However, crafting an effective RFP can be daunting and time-consuming. In this blog post, we’ll share tips for writing a successful RFP that gets noticed by everyone. We will also address common pitfalls and suggest alternatives for scenarios where an RFP might not be the best approach. Keep reading to learn how to write an effective RFP for hiring a WordPress developer.

Why Do Organizations Rely on RFPs?

Organizations often use RFPs for several reasons:

• Standardization: RFPs provide a structured format that ensures all potential vendors receive the same information, making it easier to compare responses.
• Automatic Processes: Many organizations have established procedures that require RFPs for transparency and accountability, particularly in government, education, and nonprofit sectors.
• Meeting Requirements: RFPs help ensure the selection process adheres to inclusive practices and specific organizational policies and regulations.

Challenges of Writing an RFP for Hiring a WordPress Developer

While RFPs offer a standardized approach, they come with significant challenges:

• Time-Consuming: Crafting a detailed RFP for hiring a WordPress developer requires considerable time and effort, from defining project requirements to reviewing responses.
• Expensive: The RFP process can be costly, involving multiple stakeholders and often requiring legal or consultant fees.
• Limiting: RFPs can stifle creativity and innovation, leading some to say, “RFPs are considered the least creative way to hire vendors.” The rigid format often limits vendors’ ability to propose unique solutions.

Common Reasons Why RFPs Receive Few Responses

Many RFPs go unanswered due to the following reasons:

• Unreasonable Deadlines: If the submission timelines are too short, potential vendors may not have enough time to prepare a comprehensive response.
• Unreasonable Budget: A budget that does not align with the project’s scope or market rates can deter qualified vendors.
• Extremely Restrictive Requirements: Overly specific requirements may exclude capable vendors with innovative solutions.
• Too Broad of Requirements: Vague or overly broad requirements can lead to confusion and disinterest.

Tips for Writing a Successful RFP

• Be Clear and Concise: Clearly outline your project goals, objectives, and deliverables. Include any specific technical requirements and preferred features.
• Set Realistic Deadlines: Given the complexity of your project, give vendors ample time to prepare their proposals.
• Define the Budget: Offer a realistic budget range and be transparent about financial constraints. This helps vendors gauge if the project is viable for them.
• Encourage Creativity: Allow flexibility in how vendors can meet your requirements. Encourage them to propose innovative solutions that you might not have considered.
• Provide Evaluation Criteria: Clearly state how proposals will be evaluated. This transparency helps vendors tailor their responses to your priorities.

Remedies for Low-Response RFPs

If your RFP is not attracting responses, consider the following remedies:

• Review and Adjust: Reevaluate the requirements, budget, and deadlines. Seek feedback from vendors on why they didn’t respond.
• Engage Directly: Reach out to potential vendors directly for feedback and insights into improving your RFP.
• Simplify the Process: Reduce complexity by focusing on essential requirements and allowing flexibility in how vendors meet them.

When RFPs Are Unnecessary

In some cases, issuing an RFP may not be the best approach. Here are situations where direct engagement is more effective:

• Small Projects: The RFP process can be overkill for smaller projects. Instead, research and contact a list of reputable WordPress developers directly.
• Tight Timelines: When time is of the essence, contacting developers directly can expedite the hiring process.
• Niche Expertise: If your project requires specific expertise, directly contacting specialists can be more efficient than casting a wide net with an RFP.

A Strong RFP Can Secure Your Dream WordPress Project

Writing an effective RFP for hiring a WordPress website developer involves balancing clarity, detail, and flexibility. While RFPs can standardize the selection process, they are not always the most creative or efficient method.

By understanding the common pitfalls and knowing when to bypass the RFP process, you can better navigate the complexities of hiring a WordPress developer and ensure your project’s success. If you need help crafting an RFP or deciding the best approach for your project, feel free to reach out to our team for guidance and support.

The post How to Write an Effective RFP for Hiring a WordPress Developer appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Amazingly, these potential clients were surprised to learn that their requests were last-minute. In their minds, one month or so is plenty of time to build a brand-new website or complete a website redesign. It’s not.

We feel pretty bad about not being able to accommodate these requests. If we could, WebDevStudios would have the capacity to help everyone who comes to our virtual door.

The reality is we can’t. Here’s why:

• Working Hours: Like most any company, WebDevStudios (WDS) does not operate 24/7. We keep the usual 9-5 business hours. We close our offices during the usual holidays. A healthy work-life balance is very important to us and will always result in higher-quality work.
• Ongoing Clients: WDS is very lucky to have a group of clients who require ongoing development and keep us busy. Their projects are already booked on our calendar.
• New Client Projects: Most of the potential clients who contact us to build a website do so in advance. That allows them to be placed in our work queue, guaranteeing that their projects will launch by their selected deadline.
• Contracts and Legal: Paperwork always takes more time than anticipated. It can generally take two weeks just to finalize the language in agreements and prepare the documents for signature. We can’t kick off your project until we have an agreed-upon signed contract.

Now that I’ve clarified that our ongoing clients and clients who contact us with plenty of lead time receive priority and that our team builds websites during the usual office hours, you can understand why last-minute requests are not accommodated.

Having explained that, I hope that the following information guides you to plan ahead so you don’t find yourself being turned away from a website agency.

How much lead time do you need?

Lead time varies depending on the scope of work. My best recommendation is to begin contacting website companies at least 3-4 months ahead of your desired launch date.

This is the point when you’re collecting quotes and interviewing prospective website partners. If your key stockholders of this project require a lot of time to debate and decide on a partner, you may want to build in another two weeks of lead time, especially if you have a legal team involved.

Once you have chosen your website partner, it could take 3+ months to build a website.

Why does building a website take time?

There are all sorts of factors that affect the amount of time needed to build a website. These are only a few.

• The website project is complex. We love website projects that require customized solutions. WDS excels at those. Still, big websites require a lot of time. WebDevStudios places a great deal of importance on coding standards. We want to make sure we get it right. That will take an investment of time.
• In order for a website project to be successful, it cannot be rushed. At WebDevStudios, we make thoughtful decisions about your projects. We don’t believe in rushing to meet an unrealistic timeline. Do you want your new website project rushed or done correctly?
• New requirements were uncovered during the project. Adding more tasks to the website project means adding more time, too.
• Limited work hours influences a project. I can’t think of a single website agency that operates 24 hours a day. Like I said before, our team works the usual business hours. We don’t believe in overworking our staff. If we did, we probably wouldn’t have one.

When should you plan for your next website project?

Are you looking to build a website with a spring launch date? Contact us now.

Want to launch in the summer? You can reach out to us in March. If you’re looking to launch over the 2023 holidays, I hope we’ll hear from you in August.

Planning ahead is just smart. WebDevStudios wants to make your website project a priority and get you in our queue. We can’t wait to talk to you soon.

The post Why Building a Website Takes Longer Than You Think appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Updates

Whatever platform you’re using, there will always be updates. Since WebDevStudios (WDS) specializes in WordPress, we’re going to focus on that for the remainder of this blog post.

So long as hardware and software technology improves and internet browsers add new features, WordPress will always have updates. That’s just the nature of tech. Constantly updating your website is proof that your website is never finished.

All of these WordPress updates mean updates for your themes and plugins, too. These updates are imperative to the health of your website, so it’s vital that you stay on top of them.

This could mean you need a weekly maintenance strategy, but if you don’t have the time or patience to manage this yourself, we highly recommend you sign up for one of the maintenance plans at Maintainn, a WDS-owned company. Let our team take care of the heavy lifting so you can focus on the operations side of your business.

Content

We’ll get to blogging in just a moment, which is also another example of why your website is never finished; however, let’s talk about your static content. This means the words and media you have on your static pages, such as your Homepage, About page, Contact page, etc.

Calling them static pages is a bit misleading, but for the most part, you probably don’t touch these pages on a regular basis. Yet, what if you change your business hours, address, or add a new service or product worth mentioning on one of your static landing pages? Every website requires an update to their content at some point in the lifetime of that site.

For example, our team is growing! It seems like on a weekly basis, I am having to add a new team member to our website. So, if the website for a WordPress agency like WebDevStudios is never completed, rest assured that yours isn’t either.

Marketing Campaigns

If you’re actively marketing your business, and you should be, you may run a few campaigns a year that require a landing page on your website. The Save the Snow Day campaign that Campbell’s created is a great example. WebDevStudios was the selected website design and development agency for that campaign, which included a new landing page with its own unique URL.

Whether it’s for a sweepstakes, a special anniversary event, or to promote a new subdivision of your company, chances are that you’ll need landing pages for your marketing campaigns. See? Your website is forever an unfinished product.

New Branding

Fashion changes and so does design. Your brand’s logo may have been a hit in 1999, but in 2021, it might be a time for an update.

Updating your branding is very exciting. The first thing you’ll want to do is replace all of the old branding on your website with your new look. Let’s face it—if your company is decades old, you will probably go through many iterations of branding. That’s normal, but know that it means your website is never finished.

Pro tip: If you’re too overwhelmed to update your branding yourself, head over to Maintainn. The Support Program is the perfect solution for this task.

New Features

Have you ever visited someone else’s website and discovered some cool, new feature that you didn’t even know websites could do? It happens to all of us, usually resulting in hiring a developer to add this same feature to our own website. As I said before, technology is always improving. If you can enhance your website by integrating some impressive feature, why wouldn’t you? Just be sure to contact us when you do.

Testing, Analysis, Improvement

This next point really proves that your website is never finished, so pay close attention. You should be constantly monitoring conversion. If you see a downtick in signups or purchases, you owe it yourself to find out the cause. To accomplish that, you will have to run tests, analyze, and make improvements.

You may have to run A/B tests on content and landing pages to see which elements are most successful at converting website visitors into customers. Once you have those answers, you’ll want to implement changes. Staying on top of testing, analysis, and making improvements, again, proves that your website is not done upon launch.

Blogging and SEO

Just like you need to remain cognizant of the conversion rate of your website, you also need keep a watchful eye on your SEO efforts. One of they ways to win at this game is through blogging. Blogging regularly means strengthening your placement in search results. So long as you are always blogging and always tending to your SEO, your website is forever a work in progress.

Think of your website as a garden in need of daily nurturing. Paying attention to it consistently will only help your business grow and flourish, and isn’t that what you want? Your website is never finished, but that’s okay. Success is not a destination. It is a journey, and we invite you to contact us to join yours.

The post Your Website Is Never Finished appeared first on WebDevStudios.

People exercise an unconscious selection in being influenced. – T. S. Eliot

That’s hot. – Paris Hilton

Call it thought leadership or endorsement, influencer marketing is a viable digital marketing trend that continues to remain popular. Businesses that incorporate it into their overall marketing strategy stand to benefit by increasing their online brand presence, attracting customers through published testimonials, and selling more product or services. If you’re planning to launch an influencer marketing campaign, I have some words of wisdom. Here are some questions you need to ask yourself about the role your website plays in influencer marketing, along with some helpful tips.

Does your website influence the influencer?

I’m going to be really, really blunt. Ready?

If your website looks outdated, unprofessional, or just plain ugly, influencers will not want to work with you.

Sorry if that hurts, but it’s the plain truth. Influencers are a savvy crowd with discerning taste. That’s why they’re influencers! If your website looks like it was designed in 2004, expect them to snub your pitches to join your influencer marketing campaign. Before replying to any outreach communications you send the influencers you want to work with, know that they will investigate your brand and website.

Everything on your website will be judged by influencers, including:

• Fonts
• Colors
• Product/service landing pages
• Imagery
• Shopping cart
• Overall design and style
• Security
• Blog content
• Website performance

Prior to contacting influencers, you should tidy up your website. It has to look fresh, modern, and on-trend. Plus, your website’s performance has to ‘wow’ them, too. Make it your goal to inspire your potential influencers to feel eager about joining your influencer marketing campaign.

Is your website optimized?

The whole point of an influencer marketing campaign is to increase sales. Is your website prepared for an onslaught of web traffic? Influencers have their own brand reputation to think about, too. The last thing they want is to send their followers to a website that crashes. That would be embarrassing for them.

You also want to ensure that your website is optimized so that product or service landing pages load quickly. If anything on your site takes more than three seconds to load, more than likely, that visitor will bounce. Congratulations. You’ve just lost a sale.

Is the user experience (UX) impressive?

People follow influencers because they feel connected to that person; they feel engaged. These same people need to feel connected to your brand and engaged with your website, too. This is essential if you want to keep them around. Give them a website experience that knocks their socks off!

Present these new visitors with an impressive UX that makes them forget that it was an influencer who brought them to your website, and give them an experience that makes them return for more. The most dynamic UX can win them over and make your brand the new influencer on the block.

Is your website 100% secure?

As is the case with a website that crashes, a website that is easy to hack and allows for personal information to be stolen would be mortifying for any influencer. Now that you have garnered the attention of your influencer’s followers and converted them into customers, prove that your website is a reliable, secure place of business by providing a rock-solid, safe payment gateway.

Influencer marketing is a proven marketing strategy that every business should consider, no matter the industry. Don’t jump the gun before you launch your campaign. Get your website in proper shape first, and when you decide you need a trusted partner for that, contact WebDevStudios.

The post The Role Your Website Plays in Influencer Marketing appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Let’s pretend you are building a house. Would you rather go through the headache of hiring the architect, carpenter, roofer, electrician, plumber, etc. as separate vendors, cross your fingers and hope they work well together, or hire a single builder and let them take care of putting together the group of professionals necessary to build the home of your dreams? The latter certainly sounds easier and a better way to avoid buying bottles upon bottles of aspirin to kill all those migraines that are destined to arrive if you chose the former option.

This methodology applies to building your website, too. The better alternative to juggling multiple vendors is to partner with a single one that can facilitate all necessary website services: development, design, maintenance, hosting, and optimization. That’s how we do at it WebDevStudios.

As a website design and development agency with over a decade’s worth of experience and know-how, we already have the proper relationships in place ready to yield those services we do not provide ourselves. For example, when one of our global media clients needs dependable website hosting scaled to support a massive audience, we turn to WP Engine. With an established partnership of eight years, we can confidently assign such an important responsibility to this reputable company knowing our clients will be provided with impeccable, polished, dependable service.

Our chosen partners are a reflection of our own reputation, and we would never choose to establish a relationship with any company that didn’t meet our high standards and utilize best practices. When you, as a business entity, select multiple vendors, who probably haven’t worked together before, and expect them to figure out how to operate seamlessly, you are taking a chance and throwing caution to the wind. Here’s why.

There Are Risks to Coordinating Multiple Vendors

There are always risks in life and in business, but if you can do something to mitigate those risks and set your website project up for success, why wouldn’t you? The following are just a few of the things that could go wrong when you’re forced to maneuver your way through the labyrinth of coordinating multiple vendors.

Miscommunication

Of course there is bound to be miscommunication when vendors, who don’t already have relationships, work together. There could be a multitude of reasons why this happens, including different geographical locations and time zones or differing methods of communications (i.e., communicating via Basecamp vs. communicating via telephone). When working with a website team that already has established partnerships in place, kinks in communications have already been resolved in the past, making the possibility of miscommunication obsolete.

Lack of Coordination

By piecemealing the key players of your website project, the coordination of the statement of work falls fully on your shoulders. Expecting your vendors, again, who have not worked together before, to take on the job of project management is expecting way too much.

At WebDevStudios, we have an experienced project management team whose job is to lead the coordination of your website project. Because we have our established partnerships in place, such as with WP Engine, our project managers know who the key players are, their processes, and can easily coordinate with other vendors to ensure the efficiency of your project’s life cycle.

Lack of Familiarity of Processes

One vendor may work one way while another vendor has different processes in place. If these vendors have never worked together before, how could they possibly be aware of each other’s processes? Website development partners who are already familiar with one another’s processes and practices are able to work together with a synchronicity that will support the success of your project.

Benefits of Working with a Website Team with Established Partners in Place

Now that you understand the risks of working with multiple vendors who are not established partners let’s review the benefits.

Save Time Searching for Vendors

Now that you have the approval and budget necessary to launch your new website project, along with a tight deadline, how much time did you build into your timeline for shopping around for vendors? It’s likely you completely forgot about this aspect of your project. Most business professionals do.

Don’t be surprised if it takes you weeks to put together the right team of web designers, developers, host providers, support engineers, and SEO consultants. Also, the time you spend shopping around for companies that accommodate your timeline and budget is time that could be used on the development of your website. By choosing a single website team with established partnerships in place, you save so much time by relying on that one team to provide the right suppliers for those additional services required to meet your project’s goals.

Streamline Your Project Life Cycle

Efficiency is key. Vendors who already know how to work together will provide you with a surprisingly smooth, streamlined experience when it comes to the life cycle of your project. Think about it. Just the planning process to kick off your project was probably overwhelming and nerve-racking, wasn’t it? You don’t want to have to deal with that kind of stress throughout the life cycle of your project. Select a website team with established partnerships in place and you won’t have to.

Receive Your Project on Time

Time is money, and missing or postponing an announced date for your website project can make you cringe. Whatever your selected date is for your website launch, it’s an important one! Don’t miss it simply because one vendor miscommunicated with another. Place the responsibility of adhering to your timeline in the hands of a trusted team and rest easy knowing that you will receive your project on time.

Remain on Budget

Budgets should be honored and respected. A website team with established partnerships in place knows this and will emphasize the importance of your budget with their partners. Because of the strength of their relationships, they’ll work together to ensure the integrity of their reputations and your financial limitations.

Our Team Becomes Your Team

Just like extensions and applications enhance the functionality of your internet browser or smartphone, a website team with established partnerships in place can strengthen the abilities and capacity of your in-house development team. With our clients, our team becomes their team. Our partners become theirs, too. This synergy creates unlimited potential for the growth and success of your website and any future enhancements you may decide to add at a later time.

Convinced, yet? Just the ease of handing over the responsibilities of a huge job to a single, competent website team should be enough to sway you from the juggling act of hiring multiple vendors yourself. The launch of your website project should be exciting, joyous, and inspiring, not stressful, tense, and daunting. Choose a website team with established partnerships in place and turn your website project into a joyful, memorable milestone in the history of your organization. Contact us and let’s talk about how our team can become yours.

The post Benefits of Working with a Website Team with Established Partnerships in Place appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Before we get into my recommendations for building successful client relationships virtually, I want to first mention that, to me, communication and good conversation are the keys to many things. I often reference the following excerpt from “My Students Don’t Know How to Have a Conversation” by Paul Barnwell (The Atlantic, April 2014). Has the art of conversation eluded us? Regardless if it’s virtual or in person, conversation is the solidifying factor between a good experience and a bad experience for a client.

As I watched my class struggle, I came to realize that conversational competence might be the single-most overlooked skill we fail to teach students. Kids spend hours each day engaging with ideas and one another through screens—but rarely do they have an opportunity to truly hone their interpersonal communication skills. Admittedly, teenage awkwardness and nerves play a role in difficult conversations. But students’ reliance on screens for communication is detracting—and distracting—from their engagement in real-time talk. It might sound like a funny question, but we need to ask ourselves: Is there any 21st-century skill more important than being able to sustain confident, coherent conversation?

Take Care

It is essential that you are taking care of yourself first. Good sleep, hydration, and movement are key factors in one’s performance. It’s very easy to feel more fatigued working from home. I’m not sure why this happens but I believe it has to do with the scenery staying the same and finding that separation between home and work is hard. I have this problem in that I have a home office but have never actually used it. I don’t feel productive in that space. I end up roaming around the house. Someone told me there is no room police and I’m allowed to use any room in the house for work. Not everyone can do that and some require a dedicated space. Bottom line, do what works for you.

Find Time

My number-one productivity rule: if a task takes less than two minutes to complete, do it right now. That includes, answering emails even if it is to say, “I’ve received this and will respond shortly.”

As a true extrovert, time is an illusion to me. My most productive hours are 7:00 a.m. through 11:00 a.m. and then again from 9:00 p.m. through 11:00 p.m. I’ve always been like this. Because I know this about myself, I have to structure my day in a way that makes sense. Doing client calls at 3:00 p.m., while sometimes necessary, is not the best for me. I also have to make a list each morning to outline my priorities. Before having conversations with other humans, it is essential that I clear my mind of my “to-dos” so that I’m free to interact and focus on client relationships. Lists are a great way for me to do this. I also use my productive hours to get things done before I start my day, such as watering plants, making breakfast, walking the dogs, making the bed, etc. If I have these tasks completed before I wish my colleagues a good morning, I’m in a much better head space. That is the goal after all, to get to a point where I can freely engage in conversation.

Be Present

Efficiency when multitasking has been proven to be a fallacy. It hurts your brain and really cuts down on your productivity. It can also be, quite frankly, rude.

When you have a client phone call on your schedule, clear the chatter around you. That means close tabs, shut off Slack, turn your phone on silent. If your desire is to build successful client relationships virtually, then your clients must know you are there for them.

When I’m about to embark on a virtual call with clients, I still use all the techniques I would use if I were meeting them in person. For example, years of vocal training taught me a trick on how to sit/stand up straight. Imagine a string attached to the top of your head and it connects to the ceiling. That visualization helps to position yourself appropriately. It’s also important that your camera and monitor be at the correct height. You want to appear professional, prepared, and present for your client.

I also like to ask my clients if I can record our phone call to refer back to later. This frees me up from having to take notes. I feel less engaged in the conversation when I’m typing or writing notes. I’ve also noticed that if I have on my blue blockers glasses it looks like inception in the lenses. The reflection really shows up on video calls, so I remove them. And while I love the creativeness of the different backgrounds people are using, I do find them distracting so when I’m on a call with clients. I stick with my boring wall and plants in the background.

Choose Words

Language is a powerful tool. The words that we choose can be the difference between a good conversation and a great conversation. There were a couple of things I had to learn about word selection for virtual conversations.

First, the pace for the conversation is often different. It’s easy to talk over someone or cut someone off due to technical difficulties or simply because of internet delay. This means you have to be patient and take a breath before jumping in. Everyone wants to be heard, so it’s natural to become excited and simply start talking, but we don’t have the luxury of full bodily cues when meeting virtually.

If you are hosting the phone call, it becomes your responsibility to establish control of the conversation. I don’t mean control in a bad way, but you should start the call with introductions and calling on people, if you have to. Think of yourself as a facilitator. Pro tip: having an agenda for the call really helps to structure the conversation.

Authenticity needs to be as transparent as possible in your facial expression and tonality. It’s okay to not know everything. Saying you don’t know is not only okay, it is essential.

One of my biggest communication challenges is the amount of qualifying words and phrases that I use. It has become a personal mission for me to remove them from my communication style. A perfect example is strategizing an email with, “Sorry to bother you,” or starting a sentence with, “I just wanted to.” Not only does it sound needy, it’s untrue. I do need to bother people sometimes.

Manners go a long way. Robert Cialdini explains in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, the principle of reciprocity as a powerful motivator. It is in our nature to not want to feel indebted to others. When someone gives us something, we are wired to give back in some way. When customers receive something like a handwritten thank-you note, they feel compelled to reciprocate (hopefully with repeat business or additional scope of work).

Stay Motivated

If I’m feeling tired or like I need a break, I find my pups and play or go for a walk. There is a lot to be said for stepping away from your computer for a few minutes. Don’t force conversations. Allow yourself the time and energy you need to have them correctly.

• Find what works for you.
• Do it often.
• Congratulate yourself on staying motivated during unprecedented times.
• We are growing and adapting together.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
-George Bernard Shaw

Recommended Viewing

The post Building Successful Client Relationships Virtually appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Consumers everywhere are paying attention to the ingredients that we are consuming and the potential negative effects those ingredients have. Consumers want to know the ingredients of their food, hair, skin, makeup, household, baby products and more. It has given rise to new businesses that use more natural ingredients and it forces older corporations to adapt by reevaluating the ingredients currently in their products. 

Benefits of Product Transparency

This movement doesn’t just benefit consumers, but also you as a business. If you are transparent about your ingredients, it will help you to build trust and loyalty with your consumer. According to a survey conducted by Ingredient Communications, 73% of consumers are willing to spend a higher retail price for ingredients they recognize and trust. When I shop, I will always buy the higher-priced item, if I know and can pronounce all of the ingredients. I will stick with a brand if it has earned my trust. 

If you are too embarrassed to showcase your ingredients, it may be time for you to revamp your products and use ingredients that are considered clean. According to Food Insider, global sales of clean-label products hit $165 billion in 2015 and is projected to reach $180 billion this year. Jump on board so you can get a piece of that pie. 

Online grocery sales are also predicted to be a $100 billion dollar industry by 2022 and will account for 20% of all grocery sales, according to the Food Marketing Institute. This means that your website and products need a strong online presence to ensure you’re capturing those online consumers. By listing all of the ingredients of your products on your website, you are improving your SEO keywords and becoming more visible to online consumers who are searching for products with those ingredients!

Displaying Ingredients on Your Website 

Add Ingredients to Your Product Page

The simple way for displaying ingredients on your consumer goods site is by creating a page for each of your products. You can have images of the product, descriptions, add-to-cart button, if they can buy online, and a section that lists all of your ingredients. Please be sure to make the ingredients really stand out and noticeable. 

One of our clients, Campbell Soup Company, does this really well on their Well-Yes website. They have a Featured Ingredients section highlighting key ingredients and nutrition information. This section also has eye-catching images of vegetables, beans, and peppers, which makes me feel as if I picked those from the garden and made the soup myself. If I scroll further down, their ingredients are prominently displayed, easy to read, and are all ingredients I recognize and trust. 

On the Pepperidge Farm site, we created this template for Campbell Soup Company to again showcase the ingredients of Goldfish Crackers. Who knew that Goldfish Crackers contained beets?!

Where Are Your Ingredients Sourced?

If you get your ingredients from local farmers or you source from other countries, it may be a great idea to create a web page showing where those ingredients come from. Are your ingredients fair-trade or sourced from another country? You can showcase the people and the culture that contribute to that product.

Are your ingredients sustainable or eco-friendly? Showcase the animals or environment you are saving and the great impact your products have. You can create a separate page or site with all of the information consumers may want to know about your ingredients and where it came from.

WebDevStudios worked with the Campbell Soup Company to build an informational website: What’s In My Food? Campbell’s is rightly proud of the food they make and understands that their consumers may have questions about the ingredients used in their products. We created a transparent website project with What’s In My Food? that gives you all of the information you need to know about your food and its ingredients. 

Control the Narrative

Some ingredients you use may have a bad reputation. Blogs, social media and other news outlets can ruin your brand if they release content that sheds a negative light on ingredients you’re using. The vegan brand, Impossible Burgers, received a lot of backlash for an ingredient they use, Heme, which gives the product its “bloody” look and iron-rich flavor. 

The news outlets scared me and I thought about not eating Impossible Burgers anymore, especially when I found out it was made in labs. Before giving up completely, I went to their website and was impressed by how Impossible Burgers took control of the narrative by thoroughly explaining that ingredient on their website.

They show exactly how it’s made in their labs, showcase how sustainable it is, and how it helps to save the environment. They are also transparent about the labs and scientists who create the product, which is a level of transparency I’ve never seen before! Equipped with both sides of the story, I was able to make a decision to keep supporting their products.

Nutritional Facts Panel Plugin

Campbell Soup Company is 151 years old and I am willing to bet they’ve lasted this long because they adjust with the times. We built a Nutritional Facts Panel Plugin in WordPress for their website that displays all of the nutritional facts for their products. In addition to viewing ingredients, consumers can also easily see the serving size, vitamins, minerals protein, sugars, etc. in their products. 

With the increase in online shopping, this feature helps consumers to see important information you typically can only see if you’re holding the physical product in the store. One challenge of this feature is ensuring the panel stays compliant with FDA Regulations; so that means it needs to be regularly updated when there are changes. 

Conclusion

Society is no longer blindly consuming or purchasing products. Reading ingredients is critical to ensure that people are consuming products that are good for their health, prevents diseases, do not trigger allergies and are eco-friendly. For some people, it’s also important that the product be sustainable, fair-trade, cruelty-free or vegan. Don’t neglect the importance of displaying ingredients on your consumer goods website. Use this as an opportunity to show consumers you are aware and just as concerned about these issues.

Interested in a solution like this for your consumer goods website? Contact us!

The post Product Transparency: Displaying Ingredients on Your Consumer Goods Website appeared first on WebDevStudios.

A crisis is a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger. By this definition, a crisis one faces can be as simple as being short-staffed one night to an extreme of requiring emergency response to a tragic event. When presented with a crisis, how quickly and how effectively you respond to it makes a dramatic impact on how you and your organization make it out on the other end of it, placing a great importance on having an effective plan and using the right technology for crisis management.

Responding to Crisis

In September 2017, Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 hurricane, ravaged through Puerto Rico and other islands in the Caribbean sea, displacing hundreds of thousands of Americans and causing a record-setting amount of damage estimated at over 90 billion dollars. In the aftermath of the storm, nearly 180,000 Americans migrated from Puerto Rico to the US mainland with nearly one third of them ending up in central and southern Florida.

To help respond to a rapid increase of those needing assistance in Central Florida, the Episcopal Office of Latino Assistance (EOLA) was formed to help families find work and transition into permanent housing in the wake of the storm. Since its formation, EOLA has had the responsibility of organizing the relief of donor assistance to thousands in the Central Florida area recovering from storms and other social issues within the region.

How EOLA Responds

With Florida and the Caribbean facing up to 10 tropical storms a year, a comprehensive crisis management plan is crucial for the safety to those served. When a storm is projected to hit Florida, a clear and concise message is sent out to everyone detailing storm preparation material including hurricane prep instructions, evacuation zones, and local shelters open in an individual’s area. As storms develop and into their aftermath, additional scenarios in the plan exist to update members with timely information about the status of services and how people to seek assistance. All these efforts for crisis communications are made through multiple streams of technology including website updates, social media, and a church management platform that sends email and text (SMS) messages. With multiple channels of communication, EOLA is able to reach the greatest possible number of people to ensure safety without relying on a single point of failure when it comes to software downtime.

Preparing for a Crisis

When it comes to preparing for a crisis there are three key phases: developing a communication plan, testing the plan, and responding quickly with your plan.

Make a Plan

When drafting your crisis management plan, there are two important questions you need to ask yourself:

1. What are you preparing for?
2. Who are you communication to? 

Once you have identified what you are preparing for, walk through the scenario as though it was happening in real time and address these questions. In the example below, our scenario is based as though EOLA is preparing for a hurricane, with sample answers in parenthesis.

• How do we know when to activate our communications plan? (When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast a tropical storm or hurricane to make landfall within the next five days in our operational area.)
• Who has the authority to activate our communication plan? (The CEO, COO, General Council, or VP of Communications of EOLA alone can make the decision to activate the communication plan.)
• How many communications do we want to send out? (Once the communication plan has been activated, a message is sent every 24 hours, even if there are no substantial changes in storm conditions. Additional crisis communications can also be made at the sole discretion of the original decision makers.)
• What type of crisis communications are to be sent out? (Content will include hurricane preparation steps on how to close down facilities and information of municipal resources including shelter details and evacuation zones.)
• How will these communications be sent out? (All information will be posted to the EOLA website, social media accounts including Twitter and Facebook, and SMS through EOLA’s Send Word Now account.)
• Who will send out these messages? (The director of public safety will send out messages to all platforms.)
• Who will receive these messages? (All members of staff and management including part-time, seasonal, and union employees.)
• When will our plan be considered a success? (When wind speeds have fallen below 10 mph and all employees have responded as being safe.)

Test Your Plan

It’s 7 a.m. A crisis has occurred requiring you to contact all members of your organization about an active threat at your company location. No problem. You have a plan for just such a thing drafted only eight months ago. You are about to send out your pre-scripted message only to be notified to wait because you might be breaking federal laws contacting union employees before 7:30 a.m. and that you’ll have to wait till your law department confirms whether is safe to proceed sacrificing precious time.

Finally, you receive approval to send out a mass text to all non-union members requiring you to create a last-minute, new contact list excluding those who shouldn’t be reached. You check your phone frantically waiting for the message to be received. After 10 minutes, you come to realize your message failed and you’re back to square one, failing to communicate to your organization’s members.

A crisis management plan is only effective if you have the means to execute it with confidence. The best-laid plans never tested are certain to fail unless all steps are tested on a regular basis with all members of your organization involved. In retrospect to the above scenario, had a plan been tested under a mock scenario, holes in the line of approval could have been identified, allowing you to recognize your communication platform was never fully set up or able to handle the load you really intended to put it through. We can’t stress enough the importance of testing.

1. Test your communication plan fully with all possible members involved.
2. Test your communication platform fully sending it to all intended recipients, not just a test group.
3. Have multiple communication services in the event your primary one fails you.
4. Test fully and test regularly. Complete testing at least once every quarter ensuring that your plan is always up to date, your communication systems are ready when you are, and as old members leave and new ones arrive, everyone is trained in their responsibility when responding to a crisis.
5. Ensure everyone’s contact information is always up to date.

Respond Quickly

This part is short. Up to this point, your organization should have a well-documented and tested crisis communication plan. When a crisis occurs, time is the most valuable resource you can give your people to effectively prepare and respond. Always remember to act fast when you are in a time of crisis and respond accordingly.

Communication Software

A crucial component of any communication plan is how you will actually reach your audience. In addition to posting to your website and social media, you should also consider other forms of communication depending on the visibility your message needs to have. Additional forms of crisis communications can include SMS, email, voice (automated-calling), push notifications (software installed on workstations and mobile apps), PA, digital signage, and, surprisingly, even fax. There are thousands of communication vendors that exist for most organizational needs. Included below are just a few that you might consider.

Onsolve

Onsolve is a vendor of enterprise-level communication services for those needing to contact thousands of people simultaneously. Customers include NASA, Pepsi, universities, and local municipalities. Their redundant infrastructure will ensure your message is delivered timely through all available communication channels. Supported contact methods include, but are not limited to, voice, SMS, email, push notifications (workstation and phone), and, yes, even fax.

Call Em All

Call Em All provides SMS, direct to voicemail, and voice services perfect for small- to medium-sized organizations. Customers include state universities, local schools, and doctors’ offices.

Connected Church

Connected Church provides SMS, email, and social media messaging services primarily for small- to medium-sized faith-based organizations. Customers primarily consist of small groups and churches with attendance below 500.

Additional Resources

This is a great summary video effectively covering the main points that your management should consider when making your communication plan: Things You Need to Know About Crisis Communications.

Provided by Homeland security this provides greater details on the consideration you and your organization should include with your communication plan: Homeland Security Crisis Communication Plan Planning.

This video by UNC-Chapel Hill discusses how they will notify their students based on a broad range of potential crises and provides a great example of communicating an organization’s plan: University Updates Emergency Communication Plan.

Is Your Website Ready for a Crisis?

Contact the team at WebDevStudios. We’d be honored to help you develop and build the features you need on your website to make it ready for successful crisis management.

The post Using Technology for Crisis Management appeared first on WebDevStudios.

We need to reconnect with one another.

-Jodie Riccelli

As the Director of Business Development for WebDevStudios (WDS), Jodie Riccelli is focused on building successful client relationships. She does this by doing nothing but communicating, all day, every day.

She communicates with prospective clients, current clients, business partners, peers, WDS leaders, team members, and the WordPress community. Yet, even in today’s modern, digital world, Jodie can tell you that there are challenges incurred during these communications and in the maintenance of the successful client relationships which she builds and nurtures daily.

In the video below, watch and listen to Jodie present her tips for building successful client relationships in a digital age at WordCamp Las Vegas in September 2019. She offers insight, such as why you should avoid multitasking, how to choose your words wisely, and finding your toolbox.

WordCamp talks should be an essential part of your WordPress education, but you can’t attend every single WordCamp there is, right? WordPress.tv has you covered. You can watch multiple talks and presentations from all over the world. Go to WordPress.tv to search for the WordCamp talks that appeal to you.

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Sales is not a dirty word.

At her WordCamp Atlanta 2018 talk, “Selling to Enterprise Clients,” Director of Business Development at WebDevStudios, Jodie Riccelli, made this statement, but it’s also a common expression used by sales professionals to encourage others to not be intimidated by the traits required to be successful in the industry, no matter the type of client. However, when it comes to specifically selling to enterprise clients, Jodie says that you have to “handle them a little differently.”

She says that enterprise clients involve a long sales cycle, requiring patience and a list of commitments you’ll need to make to not only attain the client but to also maintain them. You can watch her talk below and learn what it takes to  win over clients like Campbell’s and Microsoft, such as creating personalized proposals and not relying on cookie-cutter templates.

Jodie’s advice for selling to enterprise clients is valuable. Click the play button now and find more WordCamp talks at WordPress.tv.

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