Thank you for your interest in ClickWrite.

Last Updated: 8/18/2011

ClickWrite Partner Agreement

LoudClick and Partner agree to the following terms for company's participation in the ClickWrite Partner Program.

1. Scope. This program is designed to help technology companies deliver solutions based on the ClickWrite Microsite Platform and related technologies. The Partner’s participation in this program is voluntary. Nothing in this Agreement restricts the Partner from supporting, promoting, distributing or using non-LoudClick technology.

2. Definitions.
2.1. "LoudClick" means LoudClick, Inc.
2.2. "ClickWrite" means to the Content Management System marketed and operated as ClickWrite Microsite Platform.
2.3. "Partner” and/or “Company" means the business entity, as identified in the signature block that is entered into this agreement.
2.4. “Agreement” means this ClickWrite Partner Agreement.
2.5. “ClickWrite Materials” means any website, services, information, materials and other benefits offered to Company through the program.
2.6. “Program” means the ClickWrite Partner Program.
2.7 “Services” means support, consulting and other services or advice, including any resulting services deliverables, provided through the program or through other services offerings.
2.8. "Instance" means a build of ClickWrite for management of a network

3. Trademarks
3.1. ClickWrite. Name, logo, service mark and website may be used by the Partner to promote their capabilities using the products.
3.2. LoudClick. Trademark name, logo, service mark and website is reserved for use by LoudClick and can not be represented as an offering by the Partner.
3.3. The Partner name, trademark, service mark and logo may be used by ClickWrite to promote the Partner and their capabilities in delivering the system.
3.4. Logos. All branding, logos and graphics used to represent either party will be obtained directly from the owning party.

4. Sales Support
4.1. Materials. Partner is able to utilize the ClickWrite website, Demo Websites and all ClickWrite related materials to promote, sell and demonstrate capabilities for prospects.
4.2. LoudClick personnel will be available as schedule permits for sales calls, demonstrations, webinars and consultations will be available as schedule permits by individuals. Personnel will represent themselves as a ClickWrite representative within your company.
4.3. Application Development. LoudClick personnel will be available under separate agreement for custom development as well as assisting the Partner in developing scope of the integration tasks of building custom applications by the Partner.
4.4. Lead generation. LoudClick may share leads with Partner at its sole discretion. All leads given to Partner must be kept confidential and not shared with any outside sources as to the specific leads or number of leads shared.

5. Project Responsibilities
5.1. Client communication. Partner is responsible for all or primary communication with the client. If Partner authorizes direct communication by LoudClick personnel, all digital communications will be copied to the primary contact person at the Partner company.
5.2. Project management. Partner will be responsible for project management, scheduling and tracking of the project. ClickWrite implementation period will need to be incorporated into the project plan based on implementation period noted in this document (6.3).
5.3. Template Packages. Template packages are required for setup of a new network and will contain HTML, CSS and Graphics files in the specific structure supported by the ClickWrite platform.
5.4. Website Code. Partner is responsible for all template package code. LoudClick will provide training, documentation and support to assist Partner in creating usable template packages for deployment on the ClickWrite Platform.

6. Implementation
6.1. Process. Implementation of a new client network will require the setup and configuration of the ClickWrite platform. Implementation will begin upon receipt of valid template packages from Partner.
6.2. Required assets. Partner will be required to provide completed template packages to LoudClick for (a) main website and at least (b) one microsite template package.
6.3. Implementation period. Upon LoudClick being provided the appropriate template packages, the implementation period will be 10 business days. Implementation period will include testing of the provided template package, communication to the Partner of changes that need to be made to the template package(s) and any required template package retesting.
6.4. Suggested implementation price. Suggested retail implementation price is $15,000 (USD). Partners are not required to charge their clients the retail price.
6.5. Partner implementation fee. Partner implementation fee is $7,500 (USD). Partner will be charged this fee by LoudClick. The fee must be paid prior to the implementation period commences.
6.6. Partner training and support. Upon completion of this agreement and identification of a client network, LoudClick will assist Partner personnel in the specifics of creating ClickWrite template packages. Partner personnel will be required to have a working knowledge of HTML & CSS principles. LoudClick will cover element tags, css specific classes, template package (.zip file) structure and other requirements.

7. Platform
7.1. Shared platform. A shared platform exists on LoudClick’s infrastructure and provides a custom branded environment for each client network.
7.1.1. Suggested retail shared platform price. Retail shared platform price is $500 (USD) per month. Partners are not required to charge their clients the retail price.
7.1.2. Partner shared platform fee. Partner shared platform fee is $400 (USD) per month. Partners will be charged this fee upon completion of the implementation period and for each subsequent month. Payment is due 30 days from date of invoice.
7.1.3. Shared platform restrictions. Partner will not be granted direct access to the server through RDP, FTP or other methods. All interaction with the platform will be performed through the interface. A shared platform environment is recommended for up to 1,000 websites/microsites. Implementations of over 1,000 websites may require a dedicated platform.
7.2. Dedicated platform. A dedicated platform exists on a dedicated infrastructure for client implementation providing a custom branding environment for each client network.
7.2.1. Suggested retail dedicated platform price. Suggested retail dedicated platform price is $1,500 per month. Partners are not required to charge their clients the retail price.
7.2.2. Partner dedicated platform fee. Partner dedicated platform fee is $1,200 (USD) per month. Partners will be charged this fee upon completion of the implementation period and for each subsequent month. Payment is due 30 days from date of invoice.
7.2.3. Dedicated server access. Partner will be given direct access to the server through RDP, FTP and other methods. Partner will be able to build custom applications and databases for deployment through the websites and microsites. Partner applications are the sole responsibility of the Partner as it pertains to any impact on the overall system or network. Custom application testing is available for an additional fee.

8. Microsites
8.1. Number of microsites. Partner has the ability to create an unlimited number of microsites on each platform (see previous restrictions).
8.2. Resale of microsite networks. Partner has the ability to create either templated or custom microsite for their client on each platform. Creating multiple microsite networks for different clients on a single client platform is prohibited.
8.3. Creation of individual websites. Partner will be allowed to create individual websites on an existing platform for testing purposes. Each website created for any purpose will be subject to the per microsite fee.
8.4. Resale of individual websites. Resale of individual websites for multiple clients on a single platform is prohibited.
8.5. Suggested retail microsite price. The suggested retail microsite price is $15 (USD) per microsite per month. Partners are not required to charge their clients the retail price.
8.6. Partner microsite fee. The Partner microsite fee is $10 (USD) per microsite per month. Partners will be charged this fee upon creation of each microsite and for each subsequent month. Payment is due 30 days from date of creation.

9. Partner Platform
9.1. Use. Partner may choose to run their own platform for the purpose of a) building and maintaining their own properties, b) deploying and reselling individual websites, c) testing new template packages, d) creating demonstration properties for soliciting business.
9.2. Partner Dedicated Platform fee. Partner dedicated platform fee is $750 (USD) per month. Partners will be charged this fee upon completion of the implementation period and for each subsequent month. Payment is due 30 days from date of invoice.
9.3. Partner platform restriction. Creating multiple microsite networks for clients on the Partner platform is prohibited.
9.4. Partner internal microsite. Partner will not be charged for any individual websites or microsites used for their specific internal business functions. This does not include individual websites created for clients, which are subject to the per microsite fee.

10. Payment Options
10.1. Intuit Payment Network (IPN). IPN is required for all recurring payments according to the terms defined in this document and of each invoice.
10.2. Checks. Payment of implementation fees by check may be requested prior to the implementation period. Approval of this form of payment, receipt and clearing of check is required prior to the commencement of the implementation period. A service fee of $50 (USD) will be assessed for all paper check transactions.

11. Up-time Guarantee
11.1. Website/Microsite guarantee. LoudClick guarantees 99% up-time of all websites/microsites on the ClickWrite platform to website visitors.
11.2. Platform guarantee. LoudClick guarantees 99% up-time availability to users of the application excluding scheduled maintenance.
11.3. Scheduled maintenance. LoudClick will, from time-to-time, require maintenance to the application and servers. These periods of downtime, when at all possible, will be restricted to users access to the application. Notification of scheduled downtime will be given no less than 48 hours previous to the downtime and details will be given as to the expected duration and possible impacts.
11.4. Refunds. Should unscheduled downtime exceed 7.3 hours per month, a prorated refund will be awarded based on the platform and microsites impacted. Any refund will be applied to the following month’s invoice.

12. Bugs
12.1. Definition. Bugs are defined as current features, functionality or use that does not work as intended. The technology is constantly upgraded and new features are added. Any additions to the platform run the risk of malfunction and will be fixed in a timely manner.
12.2. Reporting. Partner is responsible for providing descriptions and, when possible, screen captures of any bugs encountered.
12.3. Fixes. LoudClick will make every effort to solve any bugs identified in the system. Upon bugs being reported, immediate (within 1 business day) action will be taken to identify the solution. Bug fixes will be completed as quickly as possible and are dependant on the nature of the bug identified.

13. Feature Requests
13.1. Requests. LoudClick welcomes and will take into consideration feature requests from Partner.
13.2. Feature inclusion. LoudClick will at its sole discretion develop features based upon requests. Partner in no way owns or will be compensated for any features developed as a result of their request.
13.3. Custom development. LoudClick will be available to provide custom development around Partner feature requests for a fee. Documentation will be provided detailing the scope and timeline of development.

14. Promotions
14.1. Partner use of ClickWrite in promotions. Partner is hereby granted the right to use ClickWrite to promote or market their capabilities to clients or general advertisements.
14.2. LoudClick use of Partner in promotions. LoudClick may, from time-to-time, promote the Partner Company as a Partner to potential clients, other Partners and in general advertisements.
14.3. LoudClick use of Partner clients in promotions. LoudClick may, from time-to-time, promote client implementations and use of the ClickWrite platform. All representations will be made specifically identifying the Partner as the company performing the services and owning the relationship with the client.

15. Confidentiality and Non-disclosure
15.1. Use and disclosure. You shall not disclose LoudClick or ClickWrite confidential information during the term of this agreement or at any time during the three (3) year period following the end of the term. As used in this agreement, “LoudClick or ClickWrite confidential information” means all nonpublic information disclosed by us, our business Partners or our or their respective agents or contractors that is designated as confidential or that, given the nature of the information or circumstances surrounding its disclosure, reasonably should be understood to be confidential. LoudClick or ClickWrite confidential information includes, without limitation, (i) nonpublic information relating to our or our Partners’ technology, customers, business plans, promotional and marketing activities, finances and other business affairs (including, but not limited to, any information about or involving one of our so-called beta tests or a beta test product that you obtain as a result of your participation in such beta test), (ii) third-party information that we are obligated to keep confidential, and (iii) the nature, content and existence of any discussions or negotiations between you and us. Confidential information does not include any information that you are required to disclose by law.
15.2. Excluded information. Notwithstanding any other provision in this agreement, you shall not have any confidentiality obligation to us with respect to any information provided or made available by us hereunder, and we shall not have any confidentiality or non-use obligation to you hereunder with respect to any information, software application, data or content provided or made available by you hereunder that: (i) is or becomes publicly available without breach of this agreement; (ii) can be shown by documentation to have been known to the receiving party at the time of its receipt from the disclosing party; (iii) is received from a third party who did not acquire or disclose the same by a wrongful or tortious act; or (iv) can be shown by documentation to have been independently developed by the receiving party.
15.3. Conflict with separate non-disclosure agreement. If you and we are parties to a separate non-disclosure agreement (“Stand-Alone NDA”) and there is a conflict between the terms of the Stand-Alone NDA, the terms of the Stand-Alone NDA shall control.

16. Change to Agreement
16.1. Right to make changes to agreement. LoudClick reserves the right to make changes to this agreement. Partner will be notified within 30 days of any modifications made to the agreement.
16.2. Waiver. The failure by us to enforce any provision of this agreement shall in no way be construed to be a present or future waiver of such provision nor in any way affect our right to enforce such provision thereafter. All waivers by us must be in writing to be effective.
16.3. Successors and Assigns. This agreement will be binding upon, and inure to the benefit of the parties and their respective successors and assigns.
16.4. Severability. If any portion of this agreement is held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining portions of this agreement will remain in full force and effect, and any invalid or unenforceable portions shall be construed in a manner that most closely reflects the effect and intent of the original language. If such construction is not possible, the provision will be severed from this agreement, and the rest of the agreement shall remain in full force and effect.

17. Term and Termination
17.1 Term. This Agreement will take effect on the date LoudClick accepts this agreement (“Effective Date”) and will continue for one year from the Effective Date (“Term”), unless terminated earlier. This Agreement will automatically renew unless terminated.
17.2 Termination Without Cause. Either party may terminate this agreement at any time, without cause, upon 60 calendar days’ notice. Neither party will be responsible to the other for any costs or damages that are a direct result of this termination.
17.3 Termination for Cause. If either party breaches any provision of this agreement, and the cause for termination is considered curable, the non-breaching party will give 30 calendar days’ email or written notice and an opportunity to cure. If the cause for termination is considered not curable, termination will take effect immediately upon notice from the non-breaching party. LoudClick retains its other rights and remedies.
17.4 Statutory Form. If LoudClick is required to use a statutory form, LoudClick reserves the right to either terminate or vary this agreement without its use and without any liability to the Partner.
17.5 Effect of Termination. When this agreement terminates, the Partner must immediately stop using any rights and benefits granted by this agreement and the program. Partner must cease representation as a ClickWrite Partner.
17.6 Waiver of Rights and Obligations. To the extent necessary to implement the termination of this agreement, each party waives any right or obligation under any applicable law or regulation to request or obtain intervention of the courts to terminate this agreement.
17.7 Survival. Ongoing client business and the terms defined in this document will survive the expiration or termination of this agreement.

18. Taxes
18.1. Partner is responsible for all taxes required by either Federal or State authorities in conjunction with the sale of ClickWrite or services performed.

19. Program limitations, warranty, indemnification, and disclaimers and limitations of liability.
19.1. Use of the service. You represent and warrant that you will not use the service, and/or Your content: (i) in a manner that infringes, violates or misappropriates any rights of us or any third party; (ii) to engage in spamming or other impermissible advertising, marketing or other activities, including, without limitation, any activities that violate anti-spamming laws and regulations, including, without limitation, the CAN SPAM Act of 2003; (iii) in any manner that constitutes or facilitates the illegal export of any controlled or otherwise restricted items, including, without limitation, software, algorithms or other data that is subject to export laws; and/or (iv) in a way that is otherwise illegal or promotes illegal activities, including, without limitation, in a manner that might be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age.
19.2. Applications and content. You represent and warrant: (i) that you are solely responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of your content, including without limitation, the accuracy, security, appropriateness and completeness of your content and all product-related materials and descriptions; (ii) that you have the necessary rights and licenses, consents, permissions, waivers and releases to use and display your content; (iii) that your content (a) does not violate, misappropriates or infringes any rights of us or any third party, (b) does not constitutes defamation, invasion of privacy or publicity, or otherwise violates any rights of any third party, or (c) is not designed for use in any illegal activity or to promote illegal activities, including, without limitation, use in a manner that might be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious, illegal or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age; (iv) that your content does not contain any unauthorized data, malware, viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, worms, or other malicious or harmful code (collectively “Harmful Components”); and (v) to the extent to which you use any of the Marks, that you will conduct your business in a professional manner and in a way that reflects favorably on the goodwill and reputation of LoudClick and ClickWrite.
19.3. Authorization and account information. You represent and warrant that: (i) the information you provide in connection with your registration for the service is accurate and complete; (ii) if you are registering for the services as an individual, that you are at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement; and (iii) if you are registering for the services as an entity or organization, (a) you are duly authorized to do business in the country or countries where you operate, (b) the individual accepting this agreement and completing the registration for the services meets the requirements of subsection (ii) above and is an authorized representative of your entity, and (c) your employees, officers, representatives and other agents accessing the services are duly authorized to access the service and to legally bind you to this agreement and all transactions conducted under your account.
19.4. Disclaimers. LOUDCLICK AND CLICKWRITE PROPERTIES, THE MARKS, THE SERVICE AND ALL TECHNOLOGY, SOFTWARE,FUNCTIONS, CONTENT, IMAGES, MATERIALS AND OTHER DATA OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY US OR OUR LICENSORS IN CONNECTION THEREWITH (COLLECTIVELY THE “SERVICE OFFERINGS”) ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”. WE AND OUR LICENSORS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED,STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OFFERINGS. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE AND OUR LICENSORS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, QUIET ENJOYMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF ANY COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.
19.5. Your content is your responsibility. In addition to the foregoing, we specifically disclaim all liability, and you shall be solely responsible for the content, operation, and maintenance of Your websites and for all materials that appear on your websites and you agree that you shall, without limitation, be solely responsible for:
19.5.1. the technical operation of your websites and all related features;
19.5.2. the accuracy and appropriateness of any materials posted on or within your website or microsite (including, among other things, any product-related materials);
19.5.3. ensuring that any materials posted on your site or within your application are not illegal and do not promote illegal activities, including without limitation any activities that might be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious, illegal or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age;
19.5.4. ensuring that your website accurately and adequately disclose, either through a privacy policy or otherwise, how you collect, use, store, and disclose data collected from visitors, including, where applicable, that third parties (including advertisers) may serve content and/or advertisements and collect information directly from visitors and may place or recognize cookies on visitors’ browsers;
19.5.5. any of your users’ or customers’ claims relating to your website or any Services utilized in connection with your websites; and
19.6. Links. The LoudClick and ClickWrite website and/or the service may contain links to websites that are not under our control (“Third Party Sites”). We are not responsible for the contents or functionality of any Third Party Sites or any website that can be accessed via links on any Third Party Site. We provide these links to you as a convenience and the inclusion of any such links does not constitute or imply our endorsement or validation of any Third Party Site.
19.7. Limitations of Liability. NEITHER WE NOR ANY OF OUR LICENSORS SHALL BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER LOSSES (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES) IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY SUCH DAMAGES RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES; (ii) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES; OR (iii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR CONTENT. IN ANY CASE, OUR AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID BY YOU TO US HEREUNDER FOR THE SERVICES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. ACCORDINGLY, SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU, AND YOU MAY HAVE ADDITIONAL RIGHTS.

20. Disputes
20.1. Arbitration. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, we may seek injunctive or other relief in any state, federal, or national court of competent jurisdiction for any actual or alleged infringement of LoudClick’s or any third party’s intellectual property and/or proprietary rights. Any dispute relating in any way to your visit to the LoudClick website or to products or services sold or distributed by LoudClick or its affiliates in which the aggregate total claim for relief sought on behalf of one or more parties exceeds $7,500 shall be settled by binding arbitration in accordance of the rules of the American Arbitration Association, and judgment upon the award rendered by the arbitrator(s) shall be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. For that purpose, the parties hereto consent to the jurisdiction and venue of an appropriate court located in Ramsey County, State of Minnesota. In the event that litigation results from or arises out of this Agreement or the performance thereof, the parties agree to reimburse the prevailing party's reasonable attorney's fees, court costs, and all other expenses, whether or not taxable by the court as costs, in addition to any other relief to which the prevailing party may be entitled. In such event, no action shall be entertained by said court or any court of competent jurisdiction if filed more than one year subsequent to the date the cause(s) of action actually accrued regardless of whether damages were otherwise as of said time calculable. You further acknowledge that our rights in the LoudClick and ClickWrite properties are of a special, unique, extraordinary character, giving them peculiar value, the loss of which cannot be readily estimated and may not be adequately compensated for in monetary damages.
20.2. Governing Law. By signing this agreement, you agree that the laws of the State of Minnesota, without regard to principles of conflicts of laws, will govern this agreement and any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and us. The parties expressly exclude application of the United Nations Convention for the International Sale of Goods to this Agreement.

21. Miscellaneous Provisions
21.1. Third Party Activities. If you authorize, assist, encourage or facilitate another person or entity to take any action related to the subject matter of this agreement, you shall be deemed to have taken the action yourself.
21.2. Entire Agreement. This Agreement incorporates by reference all policies and guidelines posted on the LoudClick and ClickWrite Websites, including all Additional Policies, and constitutes the entire agreement between you and us regarding the subject matter hereof and supersedes any and all prior or contemporaneous representation, understanding, agreement, or communication between you and us, whether written or oral, regarding such subject matter. We will not be bound by, and specifically object to, any term, condition or other provision which is different from or in addition to the provisions of this Agreement (whether or not it would materially alter this Agreement) and which is submitted by you in any order, receipt, acceptance, confirmation, correspondence or other document.
21.3. No Endorsement. You understand and acknowledge that we are not certifying nor endorsing, and have no obligation to certify or endorse, any of your Websites or your content.
21.4. Relationship. Nothing in this Agreement is intended to or does create any type of joint venture, creditor-debtor, escrow or any employer/employee or fiduciary or franchise relationship between you and us (or any of our affiliates).
21.5. Right to Renegotiate. We reserve the right to good faith negotiation of our fee structure in the event traffic, use, and/or bandwidth use increases cause platform performance issues requiring us to change/increase our server configuration and/or capacity.

We'd love to hear from you. Here's how to contact us...

612-208-3788

1911 Suburban Ave #351

St. Paul, MN 55119

ClickWrite@loudclick.net 

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ClickWrite is a microsite platform creating a coordinated network of websites. The network consists of a corporate (brand) website integrated with local or targeted microsites. ClickWrite creates individual, unique microsites - with unique URLs - all coordinated from a central administration interface. This structure offers amazing flexibility and SEO benefits.

Here is how it works...

- ClickWrite creates a main website DISTRIBUTING content via syndication to ...

- 10's, 100’s even 1000’s of microsites DELIVERING the content to the audience.

Learn more about how ClickWrite works

Who uses it?

Franchise Microsites

Agency Microsites

Segment Marketing Microsites

Why do I need it?

In this AND/OR world, it's not about OR anymore. ClickWrite allows you to make AND happen.

Control AND Freedom

Style AND Substance

Target AND Mass Marketing

Global AND Local

A microsite is a website for a specific audience. A microsite platform supports a managed network of microsites.

Here is how it works...

- ClickWrite creates a main website DISTRIBUTING content via syndication to ...

- 10's, 100’s even 1000’s of microsites DELIVERING the content to the audience.

How do I learn more about ClickWrite?

Sign up for a Demo today

In support of our partner, Stark Logic, our franchise team will be attending the Interational Franchise Association (IFA) convention. ClickWrite is perfectly suited for franchise operators and we look forward to showing off our technology at the event.

Be sure to visit Booth 302 in the Cypress Ballroom to learn about Stark Logic's stable of marketing tools - including ClickWrite. Be sure to ask Alex or Jan for a demo!

We are proud to announce that the ClickWrite platform will be part of the Fall Demo Conference in Silicon Valley, California from September 12 - 14.  Our platform is the foundation for a new app that will be launching at the conference.  Although ClickWrite has been around for a few years now, this will be the first time it has been used by a company launching at Demo and we are very excited!  

We have been sworn to secrecy by the powers that be and we can't say much more until the app launches. What we can tell you is be on the lookout for a big announcement from us here at ClickWrite during the Demo Conference.  Trust us, you don't want to miss it!

To learn more about the Demo Conference Fall 2011, please visit their site: www.demo.com

To learn more about the ClickWrite platform and what it can do click here.

A company starts out with one website.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well to get that one website up that company had to create basic content, make sure that content was on the site in the correct place and make sure that the user experience was perfected before it could be launched.  Ok, so not as simple as it first sounded but not terribly complicated either, right?  Before the company could launch or market their site they had to make sure there was enough content on the site and enough in reserve so they could put up additional pieces of information and make sure their clients/customers would find the site valuable.  The website had to be one of their most valuable assets. 

Seems like a lot of pressure and a lot of work, but is still semi-manageable with a good team behind it.  Well now comes the tough part: creating more content, SEO, promotion, building and tracking your traffic, and constantly monitoring your website.  There can be no lag time between comments left by your clients/customers and your response, no delay in adding new and engaging content, and no delay in marketing new products, updating product specs or launching new services on the site.  If any of these happened the value of the site diminishes. 

So let’s say you have 100 affiliate websites, or more, careful management is a must in order to have success with each one. When we say management what exactly do we mean?  Well if you are a webmaster you have some idea.  Here are some of the simple ones:

• Keeping Your Content Current
  The time it takes to get into each site and create a link to the new article on the main website, takes 5 minutes. Multiplying that 5 minutes times 100 microsites results in 500 minutes - the equivalent of over 8 hours - a full day's work. Let's be serious, if it takes that much effort, updates won't happen very often.
• Maintaining Accuracy
  Each time an update is done, each microsite must be edited - or touched. This increases the chance inaccurate information - a typo for example - will be added eventually. Consider how many times repetitive action leads to mistakes. One clipboard cut and paste with an error - pasted dozens of times - means a lot of time spent on cleaning it up.
• Website Statistics
  You have to constantly monitor your webpage statistics and make strategic changes depending on what you see. If the number of visitors decreases one month then you have to do something about it. What happened and how can you fix it? You have to make sure to remember to check bandwidth and space usage for every domain/website account. Checking subdomains and other stats might also be a good idea
• Login Details Maintenance
  The more sites you have the more passwords and usernames that you will need to know, unless you use the same username and password for each one and you are asking for trouble.  Making sure you keep track of the log in details helps when you want to access those websites via FTP.  
• Back it Up
  You must back up your website data.  If you have an automatic backup in place that is great but to make sure and keep track of 100s of sites with or without auto backup can be a challenge.  How will you know if one of your multiple sites is down unless you are checking each and every one every day. 
• Email Management
  You might be able to get by remembering login details but email addresses and mail is another story.  They are constantly changing and if you fall behind it will be hard to catch up.  I know that my email box isn’t very clean and that is one personal email.  What if you don’t notice an email from a customer or client?  If they don’t hear back they don’t come back.  Sure you can forward all of your email but then your one box is overflowing. 

Those 6 are just the tip of iceberg. Now imagine a new product is being launched by your company and you have to make sure the marketing pieces are on every site in the network and are exactly the same.  That means manually going to all 100 sites to make sure the content appears correctly.  Double checking that the location is correct, there are no typos, the correct images are being displayed, the links work, etc.  You have to add the content to each site manually and this could easily take 1 hour or more on each site.  So imagine having to do that 100 times every time you want to change even a word.  Doesn’t seem very efficient does it?  

So how can you effectively manage and market multiple sites without pulling your hair out while you miss your kid’s piano recital?  ClickWrite

ClickWrite can help you do all of those things we discussed above plus more.  It is a platform that can help you manage multiple sites more effectively and efficiently with less stress.  ClickWrite makes managing multiple sites a simple process, allowing you to update content on one site and have that content syndicated to all of the other sites in the network.  No more going from site to site fixing the exact same content.  One update, multiple sites, one system: ClickWrite.  It already sounds easier.  

Want to know more about the benefits of ClickWrite? Click here to visit us.

Now that you know the basics of crowdsourcing we can look at how it can help you find effective solutions to difficult problems, create a more collaborative culture within your company, and help you be more successful in whatever market you are in. 

In Part 2 we briefly went over Crowd Wisdom or the “wisdom of crowds”.  We are going to focus on the part of Crowd Wisdom that involves tapping into your work force to find innovative and creative solutions to problems that might be stumping your “experts”.  This gives you another set of eyes focused on a problem where the solutions that have been reached haven’t performed to expectations.  Remember that if you create the right crowdsource then the crowd will almost always outperform any small number of upper management or consultants.  Sure your management team might have MBAs from Harvard or have been successful at a Fortune 100 company, but studies still show that smaller groups of highly intelligent people are consistently outperformed by crowds.

Laying the Groundwork for your Crowdsourcing Project

So how can you capitalize on internal crowdsourcing?  Well there are a variety of ways to do it.  A UK publishing company conducted a survey of all 100,000 of the company’s employees and asked “what percentage of your intellectual capital do you use?”  The result was jaw dropping.  70 percent of the employees, that is 70,000, thought they used only 15 – 20 percent of their intellectual capital! The majority of employees thought they were underutilized and could be doing more to contribute to the company.  How many other companies do you think would have similar results?  You could probably assume most, especially the larger companies and those are the ones with the most crowdsourcing potential and resources! 

Most likely you have employees that are similar to the example above and are willing to contribute more and be part of different projects, but you have to know how to cash in on the intellectual capital they are waiting to share.  So you have willing participants for an internal crowdsource, now you have to implement it.  There are four basic steps to creating and implement an internal crowdsource:

1. Create clear goals - Employees are used to getting surveys that they reply to and assume they won’t see any change in the way things are being run or they are being utilized.  The first step is to differentiate the crowdsource from just another survey.  The crowdsourcing project needs to be seen as a viable way to solve a problem.  This is an opportunity to have employees help you solve problems and not just give an opinion.  For the employees to believe and see the difference between a common survey and asking for their input and problem solving skills upper management has to be committed and buy into the process.
2. Create a structured and well organized framework for the project – Take enough time to research and decide what platform will best suit your company’s needs and organizational structure. Determine what pieces are needed, for instance user comments, rank and/or vote on submissions. Are teams able to utilize virtual work space to communicate?  Is there time set aside for groups/teams to brainstorm?  Ask yourself questions that you think will help clarify the goals and the means to achieve those goals.
3. Start simple and grow from there - The first crowdsource you create should involve an easier problem to solve.   It should be relatively simple and clearly defined. It should engage your workforce from multiple areas (Marketing, IT, Human Resources).  You need to provide sufficient information for the employees and make sure to outline the submission guidelines and structure. You don’t want, or need any misunderstandings later in the process.  Also make sure to set a deadline for completion and clearly communicate that to your workforce.
4. Communicate with your employees - There will be a variety of viewpoints from your employees when it comes to the crowdsource.  Some will be excited (probably the 70% who feel like they don’t use enough of their intellectual capital) and some will be skeptical and on guard.  Make sure to quickly address any concerns and communicate the steps and goals of the crowdsource.  One idea would be to create a crowdsource to set the outline and rules for future crowdsourcing projects. 

Managing Your Crowdsourcing Project

Laying the groundwork for the crowdsource is probably the most difficult part.  Now it is time to manage the project and make sure the employees know what a valuable piece of the project they are.  Employees who don’t feel like their input is valued will most likely not participate and if they do take part their input will be guarded and not as impactful.  Make sure to give positive feedback.  Let those that step up and get the project started know that they are welcome and that it is appreciated. 

This would also be a good time to encourage those that might not have expertise, in the area that the crowdsource is focused on, to participate.  If groups or teams are involved it would be good to encourage the teams to be from different areas of the company.  One person from sales, one from IT, one from logistics, etc.  This won’t only help the brainstorm or ideas be more inclusive, but it will also help the participants feel comfortable knowing that everyone in the company is involved. 

Although you want to let your employees know that they are a valuable part of your crowdsource try to stay in the shadows as much as possible.  Don’t try to chime in or get involved until after the crowdsource is complete. Instead be there to facilitate and remove any blocks so that the discussion continues to move forward.

The final piece of employee involvement is recognition.  The best idea might be to create a plan to recognize all contributors in the planning stages or beginning of the crowdsource.  Make sure everyone who contributed is recognized, especially those who have contributed the most valuable ideas, which are being decided either by management, employee ranking or a combination of the two.  Since the participants will most likely have some input it is important to make them feel valued, along with those who have been determined to have contributed the best ideas, so that they are eager to participate in the next project.

So once all of the ideas are collected and the deadline for the crowdsourcing project has passed it is time to determine which ideas are the best.  There will most likely be many great ideas and some might even be used later but the selection has to be narrowed down.  The task of finding the right solution from possibly hundreds or thousands of submissions might seem a little daunting.  A strategy has to be implemented to sort through and recognize the right idea or solution. 

If the judging is done by experts, or a committee, some clear criteria will need to be used for evaluation. This means the committee can divide the submissions, follow the same judging criteria, and then combine the best for group review.  If crowd voting/ranking was involved this might make the process a little more difficult since the judges might not agree with the votes.  Again there has to be clear communication and if the top voted idea isn’t feasible or realistic then the crowd needs to understand why.  The problem of the crowd not believing that their opinions are valued could be brought up but clear communication can help reduce any problems. 

The one thing to remember with internal crowdsourcing, or crowdsourcing in general, is that while it is successful and can generate brilliant ideas from within your company quantity does not always equal quality.  There is the possibility that you will end up empty handed. Hopefully you have laid the groundwork and provided the incentive and information to bring in creative and innovative ideas but that doesn’t always result in a viable or realistic solution. Before throwing it all away though take another look at the process and the way that the submissions were judged.  You can mix and match the process by which the best submission is selected and sometimes come out with a better result. 

USING CLICKWRITE FOR INTERNAL CROWDSOURCING

There are a variety of different ways to manage a crowdsourcing project and even more ways to collect submissions.  The way people communicate changes each day with new apps, software, hardware, and the biggest influence, the evolving internet.  ClickWrite can help you simplify your crowdsource and eliminate the communications traffic jam that can occur. 

So how can ClickWrite microsites help you with your internal crowdsourcing project?  Managing a crowdsource can be difficult and time consuming.  Like we looked at earlier there are many steps to creating a productive crowdsource and to manage it along the way takes a lot of effort, especially if you want it to be successful.  ClickWrite can help you reduce the amount of time spent on managing your internal crowdsource by giving you adaptable options and bringing the data directly to you.

ClickWrite creates an ever expanding organic crowdsource by creating microsites for your; employees, franchisees, suppliers, distributors, or your Uncle Stewart. ClickWrite syndicates whatever content you decide is valuable from your site to the microsites.  You can also receive information from the microsites.  The flow of information goes in both directions and that means you can pull valuable information from employees who blog on their site, franchisees who are having success with a specific marketing tool, sales reps that record notes on a sales call, or distributors who want to let you know about a problem with the supply chain and who have an innovative solution. That means quick, easy, and proficient access to a variety of sources related directly to your business without having to make 100 phone calls or send out 1,000 emails.  It is a constant crowdsource with the information flowing directly to you and the ability to share your information with them, along with customers and clients if you choose.  Collaboration is the key to any crowdsource and ClickWrite makes it easy.

For more information on how ClickWrite can develop an organic crowdsource that is constantly working for you, please contact us @ ClickWrite or visit our website @ www.clickwrite.com. 

In September, 2010 Sony set up an online open forum called Open Planet. The public (the crowd) were invited to share their ideas about environmental and sustainability challenges that they found most concerning.  Then they were asked to use seven innovative Sony technologies to invent creative and out-of-the-box ways to solve those challenges.

This was the first time Sony had tried an open forum using social networking and crowdsourcing.  They were running a huge risk, but one that paid off nicely.  The visit times to the site averaged over 10 minutes, which was much longer than would have been achieved using traditional media or communication channels, according to Sony. The results were 400 concepts, 7 of which were selected by a panel, which were then narrowed down to the 3 finalists.

The crowdsource helped Sony discover a new and exciting way to engage with its consumers. Sony gained genuine insights about the concerns of its customers and this understanding was far deeper than it would have been able to achieve through traditional market research and customer surveys.

Sony is just one example of hundreds of successful implementations of crowdsourcing.  The biggest and probably best known implementation of crowdsourcing is Wikipedia.  Instead of looking at the obvious giant open forum, a.k.a. Wikipedia, let’s take a look at examples from a variety of industries and ones that could possibly help you create your own crowdsource. 

Let’s take a look at the 4 types of crowdsourcing to help you understand where some of the upcoming examples fit, and how they are used, in the world of crowdsourcing.

• Crowd Creation – Most likely what comes to mind when you think of crowdsourcing.  This type of crowdsourcing is what is mostly done through social media and open forums like Sony.  Entering a video in a contest to use for a commercial, designing a t-shirt, or writing a piece of content for a company are examples of this.  “On the Internet no one knows you are a dog,” which is what makes crowdsourcing possible. Nobody knows whether you are a professional photographer or award winning screenwriter.  The only qualification is the work itself.  “Crowdsourcing can be effective not only for sourcing new writing, photography, music and film, but for solving real-world scientific problems.”  Thinking outside the box is great but being outside the world can sometimes be better.  People who don’t attend the same schools, work on all of the similair projects, or are even involved in the field are many times the ones that solve the hardest problems in that industry.  

• Crowd Wisdom - attempts to harness many people’s knowledge in order to solve problems or predict future outcomes or help direct corporate strategy.  According to Jeff Howe, who coined the term “crowdsourcing”, “Given the right set of conditions the crowd will almost always outperform any number of employees – a fact that many companies are increasingly attempting to exploit.”   Cal Tech professor Scott E Page has done studies to show that smaller groups of highly intelligent people are consistently outperformed by crowds.  We will take a closer look at Crowd Wisdom, successful implementations, and how ClickWrite can help manage you manage your crowd wisdom next week.

• Crowd Voting - Crowd Voting asks the crowd to organize, filter and rank content.  This includes; movies, music, and blog posts.  Voting is the most popular form of crowdsourcing and results in the highest levels of participation.  If you think about it Google’s search engine is built on Crowd Voting. Jeff Howe refers to what he calls the 1:10:89 rule.  This states that out of 100 people:
  • 1% will create something valuable
  • 10% will vote and rate submissions
  • 89% will consume creation
  • According to Howe, for the 10% that vote and rate content “the act of consumption was itself an act of creation.”

• Crowd Funding - Crowd-Funding is an alternative way of financing a variety of different projects.  We will look more at Crowd Funding next week.

So now you know the 4 basic types of crowdsourcing.  Let's take a look at some successes from the Crowd Creation and Crowd Voting types of crowdsourcing since we will be looking at Crowd Wisdom and Crowd Funding next week.  

Success with Crowd Creation

There are so many innovative examples of Crowd Creation that it is hard to pick just 1 to look at, so I picked 4 examples.  First we will take a look at large scale and complicated crowd creation projects, starting with YouTube and the “Life in a Day” project that was produced by Ridley Scott of Gladiator and Aliens fame.  The premise was to have everyone in the World who wanted to participate (the crowd) film a day in their lives on July 24, 2010 and upload it to YouTube.  Then the "Life in a Day" team would pick “the most compelling and distinctive footage” which would then “be edited into an experimental documentary film.” 

How successful was the Life in a Day project?  They received 80,000 submissions and 4,500 hours of footage from 192 countries.  I would say that it was very successful. 

YouTube has turned into a perfect place for innovative crowd creation when it comes to video.  Another example of this was the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which was made up of thousands of video submissions, from different musicians playing the same song, on a variety of instruments.  This was turned into a collage, or mash-up, and viewed by millions online.  A select group of the musicians were invited to play at Carnegie Hall.

Photography is the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to crowdsourcing, according to Howe.  There have been 3 separate developments in photography that has turned it into one of the biggest pieces of crowdsourced content online:

1. The affordable digital SLR camera
2. Photo editing software, like Photoshop, that has become easier to use
3. The internet, where people can share their photos and download others

So what did this mean for photographers? Well the quality of photographs by amateurs began to rival professionals.  This especially affected stock photographers who would sell their photos for up to $400 each.  Stock photos were no longer a scarce commodity but instead they were now abundant with amateur photographers around the World posting their photos online.  Instead of spending $400 on 1 photo you could now get them each for a dollar online.  The demand for stock photos went through the roof and a site called IStockPhoto had positioned itself perfectly.  IStockPhoto.com has become the king of the crowdsource by letting users come to the site and buy/license stock photography from other photographers for affordable prices.  They recently began offering videos as well.
 
Crowdspring has taken the crowd creation to another level by having companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 post briefs on their site for a fee.  These briefs have set payments for the winner and are seen by the whole Crowdspring community.  Anyone who wants to submit a design for a website, logo, stationary, or a writing sample can and the company then decides which one they want to use.  Many worry that this might cause the same effect that we saw with stock photography.  According to Howe, “crowdsourcing doesn’t eradicate a business, it just changes it dramatically.”  So it is yet to be seen the full effect on agencies and professional graphic designers from Crowdspring and other sites.  

Success with Crowd Voting

If you decide that you like this blog post and want to tweet it or post it on Facebook you have just become part of a Crowd Voting crowdsource.  An even better example would be to post it on Digg and then see who votes for it and results in a higher ranking.  This type of crowdsource is seen everywhere from social media to brand and product choices to American Idol.  People love to vote, rank, make top 10 lists, etc. and all of these can contribute to a Crowd Voting crowdsource. 

Let's say you have two logos and just can't decide which one is right for your business.  Why don't you turn it over to the people who are most important to that business. the consumer?  Put it to a public vote and let them decide which logo is more effective.  Things like that engage consumers and turn them into more than just someone who buys your product.  It turns the customers into partners and lets them know you value their opinion.  You can do this in a variety of ways and it helps you to improve your company, product, or service because your customers help you make the right decision.  Does it always work flawlessly? No, but what does?  Some of you might remember some of the crowd voting used to name new baby animals at the zoo or a new public building and how the names got a little out of hand.  Still, if your customers likes Baby Poop Nugget over Larry the Lion then it might be something to consider. 

One of the biggest successes in crowd voting is the reality television explosion where America votes on who they want to go home or move on (depending how you look at it).  American Idol is probably the best example and has been the most successful crowd voting reality shows.  Millions vote each week through phone calls and text messages.

Google was mentioned in the description of Crowd Voting earlier and is by far the biggest and most successful crowd voting based implementation in history.  Of course Google has grown and its rankings of pages has become more complicated (and for most more confusing) but a huge piece of its ranking system is still based off links to your site.  Why would somebody link to your site?  If they find the information valuable.  They might think it is informative, funny, or just so bad they have to use it as an example (still considered a vote though).  This helps esentially send votes and let Google know that something valuable is located on your site.  The more links the better and this moves your ranking up, which is a crowd voting result.  Next time you link to a site think of it as you being part of a crowd who is voting for that site.  

Next Week...

• Crowd Wisdom and Crowd Funding, how they can both benefit your business
• Internal Crowd Sourcing
• How to Manage Your Crowdsourcing Project
• How ClickWrite can help you with your internal Crowd Sourcing through Crowd Wisdom and Management

Crowdsourcing: How much does your ox weigh?

Pt. 1 - An Introduction to Crowdsourcing

In 1906 there was a county fair where attendees were invited to guess the weight of a large ox.  Excited at the chance to win the cash prize, over 800 people took a guess.  Not one guess was right, but afterwards a statitician took a look at all of the answers and discovered something remarkable: the average of all the guesses was 1 pound less than the actual weight of the ox.  The take away: a crowd can be much smarted than any one of its members, even if they aren't working together.

Crowdsourcing has been around for a long time and it is possible that without realizing it you were part of a crowdsource.  Only recently has it become a popular term used by advertisers, designers, scientists, and big name brands. A huge reason for this increased focus on crowdsourcing is the enormous impact of social media.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN and others have become a resource for marketers, brands, organizations, and others.  Ideas are freely exchanged and digital collaboration is the new way writers get past their blocks, designers find their inspiration, and brands get their next tagline. So what is crowdsourcing? I'm glad you asked.

Crowdsourcing is a way of engaging groups of people and having them submit, discuss, refine and rank ideas and submissions for a specific problem or question posed by an organization. This could be a company, advertising agency, and in many cases part of a scientific study.  The crowd can consist of consumers, employees, the general public, etc. This leads to high value information that can help a company better understand market needs and preferences, create a new product or enhance one that already exists, discover a solution to a difficult problem, or get direction to keep your brand relevant. To be succesful in todays market crowdsourcing requires a combination of online technology and human collaboration along with, obviously, an engaged crowd.

The Process (Simplified)

Crowdsourcing begins with a question broadcast online to a crowd. Whoever is asking the question comes away with a variety of answers, one that has been narrowed down. or a direction they need.  They also receive rich detailed information on crowd interests and preferences. Crowdsourcing is more than just brainstorming or ideation, proven techniques are used to focus the crowd on the topic that is being targeted.  These techniques or directions help harness the innovation, creativity, and problem solving skills of a crowd.



The Wisdom of Crowds

In his book, "The Wisdom of Crowds", James Surowiecki says, "Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few...better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future."  So if Surowiecki is right, why doesn't everyone use crowdsourcing?  Even though crowdsourcing is becoming more popular, as organizations see the advantages to using it, it isn't easy.  There is a right and wrong way of crowdsourcing and marketing managers don't fully trust it yet.  Many aren't familiar with the technology needed to easily crowdsource and determining the right way to do it can be a challenge.  Another reason is that many in advertising and marketing feel threatened by the thought of a crowd creating better campaigns and coming up with better ideas than them.  There are however a growing number of large companies using crowdsourcing and that number will grow as marketers become more comfortable with it. 

Many companies are dipping their toes (to steal a phrase from a colleague's blog post) in the crowdsourcing puddles with an innovative advertising agency named Victors and Spoils.  The agency is located in Boulder, CO and uses crowdsourcing to develop innovative and out of the box campaigns for their clients.  They have worked with companies and brands like Harley Davidson, PayPal, Levi, and Virgin. 

Victors & Spoils from Victors & Spoils on Vimeo.

Next Week Crowd Success...

So how do organizations and agencies like Victors and Spoils use crowdsourcing and implement the ideas from it so successfully? Next week we will take a look at the implementation of crowdsourcing, where the ideas are coming from, how to use and implement ideas from a crowdsource, and how ClickWrite can help you crowdsource organically from inside your own company.   

So you have tried everything; Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIN, and yelling at people from your 3rd floor office, but the leads generated and amount of conversions haven’t been what you expected.  You ask yourself, “What am I doing wrong?”  It might be that your target audience isn’t being engaged the way you want them to be or it could just be people are a little freaked out by a crazy person yelling at them to “visit our Facebook page!” from an office window.  Either way, you need to find a platform to focus your campaign and strategy while including all of your new social sites and that can be done with ClickWrite.  

We recently helped a client implement ClickWrite and the lead increase on their site was remarkable.  During the 6 months before the implementation our client had 24 total leads generated by their site.  That is an average of 4 leads a month, or in other words 1 a week!  With numbers that bad they were on the verge of yelling out of, and then throwing a chair through, their office window.  After ClickWrite was implemented their leads jumped to 146 over the following 6 months.  That is an increase of over 600%! 

Using the ClickWrite platform our client was able to create microsites that were targeted at different geographical areas.  They created focused sites that were dedicated to the geographical area, while also having syndicated pieces of content from the main site.  So how did that transfer to such a major increase in leads?  In this case it began with search or SEO.  

Having multiple microsites can be very beneficial for your SEO, as long as the sites are optimized and have valuable content.  The more opportunities for your sites to get indexed by search engines the better.  So instead of having 1 main site with tons of content and mixed up messages you can spread it out and create sites that can have targeted messages and content.  Instead of just having your 1 main site on the first, second, or third page of Google you can have multiple sites all on page 1.  This means potential customers find your site that is targeted to them.  In the case of our client it was potential customers from different areas.  They were able to find the closest location and visit that microsite.  While they were there they also learned about the client as a whole because of the syndicated content pieces located strategically on the site.  All of this leads to more visits and time spent on the site.  For our client that meant a 19% increase in unique visitors and an average of 2 minutes more spent on the site.  

The increase in traffic and time on site leads to potential customers learning more about the company or product and therefor more likely to purchase the product or sign up to hear more about it.  That is what happened with our client.  Having the microsites, being optimized for search and creating engaging and regularly updated content made sure that potential customers found the site and once they were there they wanted to know more, which is what generated the massive increase in leads.  

ClickWrite provides customers with real time visitor analytics. We find observation of the results provides immediate education of visitor behavior and real time examples of how content marketing impacts organic search results. The client was able to observe results first-hand including search terms they did not expect nor could have anticipated. As a result, their local marketing strategy was easier to explain to their team and is leading to greater buy in from frontline participants in the strategy.

For more information on how a ClickWrite implementation can help your online presence please visit us at www.clickwrite.com or Contact Us for a free live demo.

According to Google Analytics a Bounce Rate is: “the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page). Bounce Rate is a measure of visit quality and a high Bounce Rate generally indicates that site entrance (landing) pages aren’t relevant to your visitors. You can minimize Bounce Rates by tailoring landing pages to each keyword and ad that you run. Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised in the ad copy.”

So how do you reduce your bounce rate while increasing customer engagement?  Well if you have a simple product that is self – explanatory and doesn’t require any type of interaction with the customer, then a one page narrowly targeted site will be fine.  For the rest of you out there, microsites are the way to go.  They are one of the most effective and focused online marketing tools available to you.  

Microsites can be as complex or simple as you want and can deliver a targeted message no matter how many pieces of additional information is on the page or pages.  The size of the microsite and the content used will depend on what your goal is and who you want to target.

On average 70% of visitors won’t make it past a site’s homepage.  There are a number of reasons visitors won’t venture any further than the homepage on most sites.  A major factor is clutter and confusion right on the homepage.  Most customers are looking for a specific product when they search online.  If you offer that customer too many choices and no clear path from landing page to end result they will either get frustrated or bored and won’t stick around to purchase anything. Messages need to be simplified and focused.  How can you engage a customer and have them purchase your product if they can’t find what they are looking for?  A microsite can solve these problems and give your customers a focused and easy to navigate experience when they visit your site.  So how can a microsite achieve this while reducing your bounce rate and improving your marketing capabilities? 

Microsites can:

Target and reach a specific audience. 

If a customer is looking for a red, white, and blue cookie jar they should be able to find it quickly and easily and complete their purchasing process.  You could create a microsite that only sells 4th of July products, American Flag themed products, or just multi colored cookie jars.  When the customer lands on the site they find what they are looking for quickly and without having to dig around.  The more relevant the site the more likely the customer will stay.  If you are using ClickWrite’s platform the site can also have syndicated content from your main site. This will enable you to deliver the same message that you would of on your homepage but to a happy customer who is enjoying their experience on your microsite.  

Deliver more information more effectively.

If your company offers a variety of products it might be difficult to go into detail about each one. Again the more focused the information the better chance a customer sticks around and the lower your bounce rate is.  Using a microsite allows you to go into more detail about a product.  You can offer the standard product description but also offer engaging or exciting information that the customer might not know.  Including positive word of mouth and press about the product is always a good thing and you have plenty of room to do so with a microsite.  Was the product recently featured on a television show?   Has it recently won any awards?  Was Lady Gaga seen using it?  You can also include valuable content that is inspired by the product; pictures, video, blogs, etc. With ClickWrite’s platform you can also include other valuable product and company info with the syndicated content from the parent site.  

Make sure customers see you as the expert.

With one giant site you might look like you know a little about a lot.  Yes you have hundreds of products but which one are you an expert in?  With microsites you are an expert in whichever product you choose.  You look like you know a lot about the product you sell or service you provide.  

Improve your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign strategy to bring visitors to your site.

With a microsite it is easier to create a PPC campaign, since you can narrow your advertising focus, keywords, and have a better definition of who your target audience is.  Creating a PPC campaign for a red, white, and blue cookie jar is a lot easier, and less expensive, than creating one for generic cookie jars.  

Search engines will think you are cool. 

Read my lips S-E-O.  If you have a domain name that contains relevant keywords for a microsite that is built around a specific product or service provided it will increase your SEO and that is good for you and your customers.  Easier to find for them and more conversions for you, win-win.

Help create a more effective product launch.

Every St. Patrick’s day you bring out a limited edition green, orange, and white (Ireland’s flag colors) cookie jar.  Wouldn’t it be nice to announce it and not have customers searching a site full of colored cookie jars?   A microsite can set your newly launched product apart and get consumers excited.  

Bottom Line

A microsite can provide a variety of benefits to your customers and your bottom line.  If your microsite is focused, contains key information, and creates a positive purchasing experience for your customers then you will benefit from a reduced bounce rate and a happier customer.  

Clickwrite can help you keep the 70% of visitors who tend to bounce away from your site on your site and engaged, while helping you create more conversions by creating individual, unique microsites - with unique URLs - all coordinated from a central administration interface.  To learn more please visit What is ClickWrite?And How does it work?

SEO! SEO! SEO!

Last time we discussed creating content for your microsite and making sure that content is relevant and engaging to your target audience.  Hopefully you have realized that a solid content strategy and marketing plan are very important to your site. Now let’s say you have created grade A perfect content and are launching a great looking site.  Everything is in place to succeed right?  Not quite.  Even if your content is stuff of legend it won’t matter to your target market - in this case potential franchisees - if they can’t find the site!

The main goal of this site is to bring in sales leads and develop relationships with potential franchisees.  For this to be successful a long-term plan needs to be implemented for lead development and sales. A huge part of the plan needs to include bringing the leads in and then having the sales team contact and close.  Optimizing the site for search will help those leads find you and the sales team will have a field day.  So where do you start with SEO?  There are so many pieces and while they are all important, there are some vital basics that you can build upon.  Below are 7 SEO steps for your new microsite (thanks to some help from Agent SEO and Jacob Stoops):

Step #1: Identify & Overcome Crawlability Issues.

This is easily the most important step of the SEO campaign. If your website can’t be crawled properly, then it can’t be indexed, which means that chances of people finding you through a search query are zip, zilch, zero! You’ll need to review your website to identify and correct all of the potential crawlability pitfalls.Some things to look for include:

• Robots.txt file – Check it to ensure that you’re not restricting a web spider’s access to your website.
• Meta Robots tag – Review your Meta Robots tag to ensure that you’re not disallowing the indexing of your website.
• Uncrawlable navigation – Whether it be from Flash, Javascript, AJAX, or another coding issue, you’ll need to ensure that your website’s primary navigation can be crawled and followed by web spiders.
• Poor link architecture – Review your website’s internal links structure to make sure that web spiders have access to ALL of your site’s critical pages.
• Framed Content – Review your website for iFrame’s or other framed-in content. This content resides on a 3rd-party server and therefore won’t be attributed to your webpage. This is very common with Auto Dealers, or other websites that may feature a dynamic inventory.

Remember, if you’re site can’t be crawled it can’t be found and it doesn’t matter how good the content is—or how pretty the design.

Step #2: Research.

It is very important to do your homework before proceeding any further with your SEO campaign. This doesn’t mean hitting the books, but it does mean a little bit of studying.Things to look at:

• Keyword Research – Take a look at the different keywords options and answer some questions about yourself. First, what do you want to show up for? Second, what are your products/services? What are people finding your website for? What are people ACTUALLY searching for? Finally, does all of this sync up with your original suspicions or do you need to overhaul your keyword targeting?
• Competitor Research – It’s very important to review both your online and offline competition. You may be able to gain a bit of insight into potential SEO strategies based on what you find them doing.

Step #3: Keyword Benchmarking.

Now that you’ve done your keyword research and hopefully decided on some keyword targeting, it’s time to do a little more benchmarking. You’ll need to utilize rank checking software to find and track your positions in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).Some good software to track your rankings:

• WebCEO
• SEOBook’s Rank Checker

Step #4: On-Site SEO.

Solid On-Site Optimization is at the heart of every good SEO campaign, and is where a majority of SEO’s spend a bulk of their efforts. Basically, “On-Site” refers to any optimization or tweaks that happen ON your website. There are a ton of things involved with On-Site SEO, and each thing has its own set up best practices. However, it usually boils down to a few simple areas:

• Page Titles – Webpage titles are probably the quickest and easiest way to make an immediate impact in search rankings and traffic. Focus on getting your site’s titles right and good results will usually fall in line.
• Quality HTML Content – Search engines love content! That’s all there is to it. Having scanable HTML content should serve to give search engines something to hang their hat on when determining your website’s authority. In addition, if your content is any good, users will appreciate it.
• Meta Description & Keywords Tags – Meta Descriptions are fairly valuable real estate as they typically show up under the title in the SERP’s. This makes them a good place for SEO purposes. Meta Keywords aren’t really used as a ranking factor by the major search engines anymore, although many SEO’s will tell you they’re the key to solid rankings. Watch out for those guys.
• Utilization of Heading Tags – Heading tags (H1-H6) should be utilized within the content to denote areas of importance on any given webpage. Every webpage should make solid use of Heading tags.
• Image Optimization – Optimization your website’s images by ensuring that they’re utilizing Alt attribute tags and good file-naming conventions will help search engines understand a little more about your website, and will help visually impaired users who need to utilize screen readers.
• Utilization of Link Title Tags – Link title tags are another small piece to the puzzle that serve to help describe the contents of any internal or external pages being linked to. They simply serve as another way to reinforce keyword density and page theme.
• Website Architecture – Ensuring that the website is fundamentally sound in terms of it’s coding, link structure, and overall architecture can really be beneficial from a usability standpoint. Ensuring the the flow of links and information makes sense will help you users, and what’s good for users is usually good for search engines.

Step #5: New Content Identification & Targeting.

When working through the On-Site Optimization phase, chances are you’ll be able to identify opportunities for additional content that could be added to your website. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Content Expansion – Did you find any areas of your website where the content could be expanded on a little bit? Remember, search engines love content, so if your website doesn’t have enough you may need a bit more.
• Content Separation – Ever hear of the phrase, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” A webpage’s content can sometimes fall into this problem, where the content is a bit too general and not specific enough. Did you find any pages on your website that could be split into multiple pages? Splitting them up can help ensure that each product/service has it’s own individual page—and usually results in a page that is more focused and targeted for a highly-specific keyword/phrase.
• Offline Opportunities – Does your company have any PDF’s, Whitepapers, etc. that aren’t currently online? Might be a good way to add a little more content to your site.

Step #6: Off-Site SEO.

Effective Off-Site Optimization can serve as the backbone of an optimization campaign, and is where a majority of SEO’s fall flat on their face. Basically, “Off-Site” refers to any optimization or tweaks that happen OFF of your website that can affect how you rank.Off-Site Optimization is usually the hardest thing about running an SEO campaign, but can end of being one of the most rewarding things that you’ll do. There are several things involved with a good Off-Site campaign:

• Link Building – This is the practice of acquiring inbound links to your website. Every SEO’s goal should be to NOT just to acquire a high volume of links, but links of high quality. This is easily one of the most difficult things to do for any SEO.
• Social Media Presence
• Directory Presence – Ensuring that your website or company has a presence within the key directories is super important. There are several local, social, and niche directories that can help drive more exposure and backlinks. If you’re a local business, a good place to start would be Google Maps or Yahoo! Local.
• Video Sharing – Videos are a great way to drive traffic and may help your website or brand go viral, if they’re good enough! Try submitting your website’s branded videos to YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe and other video-sharing sites.
– This is the biggest black box for many webmasters, but the most rewarding area of your Off-Site work. Social media outlets such as Twitter andFacebook can serve to drive more exposure, customer interact, traffic, and more website authority down the line.

Step #7: Review, Report, Tweak, Repeat.

This one is simple.

• Review – Continually review your site’s SEO to ensure that the tactics that you implemented today still work tomorrow.
• Report – Ensure that you’re continually reporting on your results, so that you can make future decisions based on real data and not hunches.
• Tweak – As you review your results, make tweaks to your SEO campaign as necessary.
• Repeat – Since SEO can theoretically go on forever, you’ll find yourself repeating almost every one of the steps along the way.

Launching The Site and Creating Its Content

In Part 1 and Part 2 of Successful Franchises Use Microsites we looked at how franchisors, and franchisees, are having a difficult time determining what marketing strategy works best for them, how a microsite can combine different pieces of media within that strategy, and how a franchisor can benefit from creating a microsite specifically for franchise sales.  This week we will take a look at the microsite and how content marketing strategy plays a vital role in its success. 

Content Is King

Once the goal of the microsite is determined and ideas begin to flow, the next important step is to develop a complete messaging strategy.  There has to be different types of messaging on a franchise sales microsite in relationship to the company’s main Web site and it has to be very different from any product or promotion microsite that has already been created. According to the International Franchise Association (IFA) “the content on the franchise sale site needs to clearly explain the brand value, touching on both franchisor support and the commitment to assisting individual-unit growth, which will help identify the reasons someone would choose this franchise opportunity over others.”

Once a messaging strategy in place, it is time to identify the best way to communicate the messages while engaging and creating a unique experience for visitors. What better way to do that then with different types of entertaining and engaging media including: videos, online flash presentations, blogs and podcasts.  These are all great ways to share the experience of franchise ownership with potential franchisees. The IFA states that “There are many franchise sites that feature videos of happy franchisees talking about their profitability and their great relationship with the franchisor.”  This is an opportunity to get creative with video and blogs and have unique content on your site.  Here are some content suggestions you can use to stand out from the franchisor crowd:

• Show clips from fun training sessions or corporate retreats.

• Include videos and news releases about store openings.

• Provide online tours of the corporate headquarters and introduce key staff.

• All of the videos that you created should show potential franchisees the culture of the franchise.  This helps prospective franchisees to begin experiencing what the franchise has to offer.

• Have an area for user generated content, where current franchisees can be more than a talking head.  They can post videos from their franchise or blog about their experience.  You as the franchisor can filter this content as you see fit.

Launching the Microsite

Engaging and informative multimedia will help keep visitors on the microsite.  The question is age old: If a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound?  If people don’t see the content does it exist?  Launching your microsite should be seen similarly to the way you would approach the opening of a new franchise.  There has to be a short-term strategic launch plan that is integrated into other parts of your marketing strategy.  This strategy will help to build interest, increase traffic, and bump up leads early in the life of the site. Try incorporating standard marketing with new media and social networking tools that are already in place in the organization.  Some suggestions for tactics and strategy to launch the microsite include:

• Communications:  Create a blog post about the new microsite and include current and basic information about current business opportunities.

• E-mail marketing:  Send out an email blast to current franchisees or those on an opt in email list. Create short-term incentives for referrals.

• Public relations:  Distribute a press release to bloggers and reporters that cover the industry

• Social media: Generate interest in the microsite by including LinkedIn groups, Facebook and Twitter in the promotion

• Advertising: Use online advertising.  If you are currently running an online ad campaign use a piece of it to direct visitors to the site.  Create a small short-term ad campaign.

• Mobile marketing:  It is very important that the microsite is able to be viewed on mobile devices.  This means easy on the flash and heavy on the text or image based content.  Video is fine too as long as it isn’t flash.  The use of smartphones is growing quickly and will make up more than half of the cellphone market in 2011. Your target audience for video will likely fit into this group.  

   

We finish up next week with SEO and why it is so important to your microsite.

ClickWrite and LoudClick can take care of many aspects of the launch of your new microsite.  We can guide you through the process from creation to launch and can help you with your marketing and content creation.  Your strategy for launch and content marketing is very important and ClickWrite and LoudClick can make sure it will be successful.  For more information and a demo of what ClickWrite can do for your microsite please visit us @ www.clickwrite.com or LoudClick our sister site @ www.loudclick.net.  

Microsites Dedicated to Franchise Sales

Last week, in Part 1 of the Successful Franchise series, we took a look at the crowded media landscape and how franchisors are having a difficult time determining which options are best for them and their franchisees.  This week we will look at whether a microsite dedicated to franchise sales is a good move for franchisors. According to the International Franchise Association (IFA)  "creating a 'microsite' dedicated to franchise sales is a wise move for franchisors."

For many franchisors and marketers franchise sales and their corporate site go hand in hand.  The problem is customers who visit the corporate site looking for information about store locations, hours, menus, etc.  are not looking to purchase a franchise.  Many times the valuable information about purchasing a franchise is lost in the endless abyss of pages on the site.  So why are franchise sales being marketed to the same customers who want to know what to order for lunch?  A smart, and increasingly popular, alternative is to move this information to a microsite, which helps market directly to your target audience.  This will enable potential franchisees to find the business development information without having to sift through other content not relevant to them.  

The main purpose of a franchise sales microsite is to generate leads for the franchisor.  Visitors to the site should immediately be able to get information on why they should buy into the franchise and then be able to easily request more information about the franchisor.  This helps develop a strong lead for the sales team.

The IFA states it perfectly, "Not only are the results of microsites measureable, they also deliver your message to the target audience efficiently and effectively. The microsite speaks to your target market and gets them to act. Efficient delivery of information to the target market reduces cost per lead."

Another benefit to creating a franchise-sales microsite is to please existing franchisees. When someone buys a franchise they don't want to see that more franchises are for sale, especially in nearby areas. According to the International Franchise Association (IFA) "Franchisees often believe, and rightfully so, that mixing the consumer 'buy this product' message with the sales 'buy a location near you' message cheapens both."

Careful and strategic planning of the microsite and it’s structure is important.  Here are a few things that the IFA recommends keeping in mind when building the new microsite:

• The content needs to address the purpose of the site by explaining the business opportunity succinctly and directly.  
• Providing an experience that leaves the visitors wanting more will increase their interest.
• Important follow-up information can be gathered by prominently displaying an easy-to-complete call to action on each page.

The beginning stages of developing a microsite are very important to the long term success of the site.  It is important to make sure that you are addressing your current and potential franchisees’ needs and adding value to the site experience.  ClickWrite can help you develop a strategy to accomplish your goals and also reduce the amount of time you spend updating the site along with the cost.  For more information visit us @ ClickWrite. Next week we will continue to build the franchise sales microsite and look at adding content, developing a clear messaging strategy, and the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to any site.  

Today’s marketing landscape is vastly different than 5 years ago and franchisors need to recognize the importance of multi-channel marketing.  According to the International Franchise Association (IFA), “The fragmented media landscape requires franchisors to cover all their bases: local directories, e-mail and mobile marketing, social media, search engine marketing and optimization, as well as the all-important corporate Web site.” 

There are a few problems that franchisors are now running into because of the complicated and confusing multi-channel marketing options that they have.  Many seem to have the problem of too many choices.  There are so many options that the franchisor, or franchisee, don’t know where to start, how effective any of the options are, and why they even need to use them.  So instead they keep the same marketing strategy that has shown little promise.

Each franchisor is unique and needs their own strategy to pass along to their franchisees.  The problem is managing the message across the multi-channel marketing freeway.  How do you manage the customer experience, while also keeping up customer satisfaction and the marketing for your business without going way beyond your budget?  According to the IFA a simple best practice is to provide each dealer or franchisee with their own microsite that allows them to provide localized content, event promotions and updates to their area. In addition, brand controls must be placed on key messages and positioning statements to maintain the highest level of your brand’s standards. This can be done with syndication from one central hub or website.  This method helps your organic search presence by having more relevant Web sites available for search engines to index and rank.

Sometimes branding and messaging problems occur across different types of marketing platforms like social media, local landing pages and microsites because they are not being monitored.  They are stagnant and don’t provide any value for consumers or franchisee owners.  The International Franchise Association (IFA) recommends that your digital marketing strategy needs to utilize a multi-pronged approach and offer solutions for creating multiple sites or for maintaining one primary site on each medium that each location can access. 

ClickWrite is a platform that allows the company’s central hub or site to control certain brand messaging or national marketing on all of the franchisee sites and solves the budget problem of monitoring and updating multiple microsites.  Selected content can be easily syndicated and access is determined by the administrator for each site.  This also allows franchisees to control most content for their site and create a unique microsite that appeals to their customers.  Everyone is happy and the right message is being received by the most important part of the equation, the end user. 

Next week we will look at how a franchisor can use a “microsite” dedicated to franchise sales and whether it is a wise move for franchisors.

Engaging, interactive brand microsites have many benefits to your brand and company.  Who wouldn't want increased brand awareness, improved SEO, and increased engagement with customers? 

1- Outbound marketing doesn't always deliver enough leads to increase sales.
Many companies decide to just use a strictly outbound marketing approach.  By now you might have realized that it alone won’t get you the sales leads you want or need. Microsites create valuable “inbound marketing” opportunities that help to attract customers under their own initiatives and drive sales.

2- S-E-O, S-E-O, S-E-O
If you think that seems like an overkill than you haven't been using SEO correctly.  The success of search engines and their organic search have taught us that content is contagious. Content is why clients and customers visit your site and why they return. Organizations with static or custom-built websites just can’t turn around content creation and distribution fast enough, putting them at the bottom of the SEO mix and ultimately at a significant competitive disadvantage. Microsites, built quickly and easily refreshed with new content, are SEO magnets. Good for traffic, good for your marketing reach.

3- Microsites pay back big branding numbers.
This touches on ClickWrite's recent blog post about the new research from Dynamic Logic that shows microsites are working as effective brand awareness and messaging tools v. more traditional display advertising. They found an increase in brand awareness and purchase intent with microsites. A good user experience for the microsite is key, where easy navigation, straight forward messaging and benefits are associated with value.

4- Meet your Corporate branding guidelines.
Microsites are a great way to roll out a campaign, launch a product, or communicate about an event. Using a platform like ClickWrite can help you target your message, yet still have a site that meets corporate branding standards and applies your corporate template. Carrying over the architecture of your whole corporate site is not always the best move but preserving the brand look and feel is.

5- Today marketers are more involved with multiple aspects and wear many hats including web designer and content creator.
This means that building websites need to incorporate the features and functions important to a marketer like community and content, but they also must be easily created, designed and maintained. Let’s put it this way, when a marketer puts on his web designer hat, the process should be painless and require little web development experience. We have to have sites up, running and ready to generate return NOW.

6- Preservation of Brand Equity.
Customers have been given enormous influence with the popularity of social media.  They have become as much your brand marketers as you are.  Microsites designed with social media tools built-in, give you the ability to create a destination for your biggest brand cheerleaders to help spread the word.

7- Increased traffic should be a good thing.
Many of today's marketing leaders believe that their next product, video, campaign, etc. is going to “go viral” and drive huge amounts of traffic, activity, conversions to their site and result in increased revenue. Many never consider a system or server failure due to unexpected volume. Microsites, when built on a platform like ClickWrite, give you the ability to build “viral” sites, but the capacity to manage traffic the way a large enterprise site can.

8- User-generated content
User-generated content driven by the advent of social media has created tremendous opportunities for us to understand what our customers are thinking, market directly to them, etc. UGC is important to engage customers, provide a way for them to be heard and feel heard, improve relationships, and increase the CLV (customer lifetime value). Microsites give UGC a place to flourish and helps put it to work within an integrated digital marketing plan.

9- User management and feedback
Like we mentioned in #8 when it comes to support forums, customer feedback pages, and similar areas, being able to respond quickly to comments and conerns and moderate is very important.  Many sites don't enable you to sift through the cluttered mess of messages and interact with the customer in a timely manner.  Using a microsite can divide the areas and make it easier to recognize customer issues and address them quickly and efficiently.

10- Budgets are getting smaller while ideas are getting bigger.
Most marketing budgets have been cut, some permanently.  Even with this being the case marketers are always looking for the next big idea and creating brilliant campaigns, only the budget is smaller and they are using cheaper tactics. Microsites will help achieve bigger goals for less money by using a variety of ways to communicate your message with a consumer or client. 

As you can see microsites aren't just for random marketing campaigns or viral sites.  They are one of the most valuable tools in a marketers toolbox, especially in todays rough economic climate where marketers are looking for innovative and inexpensive ways to reach their target audience effectively and efficiently. 

ClickWrite can help you build and maintain your microsites and develop strategies to achieve your marketing goals.  Please visit us at www.clickwrite.com for more information. 

Do microsites really work as effective brand awareness and messaging tools?  According to new research from Dynamic Logic they do.  An average microsite caused a greater increase in overall brand metrics than display advertising, according to a survey of microsite traffic. 

"As shown in the chart, we see that on average, microsites impact 7.8% of site visitors with respect to conveying key brand messages. In other words, after visiting a microsite, 7.8% of people become aware of a campaign's message who otherwise would not have been." (Dynamic Logic)

Some of the success of microsites seems obvious.  People (customers, clients, etc.) who visit the site are making a decision to learn more about a brand and already have interest.  Still, the substantial increase in purchase intent, brand favorability, ad awareness and aided brand awareness shows that a microsite experience offers a company or brand an unusual level of engagement with specific targeted users. 

According to Dynamic Logic’s research certain characteristics of microsites succeeded in moving the brand metrics needles more dramatically than others. For example Aided brand awareness was enhanced when the site made very clear the brand’s benefits and particular relevance to the visitor. A good user experience, where the site is easy to navigate and there are simple clear taglines communicating brand benefits, will help the user associate the messaging with the client brand.  Brands that entertained or gave useful information to visitors seemed to be the most well received while those who only pushed conversions and more direct sell methods seemed to fall short.  Quality content on a site positively impacts purchase intent.  This suggests that visitors like to reciprocate when they feel a brand has given them some kind of value.

Traditional advertising, and its share of marketing budgets, is getting smaller.  As marketers move away from traditional advertising they are trying to find different ways to reach consumers through broader “marketing services”.  These services are aimed at bringing a client closer to the consumer. Digital projects like branded “microsites” have become a part of most b2b marketers’ portfolio of offerings, and these microsites have become increasingly popular among consumer marketers as well.

Unlike banner ads and other digital marketing techniques, which have years of research and post-campaign analysis to prove value as a branding tool, there has been little research on the impact microsites have on visitors relative to other parts of a digital marketing strategy. While they are more expensive to build and maintain than a simple digital campaign, it is clear that they strongly affect the people that publishers can drive to such microsites.  That is where ClickWrite comes in. Clickwrite can provide a solution to building expensive microsites and the problem of updating those sites with current content.   The benefits of using microsites are obvious and engaging with your consumer, or clients, is more important today than it has ever been.  Are you ready to build your brand, increase your awareness, and engage more effectively with customers and clients?  It is time to start using microsites.

For more information on Clickwrite please visit us at:  www.clickwrite.com

For full PDF of Dynamic Logic's research on microsites visit: Beyond the Click - First Look at Normative Microsite Performance

Additional Source: Steve Smith, MinOnline.com

We've been offering the ClickWrite Microsite Platform for a good many months now and have seen many light bulbs go off for people once it's explained. Seems the need for such a product is vast and as unique as great marketing minds can make of it. Could it be the missing link for marketing services?

For example, we will soon launch an implementation of ClickWrite incorporating a parent site and two vastly different target networks: 1) resellers of the parent site product - and - 2) events at which the product will be featured. While not initially on our radar as a potential market - our client saw the potential to use microsites in a way that's as unique as their business. Editor note: come back in a couple weeks to see what this client has come up with.

Microsite networks have terrific potential in obtaining high ranking local search results. A recent change to Google's Place Search provides an even better way to highlight this potential and produce amazing results.

As background - Google has redesigned its search result page to better highlight local search results. By implementing a new location for the map (right column) and moving Google Places results higher up the traditional results list, visitors are exposed to businesses located on Google Places much more prominently than before.

A recent ClickWrite implementation went live about 2 weeks ago. Usually, we don't dwell too much on immediate results, but this experience has been too amazing to not share. User response as well as client education have been phenomenal.

This implementation included a network of 7 websites (including parent) with no external marketing of the launch. The fact that these results are organic makes the story that much more compelling.

Alex Huff, LoudClick Founder and CEO, has been interviewed on 2 podcasts providing a great overview of what the ClickWrite Microsite Platform is, the ideas that led to its creation and who would benefit from it most. 

Tech.mn writes: "Ideal for a variety of applications - from agencies to franchises - ClickWrite addresses many of the typical challenges faced by organizations managing a relatively large network of sites, including:  relevancy, automation, content syndication, SEO, social integration and scalability." Download the podcast here.

Minnov8 writes: "Our guest on this show's "Startup Spotlight" is Alex Huff, founder of LoudClick and now ClickWrite, the latter a, "...microsite platform creating a coordinated network of websites. The network consists of a corporate (brand) website integrated with local or targeted microsites. ClickWrite creates individual, unique microsites - with unique URLs - all coordinated from a central administration interface. This structure offers amazing flexibility and SEO benefits." (Image credit: Minnov8.com)

Creating quality reach* is made easier when microsites are included in a marketing strategy.
 

• Increased online footprint
• Excellent SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Social Media integration
• Centralized brand control with the freedom to customize to local flavor
• Mass marketing with the benefit of local marketing
• Global and Local perspectives

• Franchises - deploy a microsite for each location.
• Agencies - make each agent an expert in their field with their own microsite targeting their unique market.
• Market Segmentation - experiment with A/B marketing in a new way.

Search marketing has a holy grail when it comes to creating a ridged formula for sure-fire success. As search engine algorythms morph and change, it's becoming nearly impossible to trick the system into giving anyone first page results. Finding good search results is certainly not impossible or even that difficult particularly if you use good solid content marketing techniques - and microsite strategies (more on that later).

Just for some background, Content Marketing uses carefully created content in a way that visitors to your website will find useful as a resource*. This means having text, video, images and other forms of content that your visitors want to access frequently and share with their friends. Social media has created a rich online experience of sharing and what better way to tap into those communities than by creating something worth visiting?

Another hugely important use of content marketing is the search (SEO) aspect of it. By focusing your content on your area of expertise, you have a very natural step-up for search market success. Google's advice for a searchable website: "Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content." In other words, be a resource you would look for.

If there is a simplified formula to search engine success it would include:

• create a helpful resource
• use words that accurately describe what you offer
• Add links to other resources that are of genuine help to your visitors

User Microsites deliver secure, individualized experiences to users of your custom app. Cut down on your application development time by using our managed platform to connect with your users and make sure they have a good experience with your app. You have more time to focus on the content of your application, while we worry about the technology and management.  

ClickWrite provides a microsite network consisting of:

- Parent Website 

- User microsites

- Any number of other microsites you need (i.e. - support microsites, campaigns, etc.)

Market segmentation by nature is perfectly suited to a ClickWrite solution. The need to focus on particular demographics or niches means using unique websites in campaigns to attract them. ClickWrite makes this easy.

ClickWrite provides a website network consisting of:

- general parent site 

- landing microsites (not just landing pages)

Agency businesses have networks of stores and agents that address market sub-segments, primarily on a geographic scheme.  Most of these businesses are on the web though in a simple, billboard website that may (or may not) include a bio/contact page for each agent. This arrangement may have worked in the pre-web 2.0 days but not anymore.

ClickWrite provides a microsite network consisting of:

- Agency website 

- Agent microsites

- Any number of other microsites you need (i.e. - recruitment microsites, other market segmentation microsites, etc.)

The network allows agencies to easily conduct marketing campaigns at the national and local level with content syndication and central administration.

Does this sound familiar?

- Your franchisees want to market locally online but can't access their one page on the corporate website.

- One of your franchisees builds their own website that includes non-current, conflicting or unprofessional branding messages.

- Your franchise competitors are supporting their franchisees in ways you currently aren't.

Franchises have unique challenges that ClickWrite can address:

- Provides the ability to control the brand while supporting franchises.

- Gives franchisees the ability to market themselves locally.

- Makes your franchise offer unique in the market.

When a company has only one corporate website, there is a distinct disconnect from a local market. It's really hard to make a message sound local when it's displayed on a website designed for everyone in the world to see.

With local microsites AND a global website, companies are now in a position to tailor their message like never before. Local microsites will maintain the look and feel of the corporate brand while customizing their content to the local community they serve. Meanwhile, the corporate site can become a global resource of company and product information.

Sounds like the best of both worlds to us...

For years, the concept of target marketing has been relatively easy to do via direct email campaigns. The benefit is that the message can be tailored to a local market while avoiding the spam potential of mass mailing to everyone in the world. However, with only a corporate website to work with, providing a targeted campaign has been difficult - if not impossible - to support locally.

ClickWrite allows you to do targeted marketing AND mass marketing by utilizing local microsites AND a main website.

Local microsites can create targeted messages to capitalize on what is going on in the local community - all while maintaining the mass marketing message of the corporate website.

If you're like most companies, some of your local stores, franchisees or agents have created their own websites. In most cases, local websites don't maintain brand standards or a level of professionalism that represents your company in the best light. Some display your logo from 5 years ago. Others haven't been updated since last year's holiday promotion. You get the picture.

You've invested a great amount of brain power and capital establishment to add your style to your brand. Get more out of that investment by allowing it to be spread across multiple websites.

With ClickWrite, you determine how the websites on your network will look. Template control makes your style consistent throughout. With scalability, all future websites will look as good as the first.

And with syndicated content, you will be able to offer rich content throughout the network - not just on your main website. Think of the impact you will make by having your message displayed on each of your local sites! Now that's substantial.

Companies have always struggled between maintaining corporate control OR giving freedom to the people dealing directly with customers.

From websites to social media, that line is more blurred today than ever. It isn't enough to simply dictate to the masses anymore. It is essential to engage customers where they are with the same people they interact with everyday. In the online world, this is through websites, social media and sharing.

The problem is most employees don't have much to share online because a static corporate website doesn't have the means to address the needs of their local community.

If you focus on maintaining complete control, you miss out on all the modern web has to offer, but if you let everyone be free to say what they want, you worry about what might be said. 

With ClickWrite, it isn't control OR freedom anymore. By syndicating content to local websites and providing collaboration controls, you are able to create a positive online experience for both internal and external customers. Your network will allow employees to be engaged and participate actively online while you maintain a level of control that prevents a negative impact on the company brand. 

With ClickWrite, you get control AND freedom.

The platform is integrated (thorough the use of API's) with the most popular social networks. This means you can easily distribute content from the microsite network to social networking sites.

The benefits of integration with social networks ...

- Your visitors share your content within their social network of choice.

- Makes your content a resource worthy of multiple visits.

- Tap into online communities by making your content easy to share.

- Broadcasting your own content via your own social network presence.

Each site is made up of elements (or regions). ClickWrite has different kinds of elements for content, indexers, galleries and navigation options. We are constantly adding elements to the system to keep up with technology advances.

The benefits of elements ...

- Elements allow regions within the website to have different functions, security and syndication.

- New elements are constantly added to increase fuctionality and incorporate new technologies.

- Easily add, hide, delete and/or move elements within the pages as needed.

The ClickWrite platform is a fully managed web application. No additional IT staff requirements - No extra hardware or software - No training staff needed. You focus on your content - we focus on the technology.

The benefits of a managed web application ...

- No additional IT staff

- No additional hardware

- No help desk & training staff

- Focus on your business while we focus on the technology

We can quickly put the platform to work for you. You control the number of people involved and the number of microsites in the network. The network can grow as you need it to.

The benefits of scalability ...

- You can start small and grow as needed

- Experiment with targeted campaigns

- Quickly expand and contract as needed - perfect for seasonal campaigns

- Becomes an integral part of planning

You control how the microsite looks, page structure, collaboration, security and assets (images & documents) that can be used.

The benefits of template control ...

- Consistent site design for branding control

- Uniform layouts for consistent usability across the network

- Master control over collaboration & security to balance corporate control and microsite owner freedom.

- Build out microsite structure once and it deploys across the whole network.

- Make changes once and it cascades across all microsites in the network.

You do not have to build each microsite from scratch. Once the main microsite template has been created all other microsites follow the same structure, security setting and collaboration rights. This allows you to create a new microsite on-demand.

The benefits of automation ...

- You no longer have to build websites from scratch. You fill out a few fields and bingo - a new website.

- Microsites are built dynamically with syndicated content from the main website. Corporate can focus on marketing rather than maintenance.

- Platform level automation makes adding a new microsite fast and easy.

- Microsite level automation allows non-tech people to add contact without a lot of training.

Collaboration allows your marketing staff to work with other people to create relevant content targeted to your customers without losing control of the message.

The benefits of collaboration ...

- puts checks & balances in place so that nothing inappropriate can go live on any site in the network

- uses current management structure

- corporate can focus on brand & messaging while microsite owners can focus on local marketing

- allows microsite owners to connect with their community while maintaining oversight from corporate

Syndication allows you to update one site (the main site) while simultaneously updating all the microsites in the network.

The benefits of syndication ...

- create content once

- leverage that content across all microsites

- create backlinks to your main website which improves rankings in search engines

- syndicated content cannot be altered or changed by microsite users/contributors/collaborators.