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Conducting a Website Audit? Here’s How to Organize Feedback from a Boatload of Stakeholders

Dina Wasmer of Incite Creative is a member of XPX Maryland
Dina K. Wasmer
Incite Creative
9 months ago

“Opinions are like boats on the sea of knowledge; while they can guide us, it is important to navigate with caution and consider multiple perspectives.” Are you in the process of evaluating or updating your current website? If so, you’ll soon be drowning in stakeholder feedback. When conducting a site evaluation and content review, it’s best to gather stakeholder feedback early in the process and build your solution around an informed, agreed-upon strategy. However, gathering those perspectives can be overwhelming and an administrative nightmare. Fear not. In this article, we will help you navigate the turbulent waters of conducting a  What Are the Benefits of Conducting a Website Audit? First, let’s start with a quick overview of why you should conduct a website audit before putting pen to paper or mouse to monitor: 1. Identify and fix technical issues: A website audit helps uncover any technical issues affecting your site’s performance, such as broken links, slow loading times, or mobile responsiveness problems. Addressing these issues can improve the user experience and ensure your site functions at its best. 2. Enhance SEO performance: An evaluation also allows you to identify areas where your site can be optimized for better visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), such as improving keyword targeting, optimizing meta tags, or enhancing site structure. By optimizing your site for SEO, you can attract more organic traffic and improve your search rankings. 3. Analyze content effectiveness: A website audit helps you evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your website content. You can assess whether your content aligns with your target audience’s needs and preferences, identify gaps or areas for improvement, and ensure consistency across your site. This analysis can help you create a content strategy that resonates with your audience and drives engagement. 4. Assess user experience: In an audit, you can evaluate the site’s navigation, layout, and overall usability to identify any pain points or barriers hindering visitors from engaging with your site. Improving the UX can enhance user satisfaction, increase conversions, and encourage repeat visits. 5. Benchmark against competitors: Another great benefit of a website audit is that it enables you to compare your site’s performance and features against your competitors. You can identify areas where you may be falling behind or where you excel. This benchmarking analysis can help you uncover opportunities for differentiation and improvement to stay ahead in the competitive landscape. By conducting a website audit, you can gain valuable insights into your site’s strengths and weaknesses and take actionable steps to improve its overall performance and user experience.   How to Capture and Organize Stakeholder Feedback During a Website Audit? All captains need a logbook. When gathering, managing, and implementing stakeholder feedback, you can use several tools and methods to streamline the process and make your life much easier. Here are a few of our favorites: 1. Hotjar: Google Sheet can be an effective way to organize stakeholder feedback. You can create a column for all the URLs of the website pages being audited. Then, you can add columns for the feedback links with descriptions, the point person responsible for making the change, and due dates. You can also include a column with a drop-down multiple-choice for the status, such as “Active,” “Pending Approval,” or “Live.” This will help you track the progress of each feedback item. 3. Project or Content Management Tools: Various project management tools can help you capture and organize stakeholder feedback. Tools like Wrike, Asana, Google Docs or Microsoft Teams can also capture and organize stakeholder feedback. You can create a shared document or folder where stakeholders can directly provide feedback. This allows real-time collaboration and easy access to all feedback in one centralized location. Your choice of tools and methods will depend on how your team communicates best, your budget, and your current tech stack. Test out a few options first to ensure they will help versus hinder the process.   Captaining a website audit has its challenges. But with the right process, people, and tools in place, you’ll be in ship-shape. If you need assistance conducting a website audit or developing your digital marketing strategy, please contact us at outsourced CMO services. In short, we become your company’s chief marketing officer and do so virtually and efficiently — saving you time and money. Since 1999, we’ve enjoyed building and boosting brands for a core set of industries. Our thoughtful process, experienced team, and vested interest in our client’s success have positioned us as one of the Mid-Atlantic’s most sought-after marketing partners for those looking to grow their brand awareness and bottom line. Stop paying for digital and traditional services you may not need. Our retainer, no markup model means our recommendations don’t come with any catch or commission. Our advice aligns with what you need and what fits within your budget. For more information, contact us at 410-366-9479 or info@incitecmo.com. 

Oct 19, 2023
Maryland
Business Value Growth

Annual Audit: 5 Ways to Save Time, Money

Tony Hill of Trivest Partners is a member of XPX
David P DeMuth
CFO Consulting Partners LLC
2 years ago

By Allan Tepper Companies need about three months to receive a clean opinion for their annual audit. So why does your company need more time? Expending too much time and money on your annual audit is a red flag for the executives involved with corporate governance and financial oversight. New accounting rules and regulatory changes continue to drive the average hourly fees that public companies pay to external auditors. The rate has increased 31% during the last decade, according to a

Mar 30, 2022
Tri-State
Practice Tips

Recognizing and Responding to Liquidity Challenges

Tony Hill of Trivest Partners is a member of XPX
XPX Content
Exit Planning Exchange
3 years ago

Program produced by Traxi an organization “providing clients with practical solutions to complicated problems” including credit origination, crisis management, operational advisory, corporate restructuring, and more across nearly every industry. Clients have ranged from family-owned businesses as well as Fortune 500 enterprises.

Feb 24, 2021
New York, Tri-State
Business Value Growth
Video

Financial Management in Private and High-growth Organizations and Those Considering Exit Opportunities

Tony Hill of Trivest Partners is a member of XPX
XPX Content
Exit Planning Exchange
3 years ago

Program produced by XPX Hartford.  Financial Management in Private and High-growth Organizations and Those Considering Exit Opportunities The heart of XPX is the inter-disciplinary nature of exit planning. As advisors to business owners we understand that it takes a team of experts working together to navigate a successful exit. Working in the middle and lower middle market, no matter our own discipline, we’ve heard tales of businesses in need of serious improvements to their financial management and reporting systems to appeal to buyers and to maximize value. Please join us as we dive below the surface with a case study that will deepen our knowledge of the roles of financial management and accounting in the exit process. What issues can delay or scuttle a deal? What are the remedies? What are the red flags to be on the lookout for? “Before and After” a comparison of actions and results from a financial make-over What exactly is a “quality of earnings report” and how does it benefit the exit process? “Show me the money” – how can investing in good financial systems and reports impact the sale price? When is an audit necessary? What is involved in that process? Our Panel: Kevin Donovan, CPA, Fiondella, Milone & LaSaracina, LLP Robert Pravder is an entrepreneurial, growth-oriented finance executive with a passion for managing change to position companies for long-term growth. As CFO, guided three high-potential middle-market companies, including a private equity portfolio company, through successful turnarounds. Proven track record blending finance with strategy and execution and applying a holistic view of business grounded in hands-on experience in operations, manufacturing, software development and online marketing. Unique blend of large corporate and entrepreneurial/middle market experience primarily in health & wellness, nutrition, healthy foods, eLearning and software/digital content markets.

Nov 13, 2020
Fairfield County, Hartford, Tri-State
Business Value Transfer
Video

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A Dozen Questions to Begin the Exit Planning Discussion

Larry Gard of Hamilton-Chase Consulting is a member of XPX Chicago
Larry Gard
Done With Work Retirement Coaching and Consulting
8 hours ago

As an advisor, your role is to help clients prepare to exit their business, yet many people resist thinking about the future because it involves so many unknowns, decisions, and choices.  And emotions typically complicate matters further, sometimes derailing the process altogether.  Here are some questions that can help you establish rapport with your clients, learn more about their concerns, and move the conversation forward. How are you feeling about your work/profession/business these days? Which aspects of work are you still enjoying, and which are you ready to leave behind? Do you envision retiring from work at some point, or are you contemplating an encore career? What part of planning for your future feels most challenging? How do you imagine your life in retirement will be different from how it is now? What process are you using to figure out what you’ll do next after you retire? What would you like to see happen with your business long term? What options have you considered for the transfer of your business? What steps have you taken to make your business more attractive to a potential buyer? What are your concerns about transitioning your firm to new ownership? What would be your ideal scenario for transitioning out of your company? What topic(s) have we touched on today that we should put on our agenda to revisit? So, what happens after you pose a few of these questions and your clients open up about emotional matters?  Remember, the most helpful thing you can do is to listen attentively.  You’ve created a valuable opportunity for them to talk about things they may not share with other advisors.   Here are some tips for managing the conversation when clients raise emotionally loaded topics: Don’t try to “fix things” by immediately offering suggestions. Doing so sends the message that you’re uncomfortable hearing their concern.  You can offer suggestions but do so later. Don’t say anything that conveys the message that their feeling or concern is unwarranted. “There’s really no need to feel that way” or “I’m sure it will be just fine” may sound reassuring to you but could be experienced as dismissive by your client. Don’t immediately offer a logical counterpoint to your client’s emotion. Remember, feelings don’t have to make sense; they’re “as is”.  Put another way, if feelings made sense, they would be thoughts. People report concerns and characterize their feelings differently from one another, so it’s in your best interest to seek amplification and clarification by inquiring as follows . . . “I want to make sure that I understand exactly what you mean by ___.  Can you tell me more?” “People sometimes mean slightly different things when they talk about ___.  What does ___ mean for you?” “Before I suggest anything, I’d like to learn more about it from your perspective.” It’s possible that during early conversations your client may hint at mixed feelings about exiting their business.  That’s perfectly normal, but you need to bring it out into the open.  You want to foster an atmosphere such that your client keeps you apprised about where they’re at.  If they keep their ambivalence to themselves, it has greater potential to blindside you and complicate the sale.  You can say: “In my experience, it’s normal to have some mixed emotions about selling.  Those thoughts may not always be top of mind, but when they do pop up let’s be sure to talk about them.  Believe it or not, they can help inform our process and alert us to aspects of the sale that are important to you.” You may also find that your client is overly risk averse.  If so, consider saying the following: “Our work together won’t be comprehensive if we only plan for what could go wrong.  That’s just half the equation.  It’s fine to be conservative and err on the side of caution, but to be truly realistic we should also consider a range of possibilities both good and bad.”   Author’s Note:  The concepts in this article are derived from Robert Leahy’s book, Overcoming Resistance in Cognitive Therapy.  New York:  Guilford

Jul 26, 2024
Chicago
Practice Tips

Southern States Fight Back Against Union Wins in South

Robert Brody of Brody and Associates, LLC is a member of XPX Tri-State
Robert G. Brody
Brody and Associates, LLC
1 day ago

For five decades, the southern United States has been an attractive location for automakers to open plants thanks to generous tax breaks and cheaper, non-union labor. However, after decades of failing to unionize automakers in the South, the United Auto Workers dealt a serious blow to that model by winning a landslide union victory at Volkswagen. In an effort to fight back, three southern states have gotten creative: they passed laws barring companies from receiving state grants, loans and tax incentives if the company voluntarily recognizes a union or voluntarily provides unions with employee information. The laws also allow the government to claw back incentive payments after they were made. While these laws are very similar, each law has unique nuances. If you are in an impacted state, you should seek local counsel. In 2023, Tennessee was the first state to pass such a law. This year, Georgia and Alabama followed suit. So why this push? In 2023, the American Legislative Exchange Council (“ALEC”), a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who draft and share model legislation for distribution among state governments, adopted Tennessee’s law as model legislation. In fact, the primary sponsor of Tennessee’s bill was recognized as an ALEC Policy Champion in March 2023. ALEC’s push comes as voluntary recognition of unions gains popularity as an alternative to fighting unions. We recently saw this with the high-profile Ben & Jerry’s voluntary recognition. Will this Southern strategy work to push back against growing union successes? Time will tell. Brody and Associates regularly advises its clients on all labor management issues, including union-related matters, and provides union-free training.  If we can be of assistance in this area, please contact us at info@brodyandassociates.com or 203.454.0560.  

Jul 25, 2024
Tri-State
Business Value Growth

My Interview with Jerry West on Management

John Dini of The Exit Planning Coach is a member of XPX San Antonio
John F Dini
The Exit Planning Coach
2 weeks ago

I once had the thrill of interviewing Jerry West on management. He was “The Logo” for the NBA, although back then they didn’t advertise him as such. Only the Laker followers knew for sure. In 1989 the “Showtime” Lakers were coming off back-to-back championships.  Pat Riley was a year away from his first of three Coach of the Year awards. 

Jul 9, 2024
San Antonio
Owner Life & Legacy

Can You Offer too Many Product Versions to Your Customers?

Steven Lustig of Lustig Global Consulting is a member of XPX Atlanta
Steven Lustig
Lustig Global Consulting
2 weeks ago

Can you Offer Too Many SKUs to Your Customers? The short answer is YES! A SKU, or Stock Keeping Unit, defines each different product version that you sell and keep inventory of.  There may be different SKUs of the same overall item based on size, color, capacity (think computer or cellphone memory), features, and many other parameters.  For build to forecast businesses, that number of variations can quickly explode and become difficult to manage. Your customers are busy and want ordering simplified. Of course, they may need (or want) more than one variation of a product. That is reasonable and a common aspect of business – one size does not fit all! But there is a point where too offering too many SKUs is not value added either for your customer or your business.  In his April 30, 2013 article “Successful Retailers Learn That Fewer Choices Trigger More Sales” in Forbes, Carmine Gallo discusses his experience and a study about “choice overload” by other authors. He writes about a retailer that “has discovered that giving a customer more than three choices at one time actually overwhelms customers and makes them frustrated…when the customer is faced with too many choices at once, it leaves the customer confused and less likely to buy from any of the choices!” Choice overload is well-documented in consumer studies but can apply in B2B as well. While customer satisfaction is important, another key concern is the often-hidden costs associated with a business offering and managing a large number of SKUs for a given product type. These costs include holding inventory, S&OP (Sales and Operations Planning) team time, small production runs, and scrapping inventory. Holding inventory takes up space, which may come with a cost or utilize racks that could be used for other products. Scheduled inventory counts take up employee time and may result in blackout periods when the warehouse is not shipping product.  The more SKUs there are, including extra SKUS, the greater the potential impact. The Sales team’s forecasting and the Operations team’s purchasing reviews that are part of the S&OP process can occupy more of their valuable time if they need to consider these times. If small orders or forecasts require a new production run, this could be costly and create excess inventory. Whether from this new production or past builds, eventually it will make sense to write off and scrap old inventory, another cost impact to the company. How do you know which SKUs to focus on if you wish to look at reducing your total number of SKUs? Start by examining SKUs that have: Low historic sales over a period of time Small variations between SKUs that customers do not value Older technology or model when newer option SKUs are available This requires a true partnership between Sales and Operations. It starts with educating both teams on the costs involved – neither group may be aware of the money and time impact to the company. Periodic (such as quarterly) reviews of SKUs that meet the above descriptions should become a fixed part of the calendar. A review of the data and other available for sale options should result in the identification of SKUs which may not be needed. At that point, it is helpful to have a customer friendly EOL (End of Life) Notice process by which you inform customers of last time buy requirements for this SKU and alternates available. It is usually best to provide some time for the last time buy in the interest of customer satisfaction, although that may not always be necessary. At a company that designed and sold electronics, a robust SKU rationalization process was implemented to help address these issues. A representative from the Operations team analyzed SKUs that met a version of the above criteria and suggested candidates for the EOL process. Next, a member of the Sales team reviewed them and, where appropriate, issued product change or EOL notices to customers, providing them time for last time buy orders when needed. These steps helped reduce the work involved in maintaining these SKUs while not leading to any customer complaints. A final note – sometimes it makes sense to continue offering low selling SKUs – to support customers buying other items (hopefully in larger quantities). It may be worthwhile to encourage them to keep coming back to you for all of their product needs and this may be a way to accomplish that. But it helps to understand that this is truly the case and not assume that this customer would not be equally happy with another, more popular, SKU.   Steven Lustig is founder and CEO of Lustig Global Consulting and an experienced Supply Chain Executive.  He is a recognized thought leader in supply chain and risk mitigation, and serves on the Boards of Directors for Loh Medical and Atlanta Technology Angels.

Jul 9, 2024
Atlanta
Business Value Growth

Owners are a Minority

John Dini of The Exit Planning Coach is a member of XPX San Antonio
John F Dini
The Exit Planning Coach
3 weeks ago

When it comes to careers, business owners are a minority of the population. In conversations this week, I mentioned the statistics several times, and each owner I was discussing it with was surprised that they had so few peers. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), there are over 33,000,000 businesses in the US. Let’s discount those with zero employees. Many are shell companies or real estate holding entities. Also, those with fewer than 5 employees, true “Mom and Pop” businesses, are hard to distinguish from a job. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Association, lists businesses with 5 to 99 employees at about 3,300,000, and 123,000 have 100 to 500 employees (the SBA’s largest “small business” classification.) Overall, that means about 1% of the country are private employers. Owners are a small minority, a very small minority, of the population. Even if we only count working adults (161,000,000) business owners represent only a little more than 2% of that population. So What? Where am I going with this, and how does it relate to our recent discussions of purpose in business exit planning? It’s an important issue to consider when discussing an owner’s identity after transition. Whether or not individual owners know the statistics of their “rare species” status in society, they instinctively understand that they are different. They are identified with their owner status in every aspect of their business and personal life. At a social event, when asked “What do you do?” they will often respond “I own a business.” It’s an immediate differentiator from describing a job. “I am a carpenter.” or “I work in systems engineering,” describes a function. “I am a business owner” describes a life role. When asked for further information, the owner frequently replies in the Imperial first person plural. “We build multi-family housing,” is never mistaken for a personal role in the company. No one takes that answer to mean that the speaker swings a hammer all day. Owners are a Minority We process much of our information subconsciously. If a man enters a business gathering, for example, and the others in the room are 75% female, he will know instinctively, without consciously counting, that this business meeting or organization is different from others he attends. Similarly, business owners accept their minority status without thinking about it. They expect that the vast majority of the people they meet socially, who attend their church, or who have kids that play sports with theirs, work for someone else. There are places where owners congregate, but otherwise, they don’t expect to meet many other owners in the normal course of daily activity. This can be an issue after they exit the business. You see, telling people “I’m retired” has no distinction. Roughly 98% of the other people who say that never built an organization. They didn’t take the same risks. Others didn’t deal with the same broad variety of issues and challenges. Most didn’t have to personally live with the impact of every daily decision they made, or watch others suffer the consequences of their bad calls. That is why so many former owners suffer from a lack of identity after they leave. Subconsciously, they expect to stand out from the other 98%. “I’m retired” carries no such distinction.       This article was originally published by John F. Dini, CBEC, CExP, CEPA on

Jul 1, 2024
San Antonio
Owner Life & Legacy
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