Digital & Web Projects With Leadflask: Discovery and Planning

Need a website for your company? Or want to launch a multifaceted digital campaign to increase leads and revenue? But you’re not sure how to start?

If you want to take your brand presence to the next level, you're in the right place. At LeadFlask, we look beyond initial and surface-level issues to assess the bigger picture.

We believe in personalized, detailed results. We want to partner with you to get these results. We'll work together to optimize your brand presence and help you meet your business goals.  

Whether you're interested in jumping in today or still evaluating your options, this article will help you understand how we begin projects at LeadFlask. You may also hear us call this our engagement process, which we'll break down into steps throughout the article.

In our introduction article, we provided a broad overview of our company and processes. In this article, we’ll do a deep dive into our engagement process and the steps beyond. We'll also explain our core company values to help you determine if a partnership with LeadFlask fits well with your company and goals. 

Who is LeadFlask & What Do We Do?

LeadFlask is a marketing, analytics, and web development company that builds authoritative brands through immersive experiences. We work with clients across many industries to optimize brand authority and improve customer interactions. This can take the form of: 

• Website redesigns & technological problem-solving
• Customer experience improvement
• Revamping marketing strategies
• Content creation that aligns with company values and brand voice

But LeadFlask is a company with values that go beyond technicalities. So what is LeadFlask all about? And what types of clients do we look for? 

To start, we believe in taking the time to create an in-depth analysis of your company. We select clients carefully and want it to be a good fit for all parties. We'd also rather take a little longer to complete a quality project rather than make errors finishing one quickly. We're committed to upholding a high standard of communication, collaboration, and user-centered approach with our projects.

We're also a little unconventional—we're looking for clients who want to create something bigger. We want to help our clients thrive and become pillars within their industries. Stated differently, if you just want to create a website and then forget about it, instead of continuously finding ways to improve your digital presence, we may not be the right fit. If you’re ready for growth, though, read on.

We love partnering with clients who have similar goals and expectations. An ideal partnership should inspire everyone at our companies to think outside the box.

This mindset is also why we don't believe in sending a same-day proposal. We want to craft a proposal for you that is catered to your company, not cookie-cutter. Instead, we'll guide you through a step-by-step process to analyze and improve all aspects of your business. 

This process, called the engagement process, involves a series of meetings to help our companies get to know each other. These meetings will also tell us how we can provide value to your company and if we would be a fit for each other. 

In the next section, we'll break down the engagement process and what you can expect from each step along the way.  

Our Engagement Process

Our engagement process starts from the first time you reach out and ends with several custom proposals to solve your needs. The entire process can last anywhere from a few to several weeks. 

We break our engagement process into a few simple steps:

• The inquiry – is the first time we meet
• The discovery session – helps us learn about your problems and goals
• The strategy session – is a starting point for the marketing strategy
• The engagement proposal – is our way of asking you if you’d like to move forward

For each major step, we have pre-meeting guides that will help you prepare materials to make the meetings a success.

At that point, if you decide to work with Leadflask on a project or ongoing basis, we’ll take the planning and strategy even further to execute a plan that meets your goals for the brand.

For now, though, let’s dive into the engagement process.

Step 1: The Inquiry (“Hey, Let’s Meet Up!”)

Meeting length: 10 - 30 minutes

The inquiry is the first step of the engagement process. It's the first phone call or form fill, in other words, the initial contact.

When you reach out to start a project, we'll ask you the basics. This can include who you are as a business, what kind of project you need, and your revenue goals. 

The inquiry aims to get a feel for your company, goals, and needs. You can compare this step to the first interview for a new job.

In some cases, prospective clients’ goals and expectations don't align with ours—and that's okay. We'll still try to help with the issue you contacted us about, even if we're not a good match for a long-term partnership. 

However, if we mutually agree we have similar goals, we'll schedule a discovery session and proceed with the next steps of the engagement process. 

Step 2: The Discovery Session (“Let’s Really Get to Know Each Other”)

Meeting length: 1 hour

The discovery session helps us learn more about your company's values and mission. During this session, we'll ask you about your products and services, including the biggest way you make money. By the end of the session, we want to understand the intricacies of your company.

You can think of this meeting as a Q&A session. We'll come prepared with research and a few questions about your company. To prepare for this meeting, you should have a clear image of your company's values, long-term goals, and desired brand presence.  

A few examples of questions we could ask include: 

• How would you describe your company in a few words?
• What value do you offer your customers?
• Where are the gaps in your business, presence, or brand?
• What is your current revenue, and what are your revenue goals?

We try to keep this session to an hour. Still, we also want to leave space for extra discussion if we're both excited—and if it's a good fit, both sides will often be eager to discuss more.

Discovery Follow-up Sessions

Meeting length: 1 hour

If the discovery session goes well, we may ask some clients for a follow-up meeting. This is a free-form discussion-based session where both parties can address questions, concerns, and new ideas.

The goal of this meeting is to talk about any topics that may not come up naturally in other structured discussions. It’s also great for collecting missing information before the strategy session. 

However, it’s important to note this opportunity may only make sense for some clients. It’s an optional discussion opportunity that can add value to more complex projects.

Step 3: The Strategy Session (“The Nuts & Bolts”)

Meeting length: 1 hour

After the discovery session, you can sit back while we prepare for the most technical step of the engagement process. Over the next one to two weeks, we’ll develop a strategy that makes sense for your business moving forward. 

Because this session requires in-depth research, there may be a week to two-week delay between this and the previous session. To prepare, all we ask is that you enter the meeting with an analytical mindset and consider how the new strategy differs from your previous one. 

The strategy session acts as the first taste of what we’re really about at LeadFlask. We base our recommendations on your short- and long-term goals. Depending on your needs, we may provide you with:

• An overview of our content marketing strategy
• Two completed user personas
• Two analyses of your top competitors

As with each step of the process, you’ll also have the opportunity to ask any questions and concerns about our process. We always appreciate your feedback and are happy to adjust the strategy as issues and ideas arise.

If you’ve made it this far in the process, you’ll have a website audit, competitor analyses and custom user personas for your business...for free! That’s right; this all happens before you owe us anything. We want to prove our value to you, and believe that this will earn your trust and your business.

Step 4: The Engagement Proposal (“Will You Be My Valentine?”)

Meeting length: 1 hour

If you like what you see in the strategy session, then we'll move forward with the Engagement Proposal. This is the bridge to the next leg of the process. 

During the previous sessions, we discovered how well our companies work together. The engagement proposal is our way of asking if you’re interested in exploring partnering together long-term.  

Until this point, all work and sessions have been free—like a free subscription trial. As part of the engagement proposal, we’ll ask you to pay a flat fee to begin a deeper dive into your business.

This is only the start of the partnership, but past this point, we’ll have a formalized agreement of work and can begin taking steps toward your project and brand presence.  

How Long Does the Process Take?

There isn’t a single standard timeline, since some companies or individuals will be on a shortened or lengthier schedule. However, the entire engagement process generally takes 2-5 weeks, with time in between meetings for analytical research that allows us to make a better proposal.

It’s also time to make sure our goals and values align. We want to be the right fit for your company, just as we want to find organizations to partner with that make use of our full expertise. 

It’s in these mutually beneficial partnerships that we do our best work and see the most growth in our partners’ revenue goals. And to get there, we never want to rush the process.

Your Digital Marketing Goals Realized With Leadflask

Small businesses looking to grow face an uphill climb. The digital world of marketing, websites and apps is ever-changing, and achieving your growth goals can seem intimidating.

At Leadflask, we utilize our expertise in web design and comprehensive marketing services, combined with our ability to work and pivot quickly as a tight-knit team, to bring lasting solutions to small businesses looking to reach the next level.

By continuously working with clients to improve our processes and results, and making data-driven decisions, we’re more than a one-and-done agency. Your success is our success, and we believe that strong client partnerships help us achieve these goals together.

We build authoritative brand leaders. Don’t wait years to see the results you envision! Cut through the clutter of online noise as we work with you to build your audience and create clarity and power in your brand’s voice.