Session 12: Site Launch Objectives and Tools
Hi there. Welcome to this session of Online Notes – the project that creates an online system for logging Cryptiquest project production. In the last session I had determined that I have to create two launch plans: one for the Site Launch and one for the Online Notes Retrospective. This session go over the objectives for the Site Launch. As a reminder, here is the goal for this plan:
Goal: Use the creation of the site to find, connect with, and build an audience.
Okay, the first objective should center around the audience – specifically finding one. If I create a press release and share that through the established social media channels, that doesn’t do much in the way of “finding an audience”. Not to trivialize the supporters Cryptiquest has, but the numbers are small and they aren’t especially engaged. But, that is also because – as pointed out in the last session – launches are infrequent.
Regardless, if an objective were to instead center around “finding a new audience” how would I go about doing that? Who would care about the launch of a site with project notes? Designers? Project managers? In both instances, they would probably care more about the launch of the project retrospective, yeah? Maybe I should use the site launch to focus on the established audience and use retrospectives to focus on new audiences. Yes, that idea sounds solid.
So with an audience found, the next step is to connect with them. The press-release-and-social-media-post approach is a given but maybe I should revisit that strategy. Typically, I create a press release that summarizes the announcement – sticking to basic facts – then I share on Cryptiquest’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. That’s probably an archaic system and I should look at modernizing this when I work on the retrospective.
For the site launch, is there anything else I can do to connect with the audience while using the standard announcement process? Hmm. There is an important date coming up: Cryptiquest celebrates its 5th anniversary on 1/29. If the site launch was part of an anniversary celebration package, then that might increase engagement. Yeah. I like the sound of that.
I feel like I’m getting ahead of myself here as I’m supposed to focus on objectives. If I don’t establish objectives, it’s possible I will miss something. But I believe I have found the first objective:
Objective 1: The site launch will engage with the audience.
But how will that be measured? Let’s assume I do all the things necessary to fulfill that objective. What would the result look like? Would having X number of “likes” and “retweets” represent a success? And without having posted in several weeks, any sort of increase in engagement would seem like a lot. And really, what am I expecting an audience to do with this launch – sure, it’s a new site. Great – but it just has some notes on it – um, what are they supposed to do with this?
Oh wait – the celebration. I suppose I should focus on the anniversary then use the site as like, a gift? Somehow “Thanks for five years of putting up with sporadic content; To celebrate, here’s a gift to you: Transparency!” doesn’t sound very genuine.
Again, it feels like I’m working on production instead of objectives. I’ll get to the whole “presentation” aspect but for now, the success of this objective could be measured by data. Last year, the Cryptiquest post with the most engagement had 20 interactions on Facebook and a 3.8% engagement rating on Twitter. Let’s assume these are the base goals.
Objective 1: The site launch campaign will garner at least 20 interactions on Facebook and 3% engagement on Twitter.
That sounds doable but this isn’t my expertise. Moving on, the other goal was to build an audience. Okay. I think I could do this. If I could increase Cryptiquest followers by 5%, then (wow) that would be 2 followers on Twitter (from 30) and 8 followers on Facebook (from 155). Let’s try to do that.
Objective 2: The site launch campaign will garner at least 8 new followers on Facebook and 2 new follower on Twitter.
Okay. Now that the goal objectives are settled, let’s move on to the message. The message should convey that there is a new site and why the site exists. Though the “why” should be conveyed in a way that matters to the audience, right? The reason the site exists is to increase the frequency of connecting with an audience. That actually doesn’t sound bad, I suppose. But I was afraid that it would translate into a one-sided thing. That this was purely for the good of Cryptiquest and not for the users – but the intention is to get them more involved so they can provide feedback. Their involvement fuels my involvement. This is getting into production territory again.
Objective 3: The message should clearly convey that there is a new site and why it exists.
I suppose that should be measurable. I’ll need to add an analytics function to the site so that I can get statistics from it. Last year, 50 people visited Cryptiquest’s site on two different days (though I have no idea why as there were no announcements that day and I only just noticed it – I really need to up my “marketing” game). Let’s try to get 50 people to visit the new site. That will ensure that the message was clearly communicated so we can replace Objective 3 as follows:
Objective 3: This site launch campaign should bring at least 50 unique visitors to the Cryptiquest Projects site.
Tool 1: Cryptiquest Project Site Analytics
I should now go through the standard objectives regarding Cryptiquest values and legal. The “Invent Believable Worlds of Fiction” value does not apply but “Design For Experience First” and “Think Inclusive & Celebrate Diversity” applies.
Objective 4: Ensure the launch materials are not confusing.
Objective 5: Ensure the launch materials don’t contain “off switches”.
Objective 6: Ensure the launch materials protect the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.
Objectives 4, 5, and 6 are tough to measure (for now) because I need to create documents to test these (survey for confusion, guidelines for legal protections). Since I’m targeting the 1/29 date (four days from now) I don’t have time to make those documents. So for this launch, I’ll do what I have been doing – wing it. I can place those objectives as “guidelines” though, so I don’t forget about them. In addition, it appears that I have a time objective.
Objective 4: The site launch should correspond with the five year anniversary date of January 29, 2019.
Guideline 1: Ensure the launch materials are not confusing.
Guideline 2: Ensure the launch materials don’t contain “off switches”.
Guideline 3: Ensure the launch materials protect the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.
Okay, now I think I can jump into designing this thing. The next session will be dedicated to design with a goal of coming up with deliverables. Here are the results of this session:
Goal: Use the creation of the site to find, connect with, and build an audience.
Objective 1: The site launch campaign will garner at least 20 interactions on Facebook and 3% engagement on Twitter.
Objective 2: The site launch campaign will garner at least 8 new followers on Facebook and 2 new follower on Twitter.
Objective 3: This site launch campaign should bring at least 50 unique visitors to the Cryptiquest Projects site.
Objective 4: The site launch should correspond with the five year anniversary date of January 29, 2019.
Tool 1: Cryptiquest Project Site Analytics
Guideline 1: Ensure the launch materials are not confusing.
Guideline 2: Ensure the launch materials don’t contain “off switches”.
Guideline 3: Ensure the launch materials protect the property of Cryptiquest, LLC.