Focus: E-Business Strategy

Businesses face new challenges everyday in a rapidly changing digital world, H7 interactive helps by understanding how the new tools of the internet can work together, and how to blend those capabilities with your business - Its not one size fits all. Think about a how to make a sports team successful, one has to understand each player, how they work, how to get the best out of them, and then how to blend those players into an effective team, by getting them to work together. There are some things that the whole team has to know, the rules of the game, where the next game is being played, when to push forward, when to defend. Its the same in the interactive world, blending online with offline, understanding how how your website, google, facebook, twitter, e-mail, and the "next big thing" work, and how they can work together.

Thats the point of our strategy work, its not some expensive, etherial concept, but actual, fast paced, practical advice, to help you define where you want and need to be, and a roadmap that understands how fast you can travel, where you need signs, and where you need to be pushed a little. Lets talk about where you could be doing better online, I'm pretty sure we can help.

Focus: Information Architecture & Usability

Critical to having a functional, effective and integrated online presence, is thinking about what you need, how it will be used, and how it fits together, also spending some time looking at what you are doing at the moment, and checking out the competition, so we know what to do to beat them. This is the architecture and usability work. Its solves exactly the same problems that an archtiect solves when designing your house. How many bed/bath rooms, how many garages, how should the kitchen be laid out to be most usable. In the digital world, this exercise works with information rather than bricks and mortar. And the effect can be profound, better design in a shopping cart means more checkouts, better navigation means fewer users leaving the site with their needs unfullfilled, better integration with real world support, means customers know you care. The interestign thing about Information Architecture is that while it is better to do it at the start of the project (like in a house), it can also be done incrementally later. Think about that for a moment, it means that you can take an existing web presence and evolve it to perform more effectively in stages, rather than having to knock the whole thing down and start again. Lets talk about how you could be doing better online, I'm pretty sure we can help.

Focus: Creative Design

So we have a great architecture, that meets our functional needs and that allows us to bring together the various strands of our online presence, now we need to overlay a creative design that re-inforces our brand and makes our business stand out in a very crowded digital world. The keys to great ceative are talent and cultural awareness of the audience. That talent has two parts, firstly the ability to produce great creative, and secondly, and vitally, the ability to listen and evolve the design. Improve the design of your online presence, I'm pretty sure we can help.

Focus: Development

Following design, we need to build the functionality, whether that be a website, an e-mail campaign, or any other component of our digital new world. The cost of developing off-shore is very attractive, but finding the right skills and a compatible attitude, dealing with the loss of control, inability to be face to face with the developers, and cultural differences between developing and client countries increase the risk of this model. H7 interactive has spent years developing effective relationships with offshore developers, and manages all ofthe interactions with the developer, removing that as an issue for the client. The client has the benefits of great technologists at very competitive rates, with none of the downsides, because the offshore team is managed by a local contact, who does have the experience of dealing with offshore teams all of the time. Get the benefits of offshore development, without the hassle, I'm pretty sure we can help.

Focus : Search Engine Optimization / Search Engine Marketing

These 2 critical elements are often grouped together, because they both rely on the use of Keywords, but in fact are almost opposites of each other, search engine optimization (SEO), is the focus on the natural search responses of search engines like Google and Bing, having pages that Google, Bing and other search engines thinks are the most relevent based on the query entered by the user. Search engine marketing (SEM) is paying to have your listing placed at the top (or side) of the natural search responses. Short term ROI is easier to calculate in SEM, you know the costs, and should be able to calculate the benefit in increased revenue, or brand value. SEM means you get the placement you pay for, for as long as you pay for it.

SEO is much more a planned forward thinking process, done continuously over the life of the content you have online, continuously working to stay relevent to prospective users and their queries. While they are in some ways opposites, they are also somewhat compatible, SEM can for instance be used while your SEO activities are building, or if their is a direct bottom line improvement, may be ideal for targetting specific keywords not in your mainstream business. Let us show you how you can drive incremental business, I'm pretty sure we can help.

Focus: Social Media Support

The advent of social media has taken the web world by storm over the past 2 years. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and You Tube have led the way, but others for example Google+, are following fast behind. The problem for businesses is how to integrate this new style of communication with existing channels, in a way which supports and accelerates the overall business, how can these tools be used to enhance visibility and increase user to user communication about your firm? It can be done, with a plan and a co-ordinated but fairly samll effort, the key is to be relevent, be a thought leader, and express that leadership in these channels. That leadership will increase engagement through placement of blogs, articles, and other content, linked through facebook, twitter and other social media, the intent is to cause a viral effect of your content being seen as leading, of your thoughts representing your industry. It can be done with a plan, some effort and persistence.Let us help you pull together your social media presence, I'm pretty sure we can help.

Focus: On-line / Off-line Marketing Integration

While there has been a significant move to online marketting spend over the past 5 years, traditional media still plays a crucial role in the marketting mix, so the key is to ensure that online and offline activities are synchronized. That may seem easy but the different lead times of each channel, and the wide variences in online technical development (an e-mail will likely be very quick to develop, a new section of website will take longer) mean the forward planning is key. H7 interactive understands the demands of the offline world, and can communicate, in plain language, the technical needs of the online environment, this communication reduces frustration in the business, and means that all partners in the marketing mix can produce more effective work. Let us help you integrate your online and offline presence, I'm pretty sure we can help.

Focus: Project Management

Pulling everything together and communicating progress effectively is key to sucess in the interactive environment. By being able to manage Information Architects, Designers, Developers, Writers and a myriad of other skills and resources, H7 interactive ensures you know where you are, where you are going, and when you will get there. Interactive is a journey, where the end of the road may not even have been built yet, perhaps you need a scout and navigator, who will ensure you move towards your destination in line with your business plans. Call us to talk through what you are trying to achieve, I'm pretty sure we can help.