David Clarke, Founder and Managing Partner of BGT Partners, Discusses the 2009 Web Marketing Awards with WebmasterRadio.FM
WebmasterRadio.FM's Interview with David Clarke on the 2009 Web Marketing Awards:
http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/specials/2009/2009-web-marketing-awards-preview/
Transcript of WebmasterRadio.FM’s Interview with David Clarke:
Minute 4:30
WMR: As a WebAward judge, what are you looking for when you review a site at the WebAwards?
David Clarke: There are definitely a couple of things that I’m looking for. For me personally, I’m not looking at whether it’s a new-car microsite or an emailer from an energy company. I have a fairly short attention span, so what is really important to me is that something catches my attention and gets to the point immediately – if it doesn’t do that, I lose attention and chances are I’m on to the next one. I’m also a fan of innovative experiences and very creative design but it needs to have a purpose – it needs to persuade me to do something, so if I’m not seeing that, I’m also less focused on the success of the campaign or the site. There are too many notable companies out there that tend to hijack their homepage to tell this very long drawn-out story, but if customers are coming to the site to pay a bill you really are not telling them exactly what they need so it could be creative, but it has to have a purpose. And finally, I’m also looking at an evolution of the basic components that make up a campaign or a website. Now, there are so many opportunities to evolve these basic components, so if I see something like an enhanced predictive search with promotions and imagery, or if I see some relevant navigation based on popularity or even personalization of the site based on my navigation through the site, these are all great opportunities to improve the site and then focus on all the creative stuff. So, there a couple of different things I look at.
Minute 19:40
WMR: David, as CEO of BGT Partners in Miami, and a long-time judge of the WebAwards, what are some of the major concerns facing your clients right now?
David Clarke: There are certainly more concerns that they are having in today’s economy than they probably had about a year and a half ago. One of the concerns of our clients is they want to accurately track their media in a way so that they can compare it to other online channels – they really want to understand that if they are spending money online or rolling out different types of campaigns, how specifically those campaigns perform compared to other traditional campaigns. Some of our clients are also looking at opening up what we consider a sales funnel by nurturing prospective customers so that they know that when the market recovers, they are going to be in a better position to take advantage of the market. And of course, our clients are looking to get more for less, and one way to get for more for less is to take some of the campaigns and run the longer, but evolving ones through multi-variable testing to make sure that we are really maximizing the value of the campaign. Those are the three things – there are so many different concerns that keep boiling up, but I think we see things turning around as far as online marketing goes.
Minute 28:00
WMR: David, I know that you guys started a green website. Can you tell me what you are trying to accomplish with a green website and what exactly is a green website?
David Clarke: What we created was a site called enviralmarketing.com. Enviral marketing is a blog that is really about green initiatives and helping companies market their green initiatives in a way that is beneficial to their business. It’s a little bit tricky because in the past, green initiatives weren’t always beneficial for the companies, so we’ve been working with companies like FPL and Tupperware and wanted to share our experiences and our successes with other marketers. BGT provides some articles and we aggregate some industry information, and at the end of the day, it’s about teaching marketers how to be green, but also how to create financially viable programs for their companies.
Minute 33:00
WMR: You guys see a lot of websites as judges of a fairly major competition. What is the one thing that the majority of sites just don’t get when it comes to Web development?
David Clarke: For me the real standout is that we believe that online success is based on a superior experience, and what we are seeing is that too many agencies and marketers think that they know their audiences so well that they don’t actually speak to them. I think that by not gathering feedback, there are sites that are being rolled out today that are really about the marketer and not about the people that you are marketing to. So our industry is full of some of the biggest egos in the world, and through this ego-driven design, you can tell every time what the campaign or site is about and who did it…Websites are the number one positioning media for these large corporations, and if they want to show leadership and they want people to see them as the forefront of their industry, they really need to focus and invest in what their site looks like because that is what people understand their company is like.
Minute 38:00
WMR: In your opinion, what’s the most exciting advancement coming down the road in Web development?
David Clarke: I think we are in the infancy of what social media could do for a company – it’s just amazing to see how it’s taking off faster than many other technologies. One of the other things that we look at here at BGT is what we consider “Web-only interactions.” These Web-only interactions are really superior customer business interactions that can only be achieved online. Advancement in Web technology, such as Ajax and Flex, really drives us and makes this happen. But a good example of Web-only interactions is how leading financial companies are providing dynamic financial tools to help their customers gain better insight into their spending, their billing or their payments. These are tools that provide a certain level of experience that can only be accomplished online – it can’t be done on the phone, or in the branch office, so the idea of extending it and creating the best interaction that you can have with the customer online is really a very powerful thing for a company to embrace.
Minute 39:25
WMR: How do you guys stay on top of the ever-changing landscape in online development and online marketing?
David Clarke: I think there is a level of excitement to this in our industry that is always transitioning and is always evolving. We’ve been around since 1996, so we have seen all the transitions and evolutions, and we know there are no limits to really what you can do. If we can think of it, at some point we can do it, and that’s how you set trends – that’s how everything online can be improved upon.
WebmasterRadio.FM's Press Release on 2009 Web Marketing Awards:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/05/prweb2418444.htm
