitors list
3.7.2. Do competitive research and try and identify "unknown" competitors in the online space
3.7.3. Any market research (Hoovers.com, LinkedIn, FreshKey, SpyFu etc)
3.7.4. Who's performing well in a organic and paid search in this space?
3.7.5. Use Moz Open Site Explorer to evaluate SEO profiles
4. Session 1 - Client's Business
4.1. Discuss Stated Needs
4.2. Products/Sales
4.2.1. Tell me how would you define your business?
4.2.2. Talk about the categories of products you offer
4.2.3. What's your yearly sales cycle like? Busy, slow times etc?
4.2.3.1. Busy
4.2.3.2. Slow
4.2.4. How do you generate awareness?
4.2.5. Describe a customer journey through your sales funnel
4.2.5.1. Funnel 1
4.2.5.2. Funnel 2
4.2.6. What are the products that are most profitable?
4.2.7. If you could increase sales of one product category, what would be the first priority?
4.3. Goals
4.3.1. How do you measure success within your business?
4.3.1.1. What metrics do you look at daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly?
4.3.1.2. What reporting tools do you use?
4.3.1.3. Who else evaluates success within your business?
4.3.2. Business objectives need to be transformed into measurable success criteria. E.g. an objective to increase sales could become a measure of success that specifies a 20% increase in repeat orders within 6 months. Without measurable goals it is difficult to know whether the project has generated a return on investment.
4.3.3. Revenue
4.3.3.1. Current Revenue Targets?
4.3.3.2. Revenue from past three years?
4.4. Structure
4.4.1. Stakeholders/Titles/Responsibilities within the business
4.4.2. Key stakeholders involved in making the decision to for a marketing/sales project?
4.4.2.1. If they are not in the meeting with you...
4.4.2.2. "It might make sense to involve them at certain parts in the process, is that ok?"
4.5. Homework for ME before session 2
4.5.1. Fill in notes from Session 1
4.5.2. 1 to 2 twenty min interviews with staff that has most contact with current customers
4.5.3. Create whatever Customer Profiles I can from the interviews
5. Session 5 - Solution Presentation
5.1. This is what we heard you say
5.2. This are some strengths we've identified
5.3. These are the problems we identified
5.4. Here are our solutions for those problems
5.5. Did we understand you correctly?
5.5.1. Yes
5.5.1.1. Attach price and timelines to solution and present proposal
5.5.2. No
5.5.2.1. Adjust scope doc and send for approval, then move to proposal