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Webbright is currently looking for a qualified intern to help with a new Inbound Marketing campaign. Webbright provides web design and Internet marketing services for small businesses and nonprofit organizations worldwide. We are looking for a bright student who can participate in blog writing and social networking projects.
This is a 16-week, part-time, virtual internship position. The intern should be prepared to work independently and remotely with minimum supervision. The Internship Supervisor will provide learning and direction. By the end of the program, the intern is expected to complete a 16-course training and receive an Inbound Marketing Certificate.
Responsibilities
- Create remarkable blog articles and other online content (video, white paper, etc.)
- Optimize online content for search engines.
- Promote content through social networks.
Requirements
Company is looking for an undergraduate or graduate student with interest in blogging and social networking. Excellent writing and communication skills are a must. The applicant must be able to learn quickly and work independently with minimum supervision. Applicants can be from any major; however, English and Business majors are most relevant.
Interested? Fill-in the online application here.
Your organization website can be a great tool to improve member engagement and retention. However, just like buying a treadmill won’t automatically result in getting fit, you need to create a strategic plan for engaging your members online.
Here are some ideas…
1. Fun Member Social
Members love to socialize. Why not give them the tools to socialize online using the organization’s website?
- Email Other Members: Members can login to their account, search for other members and send them emails directly from the website.
- Share Photos: Members can create photo albums and share photos within their member profile.
- Share anniversary and birthday with other Members: Members can choose to add anniversary and birthday information to their Member Profile and share it with other members.
- Share club or personal news: Members can share news in the Member News section.
- Learn about other Club Members: Members can browse the Member Directory and look up the Member Profile of other Members including any photo albums Members share.
2. Marketing Tool
Your website can be a great marketing tool to promote membership to prospective members and promote services and events to existing Members.
- Banquet Marketing and Planning: For organizations that offer banquet services, members can access banquet-related information from the website including menus, room description, and facility blueprint. The Banquet Director can refer Members to the website to get this information quickly and easily.
- Membership Marketing: Your website is loaded with Club information including dining hours and menus, membership benefits, classes and joining process, a list of reciprocal clubs and a very visual photo gallery.
- Event Marketing: Your event calendar can send automated email announcements to inform members of upcoming events.
3. Member Service
- Event Registration: Members don’t have to call during office hours to make a reservation! They can register to any event directly from the website anytime anywhere.
- Reciprocal Clubs: If your organization has special arrangements with other business partners, Members can look up this information easily online.
- Dining Information: Members can easily look up dining hours and menus using the website and the Club can easily change any of this information anytime.
4. Money Saving
Here is some tips on how you get the most financial return on your investment!
- Printing and Postage: Instead of printing newsletters and event announcement to every member, limit printed copies to few and make them available only in the club. Make the newsletter available online.
- Staff Overhead: The website has a lot of automated functions (event registration, event announcement and reminders) that can cut down on staff overhead for marketing, communication and support
Have you experimented with other ideas on improving member engagement? Let us know what worked for you and what didn’t by posting a comment here!
If you are a small business owner, a membership group or an individual looking to create a website to share information online, you might not have to hire a web designer or web developer and pay tons of money. After all, building a website involves many aspects including content writing, website design, graphic and visual design, hosting, domain name, search engine optimization.
Luckily, there are many online services that allow anyone to create a professional looking website with minimum technical knowledge. Below is a list of some of these services.
| Best for |
Service provider |
Features |
Pricing |
| Small business |
Intuit |
2,000 website templates. Start with a complete, functional site, including images and text. Easily add and edit text and images.Website stats.
Blog. Accept payments with paypal. Customer support.
Upgrade features:
Photo albums, Custom menus, Chat rooms, Maps, Forms,
Guestbooks, Polls
More features |
$4.99-$49.99/month |
| Personal and small business with animation and music |
Wix.com |
Flash websites: Animation and photos.
Examples |
Price listing
$4.95-$19.90/month |
| Personal, group, and small business |
Webs.com |
300+ designs; Organize and share photos; Show and share videos; Blogs and forums; Restricted access to community; Personalized email and domain name
More features |
$4.16-$20.83/month
Price listing + free ad-supported plan |
| Small business and search marketing |
Yahoo! |
Search engine marketing; Site reports |
$7.46-$12.95/month |
| Artists and handmade craft makers |
Etsy.com |
List, promote, and sell items |
Percentage of sale (20%) |
| Nonprofits and membership groups |
Wild Apricot |
Membership management; Email blasts; Event registration and online calendar;
Website editing;
Online payment and donation |
$25-$200/month Free supported-plan |
| Blogging |
Wordpress.com |
Choose from existing themes;
Easy content creation and editing;Stats |
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What if you’re not the DIY (do-it-yourself) type, or you need assistance in advanced customization? You can contact Webbright Services and get some expert help!
 Richmond- May 14 – Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Lamees Abourahma as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com).
This certification acknowledges Lamees’ proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.
Lamees is Bright Founder of Webbright Services, a Richmond, VA-based web design and Internet marketing provider for small businesses, nonprofits and member-based organizations.
Lamees joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. In total, 1,300 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.
To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Lamees completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)
The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)
This certification is administered by HubSpot.
About InboundMarketing.com
InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.
About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.
Almost a year ago, my family and I relocated to Richmond, Virginia from Columbia, South Carolina. Since then, I registered Webbright as a Virginia Limited Liability company, partnered with Wild Apricot as a Solution Provider, created an Inbound Marketing strategy, and embarked on business development with E-Myth. Today, I’m very excited to share with you some of Webbright’s accomplishments and future outlook.
Vision and Strategy
My vision is (1) to provide outstanding web design and Internet marketing services for small businesses, nonprofits, and membership organizations. My vision is (2) to give back to society by using this business to grant scholarships and job opportunities to deserving college students. My strategy is (3) to systemize Webbright from its foundation to deliver consistent, outstanding experiences to every client, every time. My lead generation strategy is (4) to create and optimize “remarkable” content that is interesting to our clients and prospects, and promote it with search engine optimization (SEO), social media and email marketing (i.e., the Inbound Marketing concept of the very successful marketing company, HubSpot).
E-Myth and Business Development
 E-Myth Revisited After a couple of years of greatly enjoying working with a few small businesses and nonprofits, I wanted to grow the business to be able to serve more clients and increase Webbright’s revenue. Coming from a technical background without much business experience, I wasn’t sure how to do this! Per a friend’s recommendation, I read E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber. The E-Myth ViewPoint speaks of the distinction between working on your business and working in your business. It defines strategic work as shaping the business enterprise itself, and tactical work as producing and delivering products and services and performing the administrative work required to support the business.
On top of reading the book, last August I signed up for the E-Myth Mastery Impact! Program, a 10 to 12-month program that coaches small business owners on the E-Myth ViewPoint. Since then, I have been working with my E-Myth coach on developing Webbright’s Strategic Objective and many systems from the E-Myth Seven Centers of Management: Leadership, Money, Marketing, Client Fulfillment, Lead Generation, Lead Conversion, and Management. With an E-Myth business model and an Inbound Marketing strategy, I am confident Webbright is on its way to achieving its Strategic Objective and differentiating itself as a solid, preferable brand.
Webbright Partners with Wild Apricot
 Wild Apricot is a Toronto-based company providing membership management software for nonprofit organizations since 2006. Wild Apricot has positioned itself as an affordable out-of-the-box solution for nonprofits looking for membership management, event registration, website CMS, and online payment. Over 15,000 organizations have signed up with Wild Apricot.
Webbright has partnered with Wild Apricot to provide added value services including graphic design and CSS customization, system setup, contact list transfer, online payment setup, etc. For organizations that don’t have the time or staff to setup and maintain a professional Wild Apricot system, Webbright provides a do-it-for-me systematized solution and great experience.
New Website and Blog
As Webbright is growing and changing, our public presence is also evolving. In February 2010, Webbright released its updated website with a fresh, new look along with updated company and service information. The new website is a great improvement over the old one because it is designed as an integrated channel of Webbright’s lead generation strategy instead of being an isolated online brochure. (Read this article to see how the new website improved performance). Part of this integrated lead generation strategy is a regularly updated blog, which features articles on web design and Internet marketing for small businesses, nonprofits and membership organizations. The blog is a great platform to grow our remarkable content, improve our search engine optimization (SEO), and support our Inbound Marketing strategy.
Bright Outlook
I am very fortunate to have had the chance to start a business that I am greatly passionate about. I am very excited to have E-Myth and Inbound Marketing as the foundation for this business and looking forward to a lot of innovations, wonderful partnerships, and great accomplishments.
Bright wishes,
Lamees Abourahma
Bright Founder
Webbright Services, LLC
Thoughts, questions, suggestions? I’d love to hear from you. Leave me a comment.
Have you revisited your marketing strategy lately? Are you using more outbound marketing (direct mail, trade shows, telemarketing, etc) or inbound marketing (social media, SEO, PPC)? How is it working for you?
Hubspot is releasing 50+ graphs and charts with original marketing research results on the state of marketing and lead generation.
If your organization has a web presence that is outdated in its appearance, structure and content, you might feel intimidated by the task of re-designing your website. How do you choose a website vendor? What should you look for? How much should you budget for this project? In this article, we share some guidelines and resources to hopefully help you with this task.
9 Tips for Website Design
This article “Non Profit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices” provide the following 9 guidelines for designing a nonprofit website:
- Make your site donor-friendly
- Make your site media-friendly
- Make your website volunteer-friendly
- Make your organization’s purpose immediately appearant
- Make sure your content takes center stage
- Make sure your website is consistent with your other promotional materials
- Know your site’s purpose up front
- Include a news section or blog
Request for Proposal (RFP)
This sample RFP, although published in 2003, still provide a good template for organizations launching a web redesign project. Even though the RFP proposes a budget of $25,000 for the project, websites with more functionality and features can cost much less these days. Some additional features you might be interested in for your organization include:
- A content management system (CMS) that allow you to edit the website content in-house through a web browser.
- An interactive calendar that allow you to publish events online.
- Online donation to allow supporters to donate with a credit card or eCheck.
- A blog for posting organization news and interacting with supporters or members through comments.
Helpful Resources
TechSoup- the technology place for nonprofits
WildApricot Blog- information on technology and social media tools for nonprofits
Webbright Membership Services- Website solutions for nonprofits and membership organizations
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or email us directly.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers to software and processes used by companies to organize their contact information and track interactions with customers and prospects. As a small business owner, how do you choose the best CRM solution for your business?
A Contact Management Process for Small Businesses
Before evaluating contact management software, let’s look at CRM with respect to other business processes. The following diagram illustrates the relationship between different processes involving contact management.
 CRM as part of business processes
| Lead Generation |
Without effective lead capturing system, your lead generation activities are most likely wasted. Your contact management system should enable you to track where customers come from, what they’re interested in, what their level of interest is, and any interactions you have with them. You should also be able to “grade” your leads and differentiate ready leads from those who need further nurturing. |
| Lead Nurturing |
“The idea behind lead nurturing is to maintain ongoing communication and dialog with leads so that when they’re ready to buy, your product is at the top of their mind. Nurturing leads often occurs only through email, but it should include a variety of channels, as appropriate to your business, including phone calls and post mail.” –Inbound marketing by B. Halligan and D. Shah.
Your contact management process should include generating a list of leads who need nurturing and passing them into your email marketing process. |
| Lead Conversion |
Once leads convert into customers, your contact management system should reflect this change of status. You still want to keep track of what lead generation channel resulted in this conversion so you can evaluate your lead generation and conversion campaigns. |
| Customer Relationship |
Happy customers are more likely to bring in more customers. How do you know whether or not you have happy customers? You ask them. Your contact management process can also include customer satisfaction survey and results. |
Marketing Strategy
|
Understanding who your customers are and how their minds work is essential to creating your marketing strategy. Your contact management system should involve customer information such as age, gender, occupation, household income, etc (for people), and industry, product line(s), size of business, etc (for organization). Information about your customers can help you learn who your target markets and understand their psychographics. |
In addition to leads and customers, a small business owner is likely to have other business contacts (e.g., partners, suppliers, advisers, etc). A small business CRM should accommodate these types of contacts as well.
What is the Best CRM for Your Small Business?
There are many CRM software including the following:
- InfoStreet.com
- Commence.com
- Goldmine by Frontrange
- Highrise by 37 signals
- ACT! By Sate
- Business Contact Manager (as an add-on to Outlook) by Microsoft
- GoldMine by Frontrange Solutions
- Maximizer Enterprise 9 by Maximizer Software
- Batchbook by Batchblue
- Salesforce by salesforce.com
How do you choose the best CRM for your small business? The following are some criteria for CRM selection.
| Cloud vs. Desktop Computing |
Cloud computing or SaaS (software as a service) is software accessed over the Internet.
- In this case, all contact information is stored on the vendor’s server; there is less concern of loosing contact information and more concern about contacts privacy.
- Internet software usually has monthly payment. Any system upgrades are usually transparent and do not require additional fees or work from the user.
- There is also the added benefit of being able to access the software anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection with a web browser. No special computer platform (PC or MAC) or software is needed.
Desktop applications are installed on the user’s computer
- A user can only install software that is compatible with the computer platform and meets the software minimum requirements.
- In addition, the software needs to be installed on every computer the user needs to work on, and re-installed every time the computer crashes. Any upgrades need to be handled by the user.
- The cost of desktop applications is a one-time fee; however, upgrades usually require additional fees.
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| Tool Integration |
As mentioned above, contact management is part of many different business processes. When selecting a contact management tool, find a solution that either provides all needed functionality, or a system that automatically integrates with other tools to give you that functionality.
For example, a special web page on your website (landing page) can have a form that capture leads and automatically import them into a CRM. Leads from other channels can be entered manually into a CRM (e.g., contacts from a trade show, referral, networking, etc). Your CRM can allow you to generate lists for lead nurturing and automatically export them into your email marketing software.
The diagram below illustrates this scenario. |
| Flexibility |
As a small business owner,you always want to innovate your business by creating new processes and improving existing ones. This means that you sometimes do things out-of-the-box. When selecting a CRM, you want a system flexible enough to adapt to your processes- instead of being restricted by its technical design. |
| Training and Support
|
When evaluating CRM vendors, you should look into their training and support options. Does the vendor provide sufficient training and support? Is training and support included in the cost or does it require extra charge? Is the training material easy to read and navigate? Many companies provide training webinars on regular basis. |
 CRM Tool Integration CRM Comparison: BatchBook vs Salesforce
We decided to evaluate two vendors we heard about recently from a couple of authorities in the social media fields. We also tried to evaluate BCM from MS; however, it took about 2 hours to locate, download and install a trial version of MS Outlook 2007, while BCM failed to install properly. In addition, BCM is a desktop application and our preference is to go with cloud computing.
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BatchBook |
Salesforce |
| Description |
The social CRM built for small businesses and entrepreneurs |
The leader in customer relationship management (CRM) & cloud computing |
| Dashboard |
 Batchbook dashboard |
 Salesforce dashboard |
| Trial requires credit card |
Yes |
No |
| Trial period |
30 days |
15 days |
| Starting Price |
$9.99/m |
$300 annual contract |
| Outlook integration |
Import Wizard; save communication by sending emails to batchbox; email to-do to batchbox. Can’t send emails directly from batchbook |
Import Wizard; send email directly from salesforce portal; outlook emails available automatically in salesforce |
| Work mode and company tone |
Fun |
Traditional and formal |
| Email marketing integration |
MailChimp (automatic), Constant Contact (manual) |
Available with Pro plan and higher packages as part of salesforce. |
| Look and Feel |
Friendly and intuitive; interface is customizable; dashboard includes widgets that can be added/removed and re-organized |
Formal and not so intuitive |
| Sales automation |
Incorporates sales automation including deal management. More suited for small businesses with no designated sales people. |
Automate formal sales process with accounts, opportunities and leads. |
| Social media integration |
Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, LinkedIn, Personal Blog, Work Blog |
Yes |
| Search Integration |
Twitter, Google News and Blog search |
Database search only (e.g., contacts, leads, etc) |
| Training |
- BatchBook Tour
- Weekly live webinars
- Recorded webinars
- Customer support
- Forums
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1. A 30-minute overview of group training.
Watch the video
2. Getting Started With Salesforce – watch short videos on how to customize the app, import your data, setup the Outlook integration and manage your users.
3. Daily webinars by Customer Success Managers focus on the core user functions: sales, marketing, support, and administration. Available live or on-demand. |
| Support |
- FAQs
- User Forums
- Videos
- New Customer webinars, videos and material
- Email support (support@batchblue.com)
- Toll free number (888) 40-BATCH M-F 9am-4pm EST
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1. Comprehensive knowledge base via Help & Training (everything we know is in there)
2. Call Customer Support at 800-667-6389
3. Log a case via Help & Training (up to 48 hr. response time)
4. Salesforce.com Community – engage the 1.5M+ user community for help and best practices. |
| Flexibility |
Very flexible |
Not as flexible |
| Favorite features |
Contact hover view; super tags; notes; social integration; communication log; communication feeds |
Web form integration for capturing leads online; reports; content repository; mobile integration |
| Ease of Use |
Easy |
Challenging |
Concluding Remarks
Contact Management System is an important component of small business processes and tools. This article showed how contact management can be part of many other business processes. We also provided some criteria for selecting a CRM and presented a comparison of two CRM solutions.
If you’re a small business owner with personal experience with contact management or any of the listed CRMs, we invite you to share your thoughts in the comments section.
We recently re-designed our website, and the initial results look outstanding. Webbright new website has 900% more visits, 3,400% more page views, and 50% less bounce rate! How did we do it?
Our original website, a Flash site, looked professional, had great reviews and was optimized for search engines. As a matter of fact, our optimization technique is outlined in an article that was a finalist in the Marketing Pilgrim’s 3rd Annual SEM Scholarship contest. However, the original site lacked a marketing focus and the ability to grow and change.
Webbright new website, designed with CSS and HTML technologies, has a clean look, marketing-focused content, and integrated Internet marketing tools. Instead of being an isolated marketing channel, the new website is now part of an overall lead generation strategy
Below is a comparison between the old and new website.
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Before |
After |
| Look |
 professional and dynamic |
 clean and professional |
| Technologies |
Flash: challenging for content update and SEO |
CSS and HTML: allow for site growth and content change |
| Content |
Generic and out-dated |
Current and market-focused |
| Marketing tools |
SEO and blog |
SEO, landing pages, blog, and email |
| Marketing Strategy |
Website was an isolated marketing channel with no marketing strategy |
Website is an integrated part of an overall lead generation and conversion strategy |
Bright Conclusions
For webbright, the biggest factor in the recent website results is changing from Flash to a CSS and HTML platform. However, by changing our marketing strategy and making the website an integrated part of an overall system, we also expect great lead generation and conversion results.
For most small businesses to be successful in today’s market, it is not sufficient to just have a website; you need a professional website with integrated Internet marketing tools and overall lead generation and conversion strategy.
To learn about Webbright small business services, please visit us at: www.webbrightservices.com.
Have a question or feedback about our new website? Please let us know in the comments section below.
Homeowner associations with large residential communities have the challenge of effectively communicating with their residents and promoting activities and events. It is common for many HOAs to use different communication channels, for example: email, direct mail, newsletter, billing insert, and a website.
A well-designed website with the right features can be a very effective way of communicating with residents. For example, HOA managers can post community announcements to the website. Residents can find about upcoming events and add interesting ones to their personal calendar. Home hunters can learn about the residential community and request information on homes for sale.
MWWF for Homeowner Association Websites
After reviewing many residential community websites and website providers, we compiled the following list of the “most wanted website features,” we call MWWF.
| Features for residents |
Features for administrators |
- Newsletter
- Calendar of events
- Resident directory
- Advertiser listing (yellow pages)
- Local real estate information: homes for sale, homes for rent, homesites for sale
- Message board/forums
- Clubhouse and facility booking
- Photo albums
- Classifieds and garage sales
- Site search
- Area map
- surveys and polls
- new resident application
- Online payment: dues, renewals, events, bookings
- Foundation related documents including instruction documents
- Contact information (board, committees, etc)
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- Easy website update tools (i.e., content management system (CMS))
- Access settings for site admin, manager, board members, owners, residents, guests, vendors, etc.
- Email services to send reminders and announcements to selected contacts
- Advertiser management
- Calendar tools: automated email announcement, online registration, integration with other calendar software e.g., Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.
- eForm builder for creating online forms
- Resident database import and export
- Ongoing training and support
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Providers Review
After evaluating a few service providers, we summarize of our findings in the following section. Our evaluation is based on six criteria: feature set, website look, ease of use, demo, support/training and pricing.
Webbright Services
- Feature Set: System customizable and provide MWWF
- Website Look: Very professional looking websites
- Ease of use: Powerful and easy to use administration tools including CMS for web page updates and email composition.
- Support and training: Initial staff training. On demand training. Ongoing support and education.
- Pricing: No setup fee. No hidden cost. No Contract. All inclusive affordable monthly fee. Quarterly payment.
AssociationVoice
- Feature Set: System specific to HOAs and provide MWWF
- Website Look: Very professional looking websites with all listed features
- Ease of Use: Powerful and easy to use administration tools including CMS for web page updates
- Support and Training: Basic or custom design. Import resident database. Initial training. Other support provided on demand.
- Pricing: $475 setup + $175/m (add $85/hr graphic design) + $90 one-time training fees. One-year contract. Quarterly payment
AtHomeNet
- Feature Set: Service specific to HOA and provide MWWF
- Website Look: Reasonable website design
- Ease of Use: Poor administration tools. Updating website content is mainly using HTML and MS Word.
- Demo: A video demo of service provided at website: http://www.athomenet.com/. A live demo can be scheduled with AtHomeNet representative by calling 800.556.7852.
- Support and Training: Choose style, color, private/public section. Setup in 1 week. 1-hr training sessions every week. Free site redesign once/year.
- Pricing: $50 setup + $75/m + $75 flash
Other providers comparable to AtHomeNet:
Who Should You Pick?
Both Webbright and AssociationVoice provide high quality product and professional services. Either would make a great solution for large homeowner associations who are looking for effective website solution for member communication. AtHomeNet and the other providers are cheaper solutions; they would provide good visual websites, but with poor administration tools that would not be easy or pleasant to work with.
If you know any other providers or features we should include, please let us know by posting a comment below!
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