How to hire or appoint the right website management
and liaison staff and experts:

First, read Common Mistakes in website design and implementation, and planning and budgeting for a new website---for a clear view of why you should not assign "just anybody" with a little knowledge and MAYBE some extra time (usually not)--to oversee and direct your new website project.

Proper planning, design, integration with and refinement of web marketing strategy---then implementation, testing, improvements and site promotion--IS NOT a job that almost anyone can do in an hour or so per week. Management who thinks that is uninformed as to current requirements. It reminds us of how many "computer projects" almost wiped out several companies since 1980, which is still happening.

It is management's job to get it right, like a General in a war. You don't send a battalion off to fight what you believe is a "little afternoon skirmish" like General Custer. It is YOUR job to gather intelligence, study force requirements, assign the right troops, appoint the correct engineering and logistics battalions and KNOW the enemy (your competition), know the lay of the terrain (the web marketing environment) and decide just exactly HOW this battle is key to your war's success (winning).

Let's be clear and simple:

Start with being completely informed by an expert in the field such as by these Web-Success articles, and other study. Read and learn all the ins and outs of proper site design, creation, development(improvement) and promotion. THEN talk to experts in web design and promotion with whom you feel comfortable. If you only want a little help, ask them to do consulting to answer questions and advise. THEN begin evaluating internal and possible part-time internal expert website liaison staff:

• Be very careful to appraise internal staff as to who has some knowledge of web design and be sure they are experienced in both marketing and computer projects.
• Avoid the urge to appoint the Office manager, the Sales Manager's assistant (or a salesperson) or the IT-LAN person (unless temporarily and they are candid that they are not expert in that field and are willing to listen and sometimes defer to experts).
• Interview them as for a job--Get their impressions of this www.Web-Success.net website (you'd never hire a person for a job they didn't really want to do)
• Tell them to not presume they are an expert just because they know something about websites or marketing. This is a computers/ marketing/ executive-level strategy refinement function rolled into one.
• Don't lead them to believe they will be the final word nor the final appointed web project manager-liaison (you are evaluating them during this period).
• Consult with your web design and development expert (a professional outside firm) as to whether they believe your interim choice person to aid you seems appropriate for the time-being (has potential).
• DO NOT choose someone who sometimes has serious difficult on-going work and little time to spare (often the Office manager and IT-LAN staff).
• THEN and ONLY THEN should you begin the final selection and assignment of both internal and external experts.
• Your internal management and liaison person should likely be an up and coming manager in the "Organization Development" or Marketing area, or even a part-time local consultant specializing in these kinds of projects, but doing it for perhaps several companies, a few hours per week each.
• They should have had some experience with a large computer project (not at school). That is they should be computer and internet savvy, but NOT too into unproven fads.

Remember that even many professionals can barely keep up with what goes in the internet marketing and design world. So, some internal non-expert who professes to "know what's best" is a sign of the wrong person.

Failure to do something similar to this process can damage the business for years to come.

Job Description for Website Management and Liaison

Skills, experience, education and time requirements

We've had decades of successful data and telecommunications major project management experience, many years in marketing and running our own businesses and 12 years of website design and development for small business. We know what the minimum requirements are for internal or part-time expert website project liaison.

A question you should ask is: Why would I trust or assign anyone but the best expert possible for such an important function which if handled properly becomes an ideal tool for refining the business's offerings, strategy and personality and communications to everyone?

And why would you think that proper creation and improvement of both the website and internet marketing might be less important or less technical than any large computer and marketing project rolled into one? How could that possibly be true when the internet itself is changing and becoming MUCH more competitive (and risky) than it was in the easy days of 1999?

There are good reasons that most online businesses fail, and most websites fail to do the communication and qualified traffic-building job that they should.

Excellent management uses the website project to aid the business in numerous ways. It becomes a chance to review exactly how the sales function should work, how much should be bringing in leads, or should it be support and sales reference for a sales force? Can it help to unify the departments to follow a lead through proposals, to estimates or focus on special features that are growing in popularity? Website traffic statistics can show where the interest and demand is building, AND it can test what sales appeals and messages are working best. This can save tons on misplaced sales efforts and avoid poor understanding of what really works to sell.Most companies don't utilize web site statistics and the ability to test offerings, features and wording to sell those features. The company that does it right has a competitive advantage. Your website project manager should appreciate all of this, as should executive management.

Whatever you do, don't let your "local expert" internal staff go too far in possibly mis-directing the professional web designer, or ticking them off by ignoring too many of their recommendations. Here there must also be a "fine balance" of helping direct the project and identifying important decisions to bring to top management, and letting the professional help manage the process and design towards a simple effective website within budget.

The job of web liaison and management is to convey the goals, personality and direction and structure of the companies main functions, such as sales, and to make final decisions among suggestions and "proofs" and designs suggested by the professional web designer.

The job also is to study this website and study competitor's ads and offerings and work closely with top management to refine the direction and wording for the site.

The job requires excellent writing ability, especially ad copy and site content. The liaison person should have excellent organizational and English composition skills, and use "outlines" and prioritization of goals to help keep the busy web-designer on track. That is, internal web liaison follows most of this website's suggestions, finalizes the goals and strategy and designs the tests and ad copy to arrive at an outline of the website to be approved by top management, as well as each major step having approval, such as for style, colors, logo, main images, and to decide what "campaigns" will eventually be coordinated with the sales department.

This person must closely work with top management who must make themselves available on big decisions involving web marketing strategy as discussed throughout this website. Both liaison and top management must review this site to be on the same page as to how to test appeals, test headlines and organize the site around products and customer segments.

Top management can not jump in later as an afterthought NOR be ill-informed of how the "direct marketing approach" is integrated with the website conception, design, create, improve and promote process--plus campaign cycles. If top management doesn't get that--- don't bother.

The site design liaison and management person must be formally tasked by top management to remind everyone involved (marketing, IT, budgeting-controller, product development and top management of the above method, and that it seems slower and difficult to "do it right" so we "don't have to do it over". That is, this liaison's job is to be a continual advocate for doing the process correctly, and knowing why and what stage they are in at every moment.

The web liaison officer must be listened to hear which appeals and tests worked, and must be helped by marketing to compose offerings based on benefits and feelings generated by features. The product development (improvement) people should sit in and explain what is feasible and the direction products are going. Top management should receive reports from marketing or the web liaison/management as to what were key things learned from testing appeals and wording, and about competitive pressures.

Web Liaison-Management should be knowledgeable about graphics and formats, and mechanical requirements for print versus web.

Web Liaison-management is tasked with finding or producing and cataloging good images as requested by the outside web-design firm, in the formats they require WITH all work files included. He/she should keep copies and records as to main versions and their associated work files.

Web liaison should monitor the site watch for hackers, downtime, robustness (hosting issues) and for browser incompatibility-misalignments.

He/she should also keep backup masters of the main versions of websites, provided by the professional web designer. He/she should be sure that NO ONE fiddles with the website but authorized persons who usually should go through the web design development firm.

Web Liaison should become highly aware of all aspects of hosting and server upgrades, language upgrades and script upgrades and risks of hackers (webmaster issues) and help or remind the web designer of what might be upcoming. This person should keep all records regarding access to servers and all registrations, to maintain them timely, with passwords secured in two places, in coordination with the outside professional web design firm.

Finally the web liaison person should be personable, very logical (like an engineer or mathematician with a marketing degree-good luck) and a good communicator, skilled at keeping people working together and anticipating needs and costs and able to campaign for necessary budget to do the site correctly.

These outline the main duties and requirements for properly managing web projects. The time required can vary from 20 hours per week to an hour or two, depending on the stage and phase, whether designing tests of keywords and appeals or deciding on website improvements. If this person was also an officer for corporate and/or product development, they could be used for that to flesh out a near full-time position (for a $10 million and up growing company).

Doing the website wrong will plague a business for years and years, be a public spectacle of failure damaging to company image, and waste time of everyone---instead of being a tool that helps the business in several ways. Doing the website wrong, like any big important computer project that ate management's lunch---has even been the death of some companies.

In summary, this position is important, requiring numerous skills and a certain personality and best if the person has some real and diverse experience, or not long out of college and ready and eager to learn a lot.

The person chosen must be oriented and trained properly and taken into the inner circles of business and marketing and product strategy and development. You must convey that you value the role and the importance of the web project as integral to the future of the business, and a good way and chance to improve and refine strategy, to utilize budgets, and learn to properly manage technical computer projects, and build a personality of the business by properly planning and implementing a wonderful simple functional website.

After reading this, the importance of carefully staffing this position should be clear. It is NOT a job for the office-manager's assistant, the sales secretary, the IT staff or anyone else who has a full time job unrelated to serious website, business and product development.

HOWEVER, unless you are a tiny 3 person company, it is NOT the job for a top executive to solely handle either. Such a liaison person will aid top management keep a handle on the web project and help use it as a key tool to refine the future of the business. They will do the job name--of management and liaison.

We certainly want to work with such a web project Liaison officer who will examine competitors, word and study keywords and test appeals to work together to refine the website and business.

GOOD LUCK !!!