by Fred Warner | Nov 11, 2021 | Project Planning
Every project plan needs an outline
How do you put a project plan together and keep your head when you are asked to plan impossible timescales? You are not alone, in fact, many of us are asked to achieve miracles every day!
Let’s take a scenario, it’s a Thursday afternoon, you’ve been called into the big boss’ office with no notice. Your boss starts explaining a new ‘thing’ that they wish to launch to win to make the most of a new commercial opportunity. Maybe it’s a new software platform, maybe it’s a new type of electronic widget (you can imagine what you do for a living here to help your imagination).
Then comes the news you expected, your boss wants this whole thing to be ready to go in 6 months! Yes, you heard it, you are now expected to create a project plan for impossible timescales! Your brain is racing, knowing the last project like this took 18 months and you are still firefighting daily issues with the product or service that was launched.
So, what do you do? Follow these steps whilst taking deep breaths and you will be amazed at the results.
Establishing your stakeholder expectations before creating a project plan
So, when you are being asked to create a project plan for impossible timescales, following this path, and make detailed notes:
Ask your boss for an overview of WHAT needs to be delivered.
Make sure you understand WHY the business wants to do this (so important)
Find out WHERE they intend for this to be done
Ask HOW they think you are going to deliver it
Clarify WHO is going to be available for the project,
Confirm WHEN they want it (6 months in this case)
Finally, and importantly ask HOW MUCH they think it’s all going to cost, (this is where they give you their guesstimated budget).
So what are we doing here? You are gauging your stakeholders expectations, getting the picture in their head onto paper. This stage is absolutely essential in defining the overall expectations. If your boss tells you she thinks it should cost £0.5m, you have a ball park of what to aim for in planning. You’ll know that going back with a £10m project budget won’t fly, so if you are struggling to achieve the scope (the WHAT) for £0.5m then you can have a far more constructive conversation with her when you go back.
Creating a plan with impossible timescales
The next stage is now the crucial building stage. You need to now establish all the same answers to the questions above to see if it is going to fly. If you go away and make a project plan that mimics what they asked for without an understanding HOW you are going to actually deliver it, you will likely fail. If you don’t answer the many many unanswered questions of WHAT you are going to have to do, you are walking down the classic project management failure. These are the same failures that blight corporations everyday, but now you can be different!
Maybe you feel you have no choice, your boss doesn’t care about reality, just that he or she has a Gantt chart and project plan document that echoes their wishes to present to some higher stakeholder.
But what real value does this have to anyone? A scenario can be that you kick off the project and spend 2 months working with the stakeholders trying to figure out exactly what they want. You gradually realize this is an 18 month project at 5 x the cost of their budget, and now you are seen as the project manager who is failing the company. The project plan with impossible timescales is now running way behind schedule, over budget, and failing. It was you presented the original plans, not your boss, so who is going to get the blame?
The 7Q Approach – a NEW way to project plan
- You write down your understanding of WHY you are undertaking this project.
- Then, specify yours and your teams understanding of WHAT they need to deliver, writing down all assumptions, caveats, dependencies, etc.
- You specify WHERE the work is going to be done and delivered (maybe multiple locations).
- You breakdown HOW you are going to do it (break down the big chunks of works into smaller pieces).
- Then you assume WHO is going to do it, (staff, subcontractors, etc).
- From here you can figure out a timescale, or WHEN it can all be done.
- Then sum it all up into a project budget (HOW MUCH).
So, let’s go back and take a different path. Once you have gauged your stakeholders estimates for WHAT, WHEN & HOW MUCH (scope, cost and time), now you can go away and have a real crack at the 7Q approach (7 questions of a project plan).
This can be done in an afternoon or over a couple of days, run a couple of iterations, from the HOW MUCH you go back to WHY, WHAT, WHERE, HOW, WHO, WHEN & HOW MUCH again, making changes as you see them.
THEN you can go back to your stakeholders with some genuine estimates, with details, assumptions, possibilities, and so much more.
So, let’s say your stakeholders don’t like the new WHEN (scope) and HOW MUCH (schedule)! What can you do? If your WHEN and HOW MUCH are out of alignment, you MUST change WHAT you are doing, HOW you are doing it, or WHO is doing it. That’s right, the key steps to meeting impossible timescales is to ‘De-Scope’, find and easier path, or find cheaper resource. De-scoping is effectively offloading work. You can always persuade your boss that the other work can be done at a ‘later stage’. You can even build a roadmap showing the future phases after the initial project has been successful.
Getting the WHAT (scope) down to an absolute minimum is the GOLD to realising impossible timescales. Work out the bare essentials, the absolute minimum that you could get away with delivering whilst keeping people happy.
An impossible timescale example!
You talk to a builder and say: “I want a 4 bed house in 4 months for $40k.” The builder may say, “for $40k you can have a 1 bed chalet, not a 4 bed, and I can do that in 3 months.” You say, “ok, how much for a 3 bed?” “A 3 bed will be $140k and take 6 months.” What is happening here? You are iterating, you have your wishes, the builder gives you what can be done, so why do corporations not follow this basic approach, often sticking stubbornly to the original ask.
Its normally because the project manager is ignored by the corporate boss’, who in this example will tell the top brass that you will be delivering the 4 bed for $40k in 6 months, and they’ve forced some poor project manager into showing in documents what is effectively a delusion.
So, you keep negotiating with your stakeholders, going back and forth to come up with a project plan that is achievable and minimise scope (WHAT) as much as possible, then, and only then, can you deliver to an impossible timescale.
Want to learn some more about Fred? Check out his LinkedIn here!
Or check out some more of Fred’s top tips here: How to Create a Project Plan Cost Budget
by Fred Warner | Nov 4, 2021 | Digital Marketing
Wouldn’t it be amazing to know you are getting customers from Google just by following a few steps? Who are we kidding, of course it would be!
With some guidance, using Google My Business is a simple and effective way to reach potential customers and show off the best parts of your business. Brick and mortar businesses and online businesses can both benefit from the effects of Google My Business.
Below we have collated our top 5 steps to help you grow using Google My Business.
1. Share images and videos of your business
PEOPLE buy PEOPLE (cliché but true), not businesses or corporations. Prospective customers love behind-the-scenes shots of what’s going on at your business. Humans are nosey people!
Make the most of your images by choosing the right size to fit its purpose:
- Profile picture: Your profile picture is what your customers will recognise your company by on Google. Ensure it is memorable, recognisable and high quality. For a profile picture, your image should be 250×250 pixels.
- Cover photo: Your cover photo is also set as your listings preferred image to show first, ideally this is where you can showcase your companies personality, this is not a guarantee that it will show first however. An image of 1080×608 pixels should be used.
- Other images: Customers like images, it gives an insight into your business and the people who work there. Use images in Google My Business posts to improve your posts and increase chances of a purchase or booking. Use an image of 720×540 pixels for any additional images.
Videos are rapidly increasing in popularity and effectiveness. With the amount of choice available to consumers, people are doing a quick internet search to find the best product to fit their needs. Videos are exemplary at giving people an up-close in depth look at what you are offering.
Did you know that 81 % of businesses are now using video for marketing?
A video can improve trust in your product and encourage people to make a purchase. After all, 90% of consumers claim a video will help them make a purchasing decision.
2. Share your products
A great feature on Google My Business is the ability to add products to your listing. If you have a retail business, adding your best-selling products to your Google listing can boost sales and shows prospective customers your products without even going to your website.
Use this feature to add best sellers and products that you want to push. Use eye catching pictures to draw attention, ensure your product description is succinct but includes enough information about your product to entice a purchase and make sure your price is correct!
No one likes going to checkout and noticing a price has gone up unexpectedly, if anything changes regarding your products promptly update your Google listing for it, your customers will appreciate it.
3. Generate reviews
Don’t underestimate the power of online reviews, 93% of consumers say that online reviews have influenced their purchase decisions!
Google My Business reviews are a gold mine for new customers. Don’t be shy to ask for reviews from former and current customers, when prompted most customers are happy to leave a review.
Did you know that Facebook reviews also show up on Google My Business? Now you do!
Online reviews allow for your customers to share their experiences with your business and can bring credibility to your product or service. Negative reviews can have a bad effect on your business, but Google My Business reviews are interactable which means if someone did, hypothetically, leave a bad review you could respond and resolve the issue.
You should RESPOND to all reviews whether they are good or bad by using personalised responses and customer names. Show care and appreciation towards customers as consumers will also be looking for this.
4. Share your events
Whether it is a sale, workshop, price reduction or open house, you should share it! Posting events to your Google My Business page will make it known to more people and can allow for more attendance/engagement. Present your event in a fun and engaging manner, no one wants to sign up for an event that sounds boring or uninformative.
When posting an event, include a link for people to sign up for said event or a link to a product page if there is a sale. Make it simple for customers to get involved, the less steps they need to take the more likely they are to participate.
5. Monitor your analytics
Google My Business insights is a great tool to see how people interact with your listing. If you are implementing our previous tips then you need to monitor their analytics too.
You can view how many people have viewed your photos, how often your business is searched and what actions your customers take such as going to your website amongst many other visibility and engagement statistics.
Keeping track of your analytics can show you what to continue doing and what needs to be improved. If you notice certain Google My Business posts get significant interaction whilst others do not then be FLEXIBLE and consider changing your plan accordingly. As humans we don’t always like change but it is necessary to improve and thrive.
Google My Business is a tool that all businesses should be using, whether small or large, to engage with customers and promote their business.
We hope these tips can allow you to revamp your listing and set your business on the trajectory to success. If you need help getting your marketing on track, just get in touch! Marketing is where we shine.
Click here to book a discovery call with us now and see what we can do for your business.
by Fred Warner | Oct 29, 2021 | SEO
Bad news first, chilly weather is here to stay for a bit, the good news is that the season of festivities is beginning. Yay! Before you don your fancy dress, we’ve got a roundup of the best marketing news and straight off-the-shelf marketing updates for you!
Not a week goes by without a change to social media or Google, it’s exhausting, we know! It is vital for your business to stay up to date though on all the latest shenanigans so that you and your business can thrive – not just survive.
First up;
Instagram Merges IGTV and Feed Videos
In early October, the Instagram account @creators announced Instagram is merging IGTV and Feed videos into a single format: Instagram Video.
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, has been hinting at a more “simplified video experience” on the platform for a while. By merging IGTV with Feed videos, Instagram has a single destination for longer form video content – providing a clearer distinction between Instagram Reels. To support this change, Instagram is introducing several new features for Instagram Video:
- A new Video tab on Profile
- Trimming
- Ability to upload video captions
- People and location tagging
- 60-second Feed Previews
You’ve probably already seen it by now, but the new Video tab will replace the old IGTV tab on users’ profiles, with a new “play button” icon.
CREATIVE in TiME say: Don’t know about you, but we likey the sound of this one!
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook is changing its name to ‘Meta’. The parent company will now be known as “Meta”, he said. It will also get a new logo, with a blue “M”.
In a presentation at the company’s annual Connect conference, Zuckerberg detailed how his company aims to build a new version of the internet, he said, “We believe the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet, we’ll be able to feel present – like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are”.
On Twitter, Meta announced, “The metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. It’s a collective project that will be created by people all over the world, and open to everyone. You’ll be able to socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what’s possible today.”
The move comes after a tumultuous time for the social media giant. They’ve been battling criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions and the policing of abuses on its services. Not only this, but we cannot forget about the six-hour outage, on October 4th affecting all its platforms. What a crazy month for Facebook. Wait…we mean Meta?
CREATIVE in TiME say: Things must be bad when you change one of the biggest company names in the World!
More than Half of Marketing Emails are Threatened by iOS 15
Apple’s popularity as an email service, and the company’s push into data privacy, means that advertiser’s ability to understand the performance of their email marketing campaigns is being challenged. This is according to data from email marketing company Litmus.
Apple recently launched iOS 15 and as part of this Apple says the Mail Privacy Protection feature “hides your IP address, so senders can’t link it to your other online activity or determine your location. And it prevents senders from seeing if and when you’ve opened their email”.
More than half of all emails opened are at risk – the iPhone Mail app is the market leader and is responsible for 40.3% of all email opens, with the Apple Mail app on Mac devices third (11.3%) and the iPad Mail app seventh (1.4%).
This comes at a time when email marketing has grown in importance for many brands – it can be a cost-efficient way of enhancing first-party data and can allow personalised messaging in the absence of third-party data.
CREATIVE in TiME say: Although e-mail still one of the most effective direct marketing tools out there, do we really need more challenges to getting them past the gatekeeper!? Sigh!
Facebook tests option for Cross-posting Facebook posts to Instagram
Users are currently able to cross-post their Instagram stories and posts to Facebook but in this new feature, cross-posting can flow the other way. The feature is yet to be formally announced by has begun to roll out this month to a small group of people.
Facebook has begun to interlink their multitude of apps in recent months. Allowing cross-communication between Instagram and Messenger users is one of the ways Facebook is connecting apps. By interlinking apps, they make it more difficult to fully leave Facebook.
With this new feature, users will be able to cross-post:
- Up to 10 photos
- Single photos
- Single videos
Currently other imaging formats such as GIFs and text-only posts are not able to be cross shared. This may be in a bid to keep Instagram relevant and popular amongst young users in response to growing popularity of other social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat.
CREATIVE in TiME say: Meh. Not sure this is the best rollout idea ever. We will reserve judgment though.
Potential Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update between October 15th – October 18th
Google is known for updating its search algorithm ranking frequently and October was no exception.
A flurry of chatter in the SEO community revealed that within this timeframe, many people noticed changes in their rankings, and most were not positive. Huge ranking changes were experienced with some people revealing 20%, 30% and higher drops in their traffic and ranking for their keywords!
Did you experience a drop in your SEO within this period? Due to quiet changes in the algorithm, many businesses will feel the negative repercussions. If your SEO rankings and your traffic dropped, this may be why!
Do you even know where you can find your analytics? Have you got them but don’t know what they mean? Fear not, we are here to help. Get in touch to discuss your analytics with the experts.
CREATIVE in TiME say: Yup, some of our customers definitely felt this in the gut, some were absolutely fine. Either way we always knew what was happening because we monitor results weekly. #brushesshoulder
Bonus: Instagram Stories Link Stickers Are Now Available to Everyone!
News just in, every Instagram account will now have access to Instagram Stories Link Stickers. Yes, even those with less than 10K followers!
Instagram Stories link stickers were first introduced last month for accounts with 10K followers, replacing the “swipe up” link.
According to Instagram, “We made this decision based on feedback we heard from the community about how impactful it would be for creators and businesses of all sizes to benefit from link sharing to grow in the same way larger accounts do.”
So how do you add it?
- Head to the Instagram Stories sticker tray and select the link sticker (if you don’t have access yet, sit tight. It’s coming don’t worry!)
- Paste your link into the link field.
- Switch the text and color by tapping on the sticker.
And hey presto! You’ve just added your first story link! You’re welcome.
CREATIVE in TiME say: We’ve been waiting on this one for a looooong time. If you’re a business, you NEED to utilise this feature!
We hope you enjoyed our monthly roundup, check back in next month for our November roundup! You can even have it delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletter! Just send your email over to [email protected] (subject to iOS 15 🙈 of course).
Whilst you wait, does your business need a hand staying up to date? Maybe you’re struggling to keep on track with all of the new marketing changes? We’ve got your back!
Book in now for a discovery call and our marketing business can help you with all the latest strategies and changes.
by Fred Warner | Oct 19, 2021 | Digital Marketing
If you are running or thinking about running a project, and you need a project plan, one of the fundamental questions to answer is normally: HOW MUCH will this project cost?
This means different things to different people. If all the people who work on the project don’t have their hours counted (which you really should by the way), then you may need to just cost up spend outside your business (for example materials, sub-contractors, subscriptions, etc). If you are including hours of the staff worked, and using a day rate to cost this up, you’ll need an estimation of how much effort the project will take in order to create a project budget.
So, deciding from the above which path to take, you can set about building a project plan, and then you can cost it up.
Cost can be thought of as either price per day or week for time taken, plus fixed costs (e.g. if the design agency quote a fixed price for a website, or quote a price per day that they spend, you may have very different outcomes). A new laptop will have a fixed cost, a subscription to Adobe Photoshop will be dependent on how long you use it for.
Producing a cost estimate
In order to produce a cost estimate, you need to summarise the following (representing 7Q – the seven questions to a project plan in this specific order):
- WHY are you doing this project – having a focus on this helps decide what needs doing and what is a nice to have for costing purposes
- WHAT is it that needs to be achieved (this is the project scope)
- WHERE is all this going to be done (location of preparation and delivery can be different places, can affect costs)
- HOW are we going to achieve it (this is essentially the plan of work broken down into smaller sections).
- WHO is going to do it – different people or companies have different prices. You’ll need to consider availability of people or companies needed.
- WHEN is it going to be done? You may think this is the date that your client or boss is asking for, but it is important to work through WHAT, WHERE, HOW & WHO to be able to calculate WHEN (TIME), and see if your answer aligns with the wish list from your boss or client
- HOW MUCH (COST) can really only be estimated when the above are known.
Let me be totally frank here (or even Fred), most project planning and execution failures come down to one of three things:
- You don’t deliver WHAT is required
- You don’t deliver WHEN it is required
- You don’t deliver the WHAT for HOW MUCH it was meant to cost
What could be going wrong
I have worked and mentored many many project and programme managers on often extremely technical and complex items with many high-risk unknowns and potential hiccups but let me make it simple.
If you produce a plan that contains the following:
WHAT we need to do (Scope)
WHEN we need to do it (time scales)
HOW MUCH it will cost (budget)
You are missing key fundamental questions that need answers.
For example: I am going to:
WHAT: Build a rocket
WHEN: Next week
HOW MUCH: Budget $1000
What value does this have to anyone? Can it be done? Will it fail? Many project managers feed their clients or boss’ the answers that they’ve been given. Your job as a project manager is to take these inputs, work out the specification for the rocket, then proceed along the 7Q.
For example, do you understand WHY you need a rocket? If it is to go on display in a museum, this is very different from a manned mission to Mars!
When you understand WHY you are undertaking the project, you can provide greater detail to WHAT, work out WHERE you will design and build it (for cost planning), then work out HOW you will deliver the project. You need this to then decide WHO is needed for the project, this will have great cost implications. One person may earn 3 x another worker, so going for the highest paid worker may impact your project spend unnecessarily.
Assuming you have all these nailed, you can calculate WHEN or how long it will take. Remember, you can’t say how long something will take without knowing these, otherwise its a pure guess, not a plan.
Get costing!
Now, you have 6 of the 7 questions captured, you are ready to start costing. Don’t start costing before you have estimated or planned the first 6!!
You are now in a position to simply add all the items up with a cost against each item, and hey presto you have a budget or HOW MUCH the project will cost.
You can now compare your costs with the client or boss’ request, and see if it lines up with peoples expectations, or see if they are miles apart.
Next, you iterate, i.e. Go round the loop of 7Q or the seven questions a couple more times to refine your previous estimates.
Revisit the WHY – challenge all of the assumptions you’ve been given, maybe the WHY for the rocket turns out to be to launch a new GPS satellite, that changes the whole project plan!
So, you can have a project cost estimate by answering seven questions!!
Want to learn some more about Fred? Check out his LinkedIn here!
Or check out another one of our blogs, our most recent: 5 Ways to Increase Conversions on Your Site.
by Fred Warner | Oct 13, 2021 | Digital Marketing
Website conversions are when someone completes a predetermined desired action on your website such as buying a product or signing up to your newsletter.
The percentage of people who complete this action is your conversion rate, hence the bigger the better!!
Did you know that the average conversion rate is ONLY 2% and most sites only have a 0.1-0.2% conversion rate?
That means that you could need 1000 website visitors to create one website conversion, no one is over joyed at the reality of that statistic, are they?
Improving the conversion rate on your site is crucial to grow your business and turn more of your current visitors into customers. Keep reading to find out 5 ways to increase conversions on your site .
Have you ever started filling out a form online but given up due to the amount of required fields? Using unnecessary fields is a sure-fire way to decrease your conversion rate. If all you need is an email and a first name then leave it at that.
Don’t skip important information though, ensure that you have any needed information but skip fields which will not be of any use. Ask yourself if a field plays a key role, if the answer is no then get rid!
The less a user has to fill in, the more likely they are to complete the form.
Add a pop-up
Pop-ups, when done right, can reach a 9% conversion rate and on average the conversion rate for all pop-ups is 3.09%.
We have a few tips for creating pop-ups that will increase conversions and not annoy your customers!
- Put a delay timer on the pop-up. A 30 second delay between opening the website and receiving the pop-up can avoid it becoming annoying.
- Make it easy to close. Not everyone wants to interact with a pop-up so ensure that it is easy to close and will remain closed.
- Following that, ensure that the pop-up only appears once per user to make sure that people are not constantly receiving the pop-up as it can become annoying and even cause people to leave the website.
- Try out offers! The first offer you try might not be quite right, try a variety of products, premium content, newsletters, free stuff and PDFs until you find one this really fits in.
Boost your CTAs
Let me guess, your calls to action (CTAs) sound a bit like this “Start free trial” and “Sign up now”. Now there is nothing necessarily wrong with these but to get the BEST conversion rates you should look at what people psychologically want to click.
Starting a CTA with ‘yes’ makes the customer see it in a positive way and creates a psychological desire to click. For example, which would you rather click on: “Claim discount” or “Yes, I want a discount!”.
Making your CTA look ‘click-able’ and stand out is vital to making people want to click. Try a movement or colour change when the mouse moves over it or a different shape to the rest of the page to make you know it should be CLICKED.
Add live chat
Most people need to be completely sure about a purchase before making it, especially if the product/service you are offering is expensive. For some customers this may be a single question that they need answering.
Live chats are perfect for these situations, by installing a live chat onto your website it can allow customers to have more security with their purchase and quell any worries they may have. It is easy to add to the site and is well worth it for the potential website conversions.
Create abandoned cart email campaigns
Do you ever go onto a website, add a product to your cart and either decide not to checkout or just forget to? Everyone does it and that means its sure to be happening on your website too.
Creating an email campaign to follow up on these abandoned carts ensures you are maximising your chances of website conversions.
These emails should include a reminder about the products in their carts, and potentially a discount or offer as an incentive to continue their purchase.
A simple reminder is all it takes for some customers to continue their purchase so don’t miss out on these potential conversions!
Now that you know 5 ways to increase conversions on your site, it’s time to put this knowledge into practice. Implementing even just one of these can have a positive impact on your conversions, and using multiple is even better.
If you want to boost your website conversions but still aren’t sure how to or what would be best for your business, click down below to see how we can help.
Yes, I want to speak to CiT about my conversions (check that out for a CTA!)
