Well that didn't take long! After being locked away in a room feverishly building our new website it was important that I got back out into the business. Of course, rather than just acting as an online brochure our website now intelligently contributes to both lead generation and supports existing contracts and bids. It's now up to me to prove that all the time spent has been worth it!

So by reaching our to key business units I'm now making sense of data outlining current, key and prospective clients which the website will monitor. This is a bigger task than I first thought - not just because it's always changing! Each business unit and region have very specific goals to meet. All of the manual work I'm now doing to should make it easy to automate specific reports which hit these goals. I'm not expecting to get it right first time but soon we will get a really good idea of who is engaging with which content and when and mapping this against our current pipeline. This is where the website can really add value!

I've also been out and about reminding people that I exist by seeing practical examples of the amazing work we do. There's only so much you can see when resizing project images for the website!

So last Monday we tackled the 4 hour drive down to Somerset. Currently we're expanding our 'Shaping Your World' campaign to partners so by meeting them in person we're showing them the range of resources available to them. With our original aim being to change the perception of the built environment the more businesses we can get to champion the cause the better. This has meant we've expanded the website to include two extra pages on partners and how to get involved which also launched this week.

After a successful meeting we headed to nearby Hinkley Point C for an awe inspiring site tour. Kier are currently working towards completion of the ground works and the scale was immense. As we were taken around the 2km site I couldn't help feeling that I don't have a proper job! These people are building things which will leave a legacy for hundreds of years.

Being a digital marketing generalist means that I frequently flit between tasks. This was evident during meetings in London the following day. I began talking social media strategy, followed by CRM/lead generation topped off with training colleagues on targeted advertising.

The one thing these activities have in common is that they all have clearly measurable outcomes. For me, this is why I find digital marketing both a terrifying and rewarding role. Tangible results are essential in being able to constantly prove the reason a job role exists. For example, when discussing our social media strategy we were able to actually commit to key measures of success along the way.

With all of this goal setting it's important we get the buy-in from everyone. This communication of our strategy means that we can be prepared to provide the guidance needed on where we do or don't see engagement.

Having done this job for 15 years I have to regularly tell myself not to make assumptions. Of course I have an opinion on how a website should be structured or how often we should post on social media but I need to be open minded enough to let the audience help define this from the data we collect.

All of this works towards proving that we are a valuable asset to the company. Getting recognised as the expert in your area increases your contribution as you help others meet their targets. Currently there are lots of opportunities for us to do so as our new digital strategy kicks into gear.

It's a shame the same can't be said for my home life as there's no doubt my wife adds the most value there! I am the chief contributor when it comes to loft trips or using power tools though...

This is a tough time of year. There are Viruses aplenty and the recent clock change means we don't see our houses in the daylight. Coupled with this, our social calendars are filling up with Christmas meals and carol concerts.

Until now I've spent the best part of the last 9 months working on our new company website which is now live. We're tremendously proud of it and the feedback has been generally excellent. Rewriting an entire FTSE250 website from scratch with a large amount of business input is no mean feat! We've also had the various technical aspects to oversee alongside a relentless new content strategy.

This new site boasts over 100 case studies (all filterable by sector or geography). This means for the first time current and potential clients can easily find what we do in their area. This helps us cross sell too as it now shows off our capabilities in obvious groupings. Our many offices much easier to find, our employee value proposition is showcased in the careers section and our suppliers are given the recognition they deserve.

These large projects definitely take their toll!

But all this intense work means I'm pretty burnt out. Evidenced by a pretty lacklustre attempt at blogging of late. Coming to the end of a massive project like this has meant I now need to readjust to my old way of working. The smaller tasks and projects I've been neglecting need resurrecting.

The whole reason I chose digital marketing as a career was the pace and variety of work. It's been a while since I took the lead in concentrating on one giant task and it's taken its toll. And of course, the website is still nowhere near finished. I have a roadmap of developments that stretches well into 2019. And of course this roadmap is getting even longer now we're getting meaningful data from the site.

The best way I've found to get that impetus to keep going into the winter months is to reflect on the small things I've learned during the project:

Aim for continuous improvement, instead of perfection

When we started out we wanted the best website in our sector. I think we're nearly there too. But along the way various challenges (mainly related to time and budget) have got in the way. We've had to compromise some elements and, to hit our MVP launch, we still had some small parts incomplete. 

The lesson here was to let this go. Users wouldn't notice a few parts missing that were never there before. It's like when you first invite someone to your new house. They are immediately impressed with the overall look. But you know the shower doesn't work and the door frames still need painting.

Like, trust and admire

Finding the perfect agency partner is essential. To make this relationship work you need to be open about the reasons for your methods. We haven't been the easiest client, but we have been honest about our ongoing challenges and expect our agency to be so too. This ongoing dialogue is important in making sure we are always challenging each other to make something of which we're both proud.

Get involved and learn

Being hands on with a project is essential to feeling invested and learning. Whether this be the more technical aspects of the server setup or hand coding an HTML prototype. By continuing like this is makes the project more fulfilling and you can see everything for what it is and how it works. Not only does this help plan future developments but it gives you added ownership.

Criticism means it's working

Every decision on the structure, content and design of the website has been based on evidence. Laying this groundwork early has meant we have had little or no kick-back on the final version. Every stakeholder has been consulted so if challenged we can back up our decisions from previous workshops/discussions.

Knowing that I'm still constantly learning both about the business and the latest tools for a web build are definitely going to help drive me on into 2019. Now bring on the Christmas stollen!