Beginning November 24, 2008, I will join Washington University in Saint Louis as its new Executive Director of Web Communications. I will manage the University’s top-level web presence and guide strategy for all web-based communication across the institution. This includes locating, collecting, and directing the resources necessary to produce communications that reflect the University’s mission.

I am extremely pleased to join such a well-respected organization and look forward to working closely with my new team.

To those interested in following my activity at Washington University in St. Louis, know that I have created a special Twitter account. (Follow mattklawitterWU.) I plan to communicate progress and to also network with others.

To my colleagues and friends at Notre Dame: it has been a true pleasure working with you and serving the University together. I believe in its mission, tradition, and values, and I also believe that your success will continue. I am honored to have created the Notre Dame Web Group and am even prouder that it will endure.

Each and every marketing communication project has its own unique challenges, yet some are always similar. This is especially true when dealing with marketing on the Web. If you take away the strategies, goals, and tactics of the assignment, the remainder is something I see during every project on which I work. I realized this during my meeting.

The question was asked where to best invest (or spend) marketing budget dollars. That is, is it best to invest out-of-pocket dollars into creative (design, images, photog.) or perhaps in the technical (development, coding, servers) or maybe even elsewhere? This is especially tricky if you seek to balance in-house talent (usually over capacity) with best of industry vendors that can help give you a booster-shot. I feel the answer is simple. And, this answer is the common bond that all major Web marketing projects share.

Invest your dollars in research first, then deliverables.

It sounds like common sense, but I am amazed how rarely this occurs. Any major Web marketing project that skips right to tactics and deliverables is not a marketing project. That is simply work to improve appearances. It’s a fake-out. A healthy, impactful, and measurable Web marketing project begins with an investment in knowledge.

What kind of knowledge is needed?

At least 20-25% of your budget should first be spent towards learning as much as possible about your end-users. This does not mean just looking at webstats, hits, and other clichéd metrics. You need to know demographics, behaviors, traits, and real personas of the people you are seeking to reach or impact. Each and every decision you make about tactics, creative, and technology should be based on in-depth knowledge of your real users.

If you base decisions on your gut or anecdotal evidence, then you are doomed. If you work with someone that feels research, focus groups, and surveys are a waste of money, then simply ask that person to produce for you detailed quantitative and qualitative demographics about your users. No chance.

Here’s the difference:

• A web project without research: “Let’s design a new website.”
• A web project with research: “We will reach emerging, young customers with on-line services in order to seed a relationship early. We will balance basic web marketing with traditional print for the senior customers.”

If you don’t have the knowledge, you are just making a pretty site. If you do have the knowledge, you make an impact.

Commercials in HD are rare, but they too are stunning.

This particular commercial in HD was for Target. It featured amazing visuals, transitions, colors, and animations interlaced with live-action actors. After 30 seconds of total immersion, I realized I was actually entertained. I liked it. It was fun to watch. From a branding standpoint, my impression of Target was impacted positively. On the surface, they are clearly promoting themselves from a retail perspective, but the subtle hidden message is that they are cutting edge and strive to be creative and innovative. How many others in their industry are advertising in HD?

So, as most 18-34 year old males would do, I went to the Web to search for the ad. I wanted to see it again online—perhaps Target incorporated this video into their integrated marketing communications.

No mention of the commercial on the Target website. No opportunity to see it again.
In fact, no video at all on the site.

The thought occurred to me; why invest so heavily in one area (i.e., video) and not have it impact or enhance other marketing communications vehicles (e.g., Web)? It would be very easy to provide commercial videos online, wrap some very focused messaging around it, and even link to HD hardware available for purchase in the store. HD has almost as much marketing buzz as the Web. It could be a slam dunk to blend the two.

Tactics versus Strategy

Advanced Web technology can be very dangerous to the ill-prepared. Technology is a tactic—a device for accomplishing an end. The risk is when tactics are not founded on a strategy—a careful plan or method. This risk means loss of focus or even worse, time.

Examples of buzzing tactical technologies on the Web are RSS, podcast, blog, syndication, web standards, CSS, and tagging.

Recognize the Trend

The static, flat Web is no longer hot. But, the Internet is still booming. In fact, Web 2.0 has really taken a stronghold on the entire industry and the opportunities are endless. Basically, if you can dream it now, it can be done on the Web. What makes this possible?

I’ll address the question via a hypothetical client meeting where I am only allowed to give one piece of Web-related advice. That is it—only one single, solitary suggestion. The client, fresh from a conference, wishes to embrace the Web 2.0 renaissance and therefore transition to the Web as their dominant marketing communications and content management vehicle.

Best piece of advice; build a database.

To elaborate; the Web is no longer a system of static, flat files with handwritten text interwoven with programming languages. In fact, most of the (professionally-built) Web is a complex system of databases and centralized content sharing bursts of information. A website is merely one mechanism to distribute this information via structured database queries that slice and segment the content requested by the end user. In the case of a website, this data is layered with presentation (color, images, design, etc…) and then delivered to your browser. For RSS, data is formatted in a file that is recognized by software or websites that aggregate and syndicate the content. There are many more examples.

Every professional website is destined to be driven by a database. It is the purest form of web standards; separating content from presentation. And, a database allows for future innovations and technologies to feed off of it from the same exact source without the need to create independent, disconnected islands (or silos) of information. Once a database is professionally created, it grows. It matures. It is nimble and fast. New technologies on the web are created to distribute content in new and amazing ways. Databases make this possible.

So, instead of asking “should we podcast” or “should we redesign our website,” you should first have answered this question: “how should we store our data so that we can distribute it from one centralized source?” This is your website’s destiny.

Shortly after, visitors come to Notre Dame.

It is a wonderful sight. Families, alumni, and other guests of the University come to see the sights, smell the flowers, light a candle at the Grotto, and (of course) visit the bookstore. Some people come back to reminisce about their lives as undergrads, and others are genuine tourists. In fact, the Basilica at Notre Dame is Indiana’s second most visited tourist destination.

As a staff member, summers at Notre Dame are not quiet—actually, it is the exact opposite. Especially for those of us in the marketing communications area of the administration, we dig-in to our work and usually produce large projects during this time. It gets stressful and deadlines always get tight. We are completely immersed in our work.

Each summer I always run into visitors on campus, and they ask me for help or directions. This will be my fourth summer at Notre Dame as a staff member, so now I actually can help them. And if I cannot, I call the University switchboard and get the information then and there.

This summer I will ask my staff to carry extra campus maps with them when they walk to meetings or out on the grounds. The idea is when a visitor asks for help, we give them a map and say, “welcome to Notre Dame.” It makes an impression. It strengthens the brand of the University. It is one to one communication.

Why is this important?

Simple answer: It is a strong reminder that branding is about people—a promise of an experience. These are our customers. They have certain expectations of us, Notre Dame. Yes, we primarily communicate to students and faculty, but alumni, visitors, parents, and friends are a major percentage of our audience as well.

It’s easy to forget that your end user is a real person. We get caught up in code, design, strategy, phone calls, and meetings. But, it is critical to remind yourself that for every pixel we create, there is a person on the other end of the Web experiencing our brand.